Barcelona Skirts

For about 2 years now I have been meaning to make more skirts from the Amy Butler pattern "Barcelona Skirt," but for some reason it didn't happen until this week. It's not that it's a complicated pattern - in fact, once you've done it one time, it goes pretty smoothly from there. I even picked out some fabrics about a year ago specifically for this purpose, but put it off so long that I completely reconsidered my choices.

When I first made this skirt, I found a fabulous Tina Givens fabric at Cool Cottons here in Portland. And when I wore this skirt to the shop a few weeks ago, co-founder and owner, Marie, proclaimed that she, too, had made the same skirt using the same print. Great minds think alike!


And while at work, I kept eyeing a particular print from Michael Miller Fabrics, from their Metro Living collection. I finally caved, again with great encouragement from Marie. So, when I finally dragged out my old pattern from my sewing table drawer, I decided I was going to maximize on the effort and cut out two skirts at one time. I don't know whether it's consistency of taste or what, but as it turns out they are both predominantly grey - however the Andover floral is actually yardage I bought many years ago, while working at another quilt shop that is sadly no longer around. However, it was a print I loved then, still love now, and has been used in several quilting projects already (including one of the main prints in my queen sized quarter log cabin quilt).

and the Michael Miller one:


One thing I DID learn in this process, however, is that this pattern most definitely is more effective cutting and sewing from unwashed fabric. It not only accentuates the fraying of the raw edges on each tier of the skirt, but I found that the medium is just a hint too big for me, but I don't dare try and cut the pattern to the small, but with a hot water wash it seems to shrink just about the right amount to fit properly!
Now if only the temperature would stay above 58 degrees so I might actually get some wear out of my cute new skirts!