Flirt Skirts: Learn How to Sew, Customize, and Style Your Very Own Skirts

by Seryn Potter, Patti Gilstrap

Here is the long-awaited sewing book from Flirt, the fabulous Brooklyn boutique known for its fresh outlook and flattering designs. Since opening in 2000, the creative team behind Flirt, Patti Gilstrap and Seryn Potter, have designed hundreds of unique skirts through the store’s immensely popular Custom Skirt program—they have also seemingly taught half of Brooklyn to sew in their Home Ec Sewing Studio. Now it all comes together with this must-have collection of skirts that anyone can sew!
           
Patti and Seryn’s philosophy is All you need is 3 basic skirt patterns—A-line, Pencil, and Flare. Then add unique details to each skirt to create your own, one-of-a-kind designs. Flirt Skirts pairs these basic skirts with 20 fabulous projects, so you’ll soon have your own wardrobe of flattering, wear-anywhere skirts.
           
With photographs of finished projects, step-by-step instructions, easy-to-follow diagrams, pattern templates, perfect fit how-tos, and styling tips, you’ll find that every skirt in this indispensable book is utterly sewable and totally wearable, suiting every figure, lifestyle, and level of sewing skill. You will want to make them all!

Genres: Sewing, Crafts, Nonfiction, Adult

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 8, 2011

Reviews

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but not wow. Doesn't come with patterns (well, ready-made ones--you actually have to enlarge/photocopy each pattern out of the back of the book). It definitely gets points for creativity, good instructions, and a strong idea--that you can take any of these 3 basic skirts (A-line, pencil-cut, and flare) and doll them up into any of the 20 designs featured in the book. There's even a pattern for pregnancy skirt with a big, stretchy, adjustable waistband. A decent buy, but not one I'd snap up impulsively. I'd count how many of the skirts I'd actually make. With so many other apparel sewing books on the market that I want more, it only makes it to the Maybe list.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

nonfiction; sewing. A number of fun variations on three basic skirts--patterns are printed at the end of the book and will require enlargement via copy machine/copy shop. There's a pretty good video review posted by a customer on amazon if you want a good look at the book's contents.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huh, in England this is called Stylish Skirts etc etc. Maybe they felt the word flirt would put people off! Anyway, this is a great book, patterns included for enlarging. Some absolutely fantastic looking skirts....I will be getting this again when I am a little more proficient.

[Irene Adler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good introduction to sewing garments starting with the most basic and easy, a skirt.

It has three basics styles which they call: A line, pencil and flare. Given there is no taper at the hem of the pencil skirt it's really a straight skirt, and the flare skirt is a sort of half circle skirt. But still a decent set of basic skirt patterns and a lot of further options (or hacks if you prefer) and some other odds and sods. It's good value in comparison to buying several commercial patterns. I am not in love with some of their fabric / pattern choices - the box pleat option on page 44 is particularly bad in my opinion - but personal taste is highly varied.

The book could have been improved by showing how to make a skirt pattern according to own body measurements instead of the size range used. There are no full size patterns included: the patterns either have to be enlarged by 400% or drafted - if you are going to the effort of drafting the pattern it would make more sense to draft one that fits perfectly. Chances are your waist / hip ratio is not the same as the one used and the A-line and pencil (straight) skirt therefore won't fit well. It's no more work to take your measurements and draft the pattern to your own hip measurement, add darts (or not) to take in the waist to your own waist measurement and free hand or use a French curve for the hip to waist seam line. Or put on a tube to your hip measurement (plus a bit for ease), pin out the excess, then use that as the draft pattern.

[Ligaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was eager to dive into this book by authors who had a boutique in Brooklyn and Union Square (NYC) but I came away disappointed. (Also, all their shops, including Home Ec Sewing Studio have closed.) I mean, the idea is great but the book execution is not. I think the photo stylist forgot their iron the day of the shoot, lots of lumpy skirts in here... Surprisingly, there aren't a lot of close-up photos on the pieces, and I guess why is because of the poor craftsmanship (p 30-31 topstitching is atrocious). As a previous reviewer mentioned, sizing only goes to Size 14. Many larger folks sew because they cannot find stylish clothing off the rack and this book is no help whatsoever. Missed opportunity.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent hours poring over the skirts in this book. I loved many of the designs, and this book takes an engineering approach to the whole thing: you build a baseline skirt pattern, then adapt it each time to the specific skirt you want to make.

Some of the skirts in here are pretty freakin’ complicated. This book could be a complete course in skirtsmanship.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The patterns seem sound; I didn’t care for most of their variations.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why I picked it up: It’s a make it yourself book! About skirts!

I make quilts, not clothes. I can sew straight lines and that’s about it. Honestly, I’m not sure that making a skirt on my own is realistic, but I’m willing to bet that if I really wanted to, I could do it from this book. I like a lot of the designs and I like how all are based on 3 basic skirt types. There are some really cure variations here, and as far as I can tell the instructions look good. I also like that they tell you what type of fabric they used for the one in the picture, as it makes it easier to duplicate that look.

My biggest complaint: size charts only go up to size 14. Really Skirt? You are all about making skirts flattering to individual women but you stop at size 14? That’s where most stores stop so it stands to reason that many women who want to make skirts because they can’t find one that fits would be wearing larger sizes. And is it really that much more trouble to add a few more sizes up?

[Maggie C.]

Well, I picked it up because I was like, "Psh, that's a dumb, possibly insulting name..." and then I rather liked some of it, so... good job, marketing department?

Anyway, it had a few great ideas. I won't be using their instructions, but rather looking at the pictures for inspiration and adapting them to how I would rather wear them, and figuring out my own way of using them (much funner than following a set of steps).

[Aja Marsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second time I've perused this book and while a lot of the projects don't really interest me, they're all built on the same 3 basic foundations (pencil, flare, a-line) so it's a good way to brush up on some basic skills. I used it as a reference for a skirt project, just to give me a bit of support while I'm working on it at home, though I'm not sure how entirely helpful it will be! We'll see.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good collection of ideas for making your own skirts. I hope, once I get better with my sewing machine and have a bit more time for it, that I can make some clothes for myself. I've always wanted to and seeing the patterns and styles in this book rekindled my urge to do so. I'll re-borrow it when I get some time to use it!

[Marjanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had some cute ideas, but nothing all that revolutionary. If you have a good handle on sewing these shouldn't be too difficult. However, I personally feel that it would be better to learn how to draft a patter from scratch rather than just have a pattern you tweak here and there.

[Cherie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great ideas for skirts. There's a few basic models with ideas for making them all different, creative, and fun! I hope to make the "sash" one.

[Kathleen]

Some cute ideas

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good book. Clear instructions and some interesting design ideas.