So I have this thing for Boden A-line printed skirts, right. I already own three, yet every Winter I get a craving for another colourful, patterned skirt. It only happens in Winter, as Boden’s Winter A-line skirts are of a thicker cotton and the lining is silk (okay, probably a shiny polyester but it looks like silk) that doesn’t cling to tights. Their Summer skirts have a cotton lining that does not work well with tights (if you are as white pasty as I am you need flesh coloured tights in Summer) so I only buy their Winter skirts.
This year, the craving was for the Navy Flower Power skirt. I loved it so much, I even pinned it one of my Pinterest boards the moment I saw it online.
It’s as if it was made for me. The colour, the design, the everything! Only problem is that it was a bit pricey at £45 so I waited for the Winter sales. And I waited, and I waited. Two months ago the little voice(s) in my head said “Go look on the Boden site. They might have a Sale on.” The voices were right. There it was. In my size for £24.50!
In real life it’s even more beautiful, but for some reason Boden decided to make the skirt about 2cm shorter than all their previous A-line printed skirts. That’s not a lot, but when you have ugly, white pasty knees, a knee length skirt that hangs ON your knee is not good. It has to be at least below your knee. What is a hooker to do? Oh I know! Crochet a pretty edge along the hem of the lining !!!!!!! Problem solved, and skirt improved.
Out comes the Skip-Stitch rotary cutter and trusty Around the Corner Crochet Borders book (you can find a link to the book on the right of this page). I chose Border No. 45 and green Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo that I got on sale a while ago.
Here’s what I did:
1. I Used the Skip-Stitch blade to make the holes. One quick swipe by hubby while I keep the lining flat, and it’s done.
2. Next step is to make blanket stitches to give a base to crochet on. It’s perfectly all right to skip step. no. 1 if you use a sharp needle for the blanket stitches, but I wanted my holes to be evenly spaced, so I used the rotary cutter and then did the blanket stitches.
3. Then a row of sc. I managed to fit in two sc between each blanket stitch.(I blog in US crochet terms. For a guide to the difference between US and UK crochet stitches, see this handy cut-out by Freshstitches.)
4. As I need the edge to peek out below the hem of the skirt, and the lining is shorter than the skirt, I made 2 rows of *trebles, chain* to quickly make up the 2 cm difference between the lining and the hem.
5. One more row of sc, making one sc in the top of the treble and one in the space between two trebles.
By this stage the edge is already peeking out under the hem of the skirt.
6. Here’s where I started following the pattern for Border No. 45. It was at this point that I stopped for the skirt that I showed you last week.
7. This is the full edging, looking at the wrong side of the crochet. You can see where the edge of the skirt ends, which means I’ve added 4cm to the length, more than making up the 2cm it was too short!
And here it is, as seen from above (please excuse the ugly carpet. I took the photo in the office this morning.)
Ta-daaah, a customised Boden skirt!
Some notes:
You can use any edging / border pattern for your skirt. As long as you at least do steps no. 2 and 3, you can move on to any type of fancy frilly prettiness.
You can also do a crochet edge beautification of a skirt, straight onto the hem of the skirt if it doesn’t have a lining. I like the idea of the edge peeking out underneath, but I know most skirts don’t have linings. The only thing you will have to be aware of, is that your blanket stitching will be visible, so it’s important that those blanket stitches are evenly spaced.
In the first photo of this blogpost, I laid out two crochet hooks on the carpet. That’s because with the first skirt, I used two sizes of crochet hook. I used a 4mm hook up to step no. 5, and switched to a 5 mm hook for the edging. I was using Rowand Handknit cotton for that skirt, but seeing as the Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo is finer than the Handknit cotton, I didn’t need to switch crochet hooks for this skirt.
Speaking of Baby Bamboo. Can I just say: Oh My Goodness! It’s the softest, loveliest yarn ever! My brain can’t work out how bamboo fibers can be turned into yarn, much less into the baby snuggly softness of this yarn. I’ts bamboo! How is that possible?! Either way, I’m definitely going to use it again for something bigger. Definitely!
As you may have guessed, the skirt jazzing will not stop here. I have two more Boden skirts. Admittedly they are the right length, but a little crochet loving around the hemline is always welcome don’t you think? 😉
