Breaking the Pattern – Utu Skirt

No, this is not the Utu Skirt from Breaking the Pattern by Named Clothing – it’s my ‘broken’ version 🙂 The pic below is my basic Utu:

 

The Utu is one of many many patterns and variations in the new book by Laura and Saara Huhta of Named Clothing. Their site includes photos and line art for all the included projects.

Projects:

• Nummi bag
• Sade blouse and tunic
• Rae pants
• Utu skirt and pinafore
• Solina dress, jumpsuit and top
• Saraste blouse, shirt dress and top
• Kaste cocktail dress and butterfly sleeve dress
• Palo jeans
• Halla coat

It’s a lovely workbook, printed on heavy matte paper and beautifully written and illustrated. And it’s really a sewing 101. I was amazed by the instruction sets, suggestions, and information included in the book.

Sewing the Utu:

• I sewed the size 3, and the fit was great.

• It’s described as a midi skirt, but I actually added 3″ to the length. To me, a midi should hover somewhere between the knee and ankle – but not just below the knee. Reference, I’m 5’6.5″.
• The patterns include 3/8″ (1 cm) seam allowances, a scary thought for woven fabric, so I drafted my pattern with a 5/8″ SA.
• I love the high shaped waist, which is backed by a very deep facing. Nice drafting.
• And the silhouette, as a pencil skirt, is perfect.
• Not so nice – the front cross-over, right and left side, is very narrow. When I sat, the skirt split open to my ……
• And it was just so plain.

So I broke it!

Fabric: Sportswear Stretch Corduroy Fabric -Rust from JoAnn

I removed 2.5″ from the front edges, added a 1″ button band and 4 belt loops, and fashioned a 1.5″ wide belt.

Great little skirt!

I like this so much that I’m planning to do another 🙂 And I’m also going to break two more patterns!

Bye for now – Coco