Hi friends! Sonia here from @mamascraftroom, and today I’m sharing a fun and flirty double skirt hack for the Manhattan. Of course, all of my best ideas stem from Pinterest! I saw a super cute red dress when perusing for Valentine’s Day outfits, it had a double layer skirt and fitted bodice, and a shorter, flirty hemline. Being the experimental sewist I am, knew that it was absolutely hackable. Enter: the Manhattan pattern. I love the cap sleeve paired with the boat neck, it just looks so sophisticated! I did her hi back, knowing that we’re in a cooler time of year and I was already planning on doing a shorter skirt, so I wanted a bit more coverage on the top to balance the silhouette.
To determine the length I wanted, I perused the tester round up for the Manhattan dress, looking at where the hemlines for the various views fell on different people. Of course this differs based on height, but it gave me a pretty good idea overall. As I wanted the skirt to be about thigh length, I chose to use the peplum length for the top layer of the skirt, and add length for the under layer.
Using the pattern piece for the peplum, I cut two skirt pieces at that length. I then cut two skirt pieces 3.5 inches longer, by first marking the extended length with a ruler.
I assembled my bodice next, using the burrito roll method to enclose all of the seams. I was tempted to use power net as a liner rather than the squishy ivory Liverpool-like main fabric (to minimize bulk), but decided to use my main fabric so that it had enough thickness to not be see-through.
Since I am doubling up the skirt, I made two changes here. I basted the two layers of my bodice together around the bottom, knowing that I’m going to be attaching four layers together and that I didn’t want anything to slip. Then I added clear elastic to the bottom edge of the bodice, in order to help support the weight of the double skirt.
I then assembled my two skirts, sewing the side seams, and pinning the two skirts together, with the shorter skirt’s wrong side to the right side of the longer skirt.
As with the bodice, I basted these two layers together.
As per the instructions, I then sewed the skirts to the bodice right sides together. I used a lot of clips due to the number of layers, and made sure that I dropped the blade in my surgery so that I didn’t cut the clear elastic that I had installed. I finished by hemming the two skirts, and the dress is all done!
I really love the flirty length, and the added interest from having two skirts layered! Pending finding a babysitter, I told hubby we HAVE to go out for Valentine’s Day now because I NEED to wear this cute dress!
Thanks for sewing along with me today, friends!