And the Skirt Series continues today with an all Cone Denim YoYo Skirt by Papercut Patterns. You can catch up on Part 1 of the Skirt Series here, if you missed it!!

For me, autumn/winter dressing is all about two things: knit fabrics and big woollen sweaters! And if you like big sweaters, you kind of need some bottoms to accompany them!

YoYo Redux

This is the second time I’ve sewn the YoYo Skirt and Dress pattern.

The first time around, I sewed the YoYo dress. That was actually my first sewing project after my son was born. I hadn’t sewn for about a year (pregnancy had a weird effect of turning me off of all kinds of things I was previously passionate about – from tea to sewing – luckily temporarily!).

It was a bit of a “make myself feel better about the end of maternity leave and being separated from my little boy by sewing a nice back-to-work dress” make. I even splurged on Atelier Brunette fabric to make that YoYo dress. Then, on the second  or third time I wore it, I suddenly looked down while in the elevator at work and saw the entire seam connecting the skirt to the bodice totally unravelled and splitting apart.

As in, inches and inches of my bodice no longer attached to my skirt and disintegrating fraying fabric everywhere.

Talk about a wardrobe malfunction.

The stuff of sewist nightmares!

I felt so humiliated and angry at that dress that I dumped it in the bin as soon as I got home without investigating further why this had happened. My leading theories are either that, after a year of not-sewing, I just forgot that I needed to finish the seams. Or that I forgot that I needed to change the needles and sewed it with a super blunt needle that had sat on my machine unused for more than a year. Or a combination of the two.

So this YoYo skirt was to be my YoYo redemption!

Go big or go home????

Even this project, however, had a few permutations.

You see, my original vision was for a black denim skirt with a tan leather trim.

You see, the white part was supposed to be leather. My leather was all cut out and ready to sew.

But the more I looked at it, the more I thought that it didn’t look right. I taped the leather to the skirt, since I didn’t want to damage it with pins, and it just wasn’t looking how I imagined. The leather was too heavy for the relatively lightweight denim. Or just not exactly the right colour. It was one of those design choices that – maybe – if I’d had the guts to follow through, could have been brilliant. Or it could have just looked weird.

In the end, I was afraid it was verging closer to weird. I dived into the stash and instead, decided to make a white contrast denim band around the bottom. The white denim was leftover denim from my Persephone pants! Yeah for #sewingleftovers!!

My denim YoYo skirt

My leather/denim YoYo skirt which didn’t end up coming into existence had necessitated a few simple modifications to the pattern. I left out the facing, which went along the centre front seam and down around the hem. Since, you know, leather doesn’t need to be finished. But, when my plan changed and I dumped the leather for denim, this meant that I had to figure out how to finish my white panel.

In the end, I just sewed the white denim part like a cuff and directly attached it. The white part is also shortened slightly from the length of the YoYo skirt as designed.In a contrast colour, I thought it looked better slightly shorter than the original length.

My YoYo Skirt is a size medium.

There is a lot to like about this pattern. It is quick and easy to sew. I love that Papercut patterns use a 1cm seam allowance. It makes my sewing more accurate. I also appreciate that the YoYo skirt uses a curved waistband. Because curved waistbands always seem to fit my body better. Yes, they eat more fabric, but it’s worth it! The YoYo skirt is also really easy to fit. Since a lot of the shape comes from front pleats, I think that you could sew the back and then the side seams and wrap it around you to  test the size of the front pleats, adapting them to get them just right for your body. I’m not sure why but Papercut Patterns often run a little large on me, so the fact that the design allows for fitting along the way is a plus.

All in all, I’m chalking this YoYo skirt down as a quick and easy sewing win. With tights I think I will get plenty of wear out of this once it turns chilly. And while this YoYo skirt is shorter than what I would usually wear, I’m liking this silhouette paired with a big cosy sweater…

Oh and, finally, a little P.S! If you like to get your blog hits through Bloglovin’, feel free to follow me over there: you can find me here. And you can find me on Instagram here.