Engineered Garments Gather Skirt – Embroidery

Gathering is the oldest way of getting fullness into a skirt and still the most honest one. A long edge of cloth is drawn up onto a shorter waistband, so the excess collects into small, uneven, soft folds that release downward as the skirt falls. It is not pleating, which fixes the folds in chosen places, and it is not a cut circle, which gets its fullness from the pattern rather than from the seam. Gathered fullness is unfixed, and it moves.

The ties at the hem are the second idea and the more unusual one. Draw them in and the bottom of the skirt closes, so the silhouette goes from a straight fall to a rounded lantern. Leave them and it hangs. It is the same logic as a drawstring at the cuff of a trouser: one garment, two shapes, decided by the wearer in the morning rather than by the pattern cutter in advance.

Why we selected it

A skirt that changes shape without changing clothes is a rare thing, and this one does it with two ties rather than an apparatus. The button front, the belt loops, and the side pockets are what make it a garment for a working day rather than an occasion.

Engineered Garments builds adjustment into its patterns as a matter of course, and the skirts get the same treatment as the trousers.

Materials and construction

Seventy-five percent cotton, twenty-five percent polyester, with embroidery. Made in the USA. Button-down closure, gathered waist detailing, belt loops, side pockets, and ties at the hem to adjust the fit and shape. Colour: White and blue.

Fit notes

The gathered waist sits at the natural waist and the fullness begins there, so the fit is set at the top and nowhere else. Belt loops mean it takes a belt if the button front is doing enough on its own. The hem ties change the reading of the length as well as the shape, since a drawn hem rises slightly. A quarter polyester gives the gathers good recovery.

Styling

With the Square Neck Shirt. With the Work Shirt in natural, tucked. Under the Cutaway Jacket Crochet.

Care

Wash cool and hang to dry, and untie the hem ties first so they do not knot in the drum. Press the gathers from the back rather than across the face, so the folds are not flattened out. Polyester glazes under a hot iron, so keep it low. Our care guidance for mixed cloths covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Gather Skirt in white rayon eyelet is the same pattern cut in a regenerated cellulose. The Square Neck Shirt and the Work Shirt in natural are the shirts above it, and the Cutaway Jacket Crochet the layer over them. Everything we carry from Engineered Garments is listed together.