Mini City Stroll Wrap Skirt

As I was getting dressed or undressed, I forget which, in one of my City Stroll Wrap Skirts, my daughter was watching me.* She was fascinated by how my skirt unwrapped and became a flat piece of fabric.

"I want a skirt that goes flat like yours Mummy" she declared. And that got me thinking....

* Please assure me there will come a time when I can get dressed or undressed in private again!

The girl needed a Mini City Stroll Wrap Skirt! I had a think about what skirt pattern would be the right base for the alteration. The Sunday Brunch skirt by Oliver + S ticked all the right boxes. Small angled pockets, flat front with elastic back and a narrow A-line shape. Yep, this just might work, I thought, and quickly made the Barbie skirt as a test run.

 

I traced the skirt off again and this time traced the front pattern piece double. On my tracing I marked a vertical line half an inch beyond the point where the pocket meets the waistband. On that line I marked a point about half way down and then drew a curve from there down to the hemline at a point about two inches past the midline.

 

That created the front pattern piece. The back pattern piece is almost identical to the Sunday Brunch  except that I folded the kick pleat bit out of the way and cut the skirt directly on the fold. The only other change was to adapt the pocket pieces a little to turn them into two separate pockets rather than one that crosses the centre midline.

 



The construction was then closest to the City Stroll Wrap Skirt, just minus any darts and with an elasticised back waistband. I added some piping to my pockets.

As well as piping the pockets I used the same thin floral fabric for the facing, which, in hindsight I think I cut way too wide. There was just enough of the pale green lining fabric left over from my plaid City Stroll skirt to line this one too.

The facing was attached with a half inch seam, and since the Sunday Brunch skirt has a one an a half inch hem allowance this skirt is consequently one inch longer than the Sunday Brunch. I hadn't really planned that, but I think the slightly longer length makes it look more like a mini version of my skirt.

The dark blue snaps aren't quite the perfect colour match, but they're close enough and since she can do snaps up herself with ease, they're perfect after all!

This little skirt has gone through all the same rigorous testing as my big version. It's performed very well for bike riding, jumping, skipping about and all manner of four year old girl activities.

If you've got to the end of the blog post and you're thinking: "Where's the link to Oliver + S blog where she shows us exactly how to modify the pattern?"... Well, there isn't one. Seems we weren't the only ones thinking little girls need wrap skirts and there may be a pattern in the future. Which would save you the hassle of altering one you've already got! - and save me having to do it all over again when I need to size up.