I love finding designer fabrics on Cali Fabrics! When the designer is named, it’s fun to use some Google-fu to find how the designer used the fabric and let that inspire me. When I found this playful zebra-printed stretch twill fabric from Hudson Jeans, it was easy to find the designer’s make by searching “Hudson Jeans zebra” and I found they used it for … whadda ya know, jeans!

It’s a little too hot here in Northern California for jeans for the next several months, but I let the jeans-styling inspire a cute sporty skirt for summer. The skirt pattern I used already had front pockets; I added flat felled side seams, back patch pockets and narrowed the hem to mimic the details you’d find on ready-to-wear jeans.

The cotton/lycra twill has a great stretch to it and is a nice lighter mid-weight. It was super easy to work with and I love this skirt! Here’s how I made these gorgeous, clean-finish, flat-felled seams.

First, I recommend you use no smaller than a 5/8″ seam for this. If your pattern has smaller seam allowance, adjust your pattern first. Then sew your seam wrong sides together. Press the seam open and trim one side to 1/4″. Yes, it’s an extra step to press open first, but it keeps you from accidentally trimming both seam allowances. Ask me how I know.

Fold the raw edge of the wider seam allowance to the seamline and press to crease.

Now press the trimmed seam allowance toward the wider seam allowance, tucking it inside the fold as you go.

Turn both seam allowances toward the trimmed side, which conceals the remaining raw edge. Press well, pin, stitch into place along the fold. Beautiful!

And clean finished inside too.

I used my (Tie Dye Diva Patterns) Chocolate Chip Skirt pattern, which is a very easy to sew pull-on skirt designed for non-stretch wovens. Because the stretch of this lovely twill allowed me to reduce the ease built into the pattern for non-stretch fabrics, I narrowed the width of the back piece for a more closely fitted, sporty look. I think it would look great with sneakers, too!

This fabric is 50″ wide and I was able to make the skirt from a single yard, got to love a brand new skirt for under $10 and less than an hour of sewing! Cali has some different Hudson Jeans twills in stock in 7 different prints and a variety of weights right now – hurry and grab some before it’s gone!

Have you ever looked up a designer fabric to see how the designer used it? Come visit me over at Tie Dye Diva on Instagram!