Gothic Lolita Corset Skirt

Punky patchwork skirt with side lacing
This is the first garment I've made from scratch, and one of the few I'm brave enough to actually get some wear out of!

I measured my hips and drafted out a paper pattern for the yoke, cutting 4 pieces, ironing interfacing to stiffen.

The 'corset' lace-up detail was a pretty spontaneous addition! Fitting all the eyelets was fiddly, especially as I didn't eyelet pliers at the time, they were all hammered in with the little plastic punch you get with the kits (to the expense of my fingers- ouch!)

The skirt was totally improvised- I cut and hemmed pieces and pinned them together to see how they worked. At this point I had left the bottom edge of the yoke un-stitched, and top stitched once I was happy with the skirt panels. The pink fabric I had in mind was a little too bright, so I stitched some of the black netting over the top to tone it down a bit.

As you can tell in some of the pictures, the yoke is a little 'boxy' on my waist and hips, and has the tendency to ride up. I think this is partially due to the nature of the material, but also the pattern pieces were fairly rectangular- hopefully a few darts should encourage it to sit better. I find it stays put better when I wear a corset or tighter fitting top with it. Although I'd fitted a zip it had the tendency to come undone, so I fitted an additional hook and eye to keep my modesty intact :)

Thanks for looking!