The Split-Side Adjustable Waist Giant Pockets Skirt
I was introduced to this by the youtube channel, The Stitchery. In fact, if I had to credit any single thing with my interest in taking historical inspiration for how we should dress in the future, it would be this video.
The Quiet History of Adjustable Clothing [from a non-historian]
This video begins by talking about the Coquelicot Skirt by Wildflower Designs, the sewing pattern that brought both the general idea (petticoat style adjustable waistbands) and several modern additions (like the integrated pockets and the lace-up design) into the spotlight a few years ago.
[A model showing the ties for a view A sewn coquelicot skirt in wool suiting, taken from the pattern page]
The rest of the video goes through an amateur exploration of historical and traditional adjustable clothing, with a special focus on lower body garments that are tied on.
The Stitchery then followed that with two tutorial-ish explorations of all the various design decisions you can make in skirts that share the adjustable waist and the large, sturdy pockets.
The first part is here, which also acts as a really good exploration of many of the design aspects of skirts in general. The second part is here.
Less DIY Options
But those tutorial-ish guide videos lead you through drafting the pattern yourself, essentially. It's a lot of work.
If you're looking for a pre-made modern sewing pattern with these ties for a modern skirt, it's basically just the one I linked to above. However, there are a lot of sew-alongs for this specific pattern available, and the Wildflower Design blog has a few blog posts featuring FAQs, modifications, and hacks of the original pattern.
You could look back into the Butterick 5261a which was a major inspiration for the coquelicot, but it's a vintage commercial pattern. Hard to find and probably expects a lot of pre-existing knowledge. But there are listings for it, like this one, at times.
But if you don't want to sew... this seems like it would be a great skirt to buy from someone else. As long as the skirt is designed to be rather full, you only need to make sure that the waistband is vaguely the correct size.
The unfortunate thing is that there really isn't a single name people are using for the two-panel-separately-secured design feature that's so special about this skirt.
But I'll share what I've found.
This etsy shop, CaitsHandmadeClothes, seems to have several listings, like this one for a miniskirt version of a split side skirt, and this one for a midi.
[Two images showing listed skirts from CaitsHandmadeClothes. The left one is a mini skirt, seemingly without pockets, in a lighter autumnal patterned fabric. The right is a darker midi skirt with pockets. Both are positions to show off the adjustable fastenings]
I did also previously find an independent storefront which was selling the same type of adjustable clothing, based in Canada. It had its own website and sold a few different garments that were intended to be sturdy, long-lasting, and adjustable. However. I have misplaced that resource, and I know it did not use any of the obvious terms associated with this style of skirt. So I'm going to have to look through YouTube comments because I know that's where I found it initially. I'll update this post when I find it.
