Heavy woollen floorsweeper

[pelmut]

I've just made a real floorsweeper from some heavy woollen material. The total cost was 2UKP, of which 1.5UKP was the cost of the zip.  The material was being sold off at a car boot sale for 50p.
 

Floorsweeper_0663s.JPG

Floorsweeper skirt

It has 6 panels in the lower part, the drop is 36" and the hem is 90" long. There is a deep pocket on one side (shown up in the photograph by a white handkerchief) and a zip on the opposite side. To get the main panels out of the available material with the correct pattern on it and still have enough material to make the top part, I had to make the wide waistband as a separate 'miniskirt' and let a tapered gore into it at the back to get the correct hip size.
 

Gore_0661ss.JPG

Tapered gore in back waistband panel

By the time I had finished it there was only 1" of material left over. It's really warm and was ready just in time for the cold spell that has hit us here.

[Seb]

Its a really nice fabric, good job at aligning the stripes! I want to make something like this too for the winter months, but it will have to be for the next one.

[Modoc]

Well done. Being able to make your own is truly a fading art. When I was pretty young I would watch my mother and grandmother sew and my grandmother saw my interest and began teaching me. It is one of the things I regret not keeping up with. Piano is the other.

[greenboots]

I never learned to see, which is a regret now. I did drop piano at 15 but about 10 years later was the only “pianist” available and have taken it up again (though not to the extent of lessons and serious practice). If you’re mainly interested in playing for pleasure, you can probably just pick up fairly easily.

[Grok]

Well, done

[robehickman]

That looks really good. If anyone's interested in learning sewing, skirts are one of the best places to start and are generally easy to make. Tons of information on YouTube and elsewhere, the channel 'the stitchery' is very entertaining.