Last January, I became a beginner again.

I sharpened my pencils, straightened my glasses, and with a fresh new notepad I hit play.

See my friend Brooks Ann Camper has this course, Skirt Skills, where she teaches her methods for drafting a skirt pattern using only your sweet body. Creating a block that you can then turn, at will, into new skirt designs.

For years, I watched her launch it, intrigued by her slow and steady methods honed in the costume shop at the Yale School of Drama. (listen to episode #9 to catch more of her incredible story!)

As a home sewist, I was curious how her way of doing things differed from mine.

I breathlessly read her custom bridal blog, in awe of the artistry she brought to creating custom wedding dresses, which often began with a dress form uniquely padded to fit each bride and sweet little design sketches complete with paper flaps that flipped up to give you another version to consider.

And then over the years, we became friends.

And I had her on the podcast, twice.

We have a lot in common; the way we value handmade living, the way we follow our intuition, and how we both advocate for sewing clothes that fit the body you have as an act of self-respect and love, to name a few.

But Brooks Ann embodies a way of creating that I wanted more of in my life. As a (recovering) fast and furious human and one who consistently feels like there is simply not enough time to do all the things, I’ve been craving a deepening of my craft…of my artistry if you will.

A slowing down in this season of my life, to get creative and consider my options, to try things out without an end goal looming, and to explore with fabric and thread.

I’ve slowed myself down in the past with handsewing…I have sewn several knit dresses completely by hand and adored it. But I was craving more exploration, and more willingness to let the journey lead me.

Brooks Ann does that beautifully. (ironically, she is drawn to me for the commonality we have, and so much laughter, but also because I jump…I leap into things candidly, on the fly and she’s craving a bit of that in her life! Isn’t life fun that way!?).

I’m never disappointed when I honor my natural way of walking through the world and explore other ways of existing. When I do, my own beautiful balance unfolds.

So, after years of thinking “someday” when she launched Skirt Skills, I finally joined. I set aside my protests of “but I already know how to draft patterns from scratch” and “but I don’t wear skirts” and joined her 2024 January cohort of Skirt Skills.

As an aside, if you gift yourself the experience of being a student…the most powerful thing you can do is to set aside what you know and allow yourself to be a beginner, to see a thing through new eyes and to curiously wonder what you’ll learn.

If you do, anything can happen!

So, with those freshly sharpened pencils…and excitement fluttering in my chest, I began.

Spoiler alert, it was everything I had hoped for and some of what I didn’t know I needed!
I learned new ways, and reasons, to slow down, explore, embrace a mock-up or two, get out my hand sewing needles, and thoroughly enjoy the process. Without the pressure of the end goal.

But first, let’s go back to the beginning.

We began with sketching and dreaming.

Sketching and dreaming about a project just might be my favorite thing! You know I love to plan my weeks, sketch out my plans for the yard, sketch a new dress idea, make lists for things I want to do and keep it all in my worn leather bullet journal that travels with me everywhere. It makes me feel sort of Indian Jones-ey with my book full of secrets and magic!

As to this skirt, I knew I wanted my skirt to be high-waisted with perhaps an interesting “suspender” type element and maybe some shaping to the waistband.

Here’s what I came up with on my custom croquis, traced from a photo of my body. Jaunty pose and all!

After we got our creative juices flowing, we dove into the specifics of drafting and how to account for the peaks and valleys of our bodies. Using her unique methods to account for that full bum and protruding tummy I have, my first mock-up needed very little! How exciting!

At certain points in the course, she also offers checkpoints. Where she’ll check over what you’re working on and share her feedback in this neat little package.

Here’s what she had to say about my initial draft and measurements.

Sweet! Now that the initial draft seemed solid, I’m ready to sew a mock-up, or two, and fine-tune the fit.

The Mockup – original and “fixed”

Brooks Ann also has a private community for the course and as a good student, I decided to jump full in on ALL the parts of the course, community included.

Here’s what I posted to the group about my mock-up….

“So, I’ve worked on the mockup.  Got out my handy sewing needles (even though I was resisting it!) basted and pressed and all the things!  I’m so glad I did.  

I’m channeling my inner couturier!  

Here is my mockup straight out of the gate.” 

“You can see in the picture above the dart in the front is too short and if you look at the curviest part of my butt, the centermost dart is doing the same pooling of fabric.

 A pretty good fit, I would say, but I thought the waist could be more snug, The front waistline could be lowered a bit and the front and inside back darts seemed too short.

I know these pictures are terrible, I can see what’s going on in my little bitty mirrors much better than I can show in the picture. So you’ll have to trust me that the hip and hem are parallel to the floor!

So I made those three changes…
1.  Lengthened, but did not widen at the top, the front darts and the two back darts closest to center back.

2.  Shaved a wee bit off the side seam at the waistline.

3.  Lowered the center front half an inch, bringing it to nothing at the side seam.”

The first image above is the back piece and you can see where I lengthened the center dart and what I took off the waist/side seam.

Next is the front pattern piece and you can see the new waistline and the lengthened dart!

I didn’t make these changes to my paper pattern until I tested it out on my mock-up…but I  liked how the 2nd mockup fit and felt on my body and I’m doing the wiggle dance!

The picture below, is my final mock-up, which I’m thrilled with. (that line on my bum is my tucked in shirt!)

Now that I have a well-fitted block, I’m moving on to working on that actual skirt design, and as is so often the case, the inspiration in the class and watching Brooks Ann work through three designs of her own have inspired me to do something a bit different than I dreamed in the beginning.

Working in community can be so inspiring!

Stay tuned for part two of “Adventures in Skirt Skills”!