[Edit: The second edition pattern and onward includes a single-panel skirt, so no adaptation is needed. This post is for customers using the first edition.]
Many people have asked recently how to modify the solo dress pattern to make a single-panel skirt. This style of skirt is becoming increasingly popular, perhaps because of it’s sleek silhouette or because of the opportunity to design large sections of skirt embroidery without having to break it up into different panels.
Pattern Modification:
1. Find your Skirt Block pieces. These pieces represent the shape of the skirt without the pleats and gathers of the Skirt Views I-VII, so they are basically a single-panel skirt already.
2. Because there are no pleats, gathers, or extra fullness in the skirt if it just flat across, you’ll want to make the side pleat deeper so there is more room built in for high kicks. An extra inch is a good guideline…maybe a bit more if you are making a dress on the larger end of the spectrum. Extend the bottom of the pleat out one inch, and use your ruler to connect that point to the top seam line.
3. Add your side notch back on. Don’t worry about getting it exactly X inches from the top. The only other piece that uses it is the back, and you’ll copy that over.
4. Repeat Step 2 with the Skirt Block Back. Copy the side notch from the front to the back so that the side-pleat seams line up.
5. See this post, which talks about the layers of materials needed.
6. Find your under-skirt pattern pieces (7-8). Lay them over the top of the skirt block front and back so that the top edge of the block lines up with the dashed seam line on the under-skirt. Add the excess in the side pleat so that the two line up at the bottom edge of the Under-skirt (you will be adding less than the original inch).
[I colored the block light grey, and made the under-skirt slightly transparent so you can see how they line up. Despite the changes in color, we are still dealing with the paper pattern pieces.]
1. Build the skirt front and backs following steps 26-28 of the pattern instructions. You’ll skip step 29 because you only have one piece for each front and back.
2. Baste the skirts onto their under-skirts (step 30).
From here, you can follow the directions as per usual, stitching the fronts to backs and creating the side pleat, and continue to finish the dress as per usual. Cheers!