Sewing Project: Sculptural Panel Skirt in Denim

This week, I’ve been making myself a sculptural panel skirt, and I decided to share the process with you. The skirt is made of midweight denim, which is perfect for this kind of project because it maintains its shape pretty well.

Sculptural Panel Skirt Pattern

Without further ado, here’s the pattern. The skirt will be divided horizontally into two parts: a yoke at the top and panels at the bottom. Each panel will have triangular extensions on both sides, creating a sculptural effect. The zipper is at the c-back.

1. You’ll need the basic skirt block, of course. Start by deciding on the length, then adjust the block accordingly. I left mine knee-length, although later I noticed it would’ve been better to make it either a bit longer or a bit shorter to avoid the hemline ending up exactly at knee level. Oh well.

Divide the front and back pattern evenly into 6 panels below the hipline. At the front, you can already extend the first line all the way to the waist and then start creating a V-shape with the remaining lines. The yoke seam will pass through the dart tip.

2. Draw the yoke shape, as shown, marking a notch where it starts. Extend the remaining panels so they reach the yoke seam.

The back yoke seam will be at the hipline. Ensure you create a continuous line between the front and back. Cut out the yoke pieces.

While the front dart can be absorbed into the yoke seam simply by closing it, the back dart will need an extra step:

Draw a line from the dart tip to the yoke seam and cut it open. Then, close the dart and fill the gap with a piece of paper. Adjust the lines.

3. Now the back yoke piece is slightly wider than the bottom section of the skirt, so you need to remove the extra width from the side seam, as shown.

Next, find the midpoints of each panel seam and add guide marks. This is where the widest point of the triangular shape will be. As all the back panels will be identical, you just need to mark one of them on both sides.

Decide how wide the triangles will be at their widest point and draw guidelines at the midpoints you marked. I made them 10cm wide. For panel 1, draw guidelines on both sides of the rectangle. For the remaining front panels, just the right edge of each is fine. Soon you will see why.

4. Then, draw the triangular shapes, using your guidelines as a reference for the tips. The shapes should start and end at a right angle and be slightly curved. This will make it easier to sew the skirt.

The Pattern Pieces

Now the draft is ready, and you can trace the panels.

First, trace panel 1 and the only back panel to be used for cutting all the back pieces. Ensure both edges of the back panel are identical so the seams will match.

Then, trace panel 2. It will be straight on the left side at this point. Flip panel 1 so the wrong side is up, and copy the shape to panel 2. Next, use panel 2 to complete panel 3, and so on. This way, all the seams will match when you sew the panels together. Notice, this also includes the side seam: match the right edge of panel 6 to the back panel shape.

Add seam and hem allowance to all panel pieces. The grainline will be parallel to the original (straight) panel lines. I added 1cm seam allowance and 2cm hem allowance, by the way. Cut the front panels twice and the back panel 12 times.

Here are the yoke pieces. The grainlines are parallel to the c-front and c-back, and both pieces will be cut twice.

Trace a facing from the top edge of the yoke pieces. Remember to add the missing part to the c-front.

Sewing the Sculptural Panel Skirt

I used midweight dark blue denim for my skirt. If you don’t like denim, you could look for heavyweight cottons and linens. Otherwise, you must interface the panel pieces to get more structure.

My denim was 160cm wide, and I needed 2 metres of it.

Here are all the pieces after cutting.

I started by pinning the panels together in the correct order, keeping the front and back sections separate for now, as these were quite heavy! That’s 12 panels on the front and 12 on the back.

Then, I sewed these. Before serging the edges, I found it helpful to trim the seam allowance around the tips. I then serged the seams in two parts, reducing the seam allowance as I went.

After this, I turned the right sides out and pressed the panels flat. At the top and bottom edges, you can press the seam allowance flat on one side. For example, the front pieces towards the c-front.

Now that the front and back sections were ready, I united them by closing the “side seams”.

Next, I sewed the yoke and the facing side seams and pressed them open to reduce bulk. I serged the lower edge of the facing. Folding would’ve caused too much bulk. All the lateral edges are also finished at this point.

Then I joined the yoke to the rest of the skirt, starting at the short front seams: There’s a corner, so you need to sew the seam in two parts.

Leave enough seam allowance at the c-back to attach the zipper. Alternatively, you can close the bottom edge of the yoke’s c-back seam by sewing a few centimeters beforehand if you prefer.

Press the lateral front seam open and the rest of the yoke seam upward.

Then, attach the facing to the waist. After sewing, trim the seam allowance in half, press, and understitch it towards the facing. After this, press the facing to the wrong side, flattening the waist seam.

Attach the zipper to the c-back. I used an invisible zipper, although I wasn’t sure whether the fabric would be too heavy for it. But in the end, it worked out great.

I used the invisible zipper foot to sew the zipper and the regular zipper foot to attach the short edge of the facing to the wrong side.

To finish the skirt, I attached the facing hem to the side seams and the c-front seam with a few hand stitches so it wouldn’t roll out.

I also hemmed the skirt by hand using the catch stitch. It was quicker than usual because the fabric was so heavy that the stitches wouldn’t show on the right side, no matter how many strands I picked. 😀

The Result

As you can see, this was not such a difficult sewing project, but it does take a while to complete because of all the panel seams. Well, this is what you will get for your time commitment:

I really like how denim supports itself. The panels stay where they should without having to keep arranging them. But they also have a nice movement. It’s like a vase, or maybe a building. Definitely architectural.