Chinoiserie

My 'Patchwork' items are all pieced by me, not a pre-existing patchwork. I've always been a fan of patchwork for its versatility, if you should get bored of your skirt you can take out the seams and you have two rectangular quilt tops ready to turn into something else. All the fabrics are old, used or left over from projects of my own and either cotton or linen.

Any patchworker will tell you it takes an incredible amount of time to piece a quilt together. The first thing I do is make sure all fabric edges are true and straight, it's a personal bug bear of mine to see cock-eyed seams, next is laundering after which I can see what colour palette I have to work with and then the fun of cutting and piecing begins. All seams are stitched and overlocked so they are good for decades.

This one has a very old panel in the chinoiserie style centre front. I added more brick red and brown tones, including gingham from a dress project, one of my daughters dresses, a bit of Kaffe Fassett and a red linen tablecloth with white piping. Also some gorgeous dyed curtain lining that was about 80 years old and has such an unbelievable sheen.

I really like a lot of width in these skirts and this one is a whopper at 66" hem laid flat so thats's actually 132" of patchwork around the body. I've added big pleats and then gathered on to an elasticated waistband making the waist a little less poofy than with just gathers. You can wear whichever way around you prefer, the front and back are different. All my skirts have generous inseam pockets because pockets are essential!

I've left all my patchwork items un-finished at the hem so I can make the length to your own preference and also I'll finish the elasticated waist to your size, just let me know your actual waist and length in the comments box.

Because I'm working with salvaged textiles I don't offer any standard measurements, lengths and widths will vary.

Can fit up to a 52" hip
Length 34"
Hem width laid flat 66"

Everything in my shop is made by me in my very messy studio in Staffordshire and all from secondhand fabrics in good natural fibres, cotton, linen, silk and wool.