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Issue 46

The Food Issue

Make a meal to die for
Make wine crate cabinets
Learn to screen print

Button-Front Mini

Melissa Coker for Wren

WHO
Bright-color-loving blond bombshell Melissa Coker

WHAT
Wren, for girls who like This Side of Paradise as much as The City

WEAR
Feisty librarian ensembles of playful patterned skirts paired with slouchy tops, oversize cardigans, and in-your-face tights

by Erica Cerulo

Photos by Kathryn Gambel

Craft a flattering high-waisted skirt from a collared button-up shirt, and avoid having to put in a zipper.

Melissa Coker isn’t a girl you want to be friends with—she’s a girl you want to be. After putting in her time at magazines (including Vogue) and clothing companies such as Helmut Lang and Abercrombie & Fitch, she got the itch to create and started dabbling in dye and gemstones. She showed her at-home efforts to one store, and bam! Her on-the-side pursuits became a full-time job. Now in its fifth season, Wren speaks to Coker’s love of literature: The line is named for a character in Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend. Fitzgerald is also an ongoing inspiration. “He was a mess but super glamorous, really refined but rough-and-tumble,” the wide-eyed designer says.

Lay the shirt completely flat, making sure the front and back are lined up. (You can use a few pins to make sure the shirt doesn’t move.) Determine how long you want the skirt to be, and measure that distance on the side seams of the shirt from the hem up (adding ½ inch for the seam allowance of the waistband), and use tailor’s chalk or a fabric pen to mark. Draw a straight line connecting the two points, and cut along this line.
Unbutton the shirt. Set your sewing machine to the longest stitch length possible, and pull the top thread and the bobbin thread to leave a long tail (approximately 2–3 inches). Stitch two parallel rows at the top of the skirt, ¼ and ½ inch from the top. Leave long tails at the beginning of each row. Begin stitching where the left placket ends and stop stitching where the right placket begins. After you finish stitching each row, pull the thread to leave a long tail before you cut it. Using the long tails you left on either side of the skirt, pull the threads so that the fabric begins to gather. Try to pull equal amounts on both sides of the skirt and move the fabric around so that the gathering looks even all around the skirt. Keep adjusting the tails until the length of the top from placket to placket is the size of your waist plus 1 inch.
Using the leftover portion of the original shirt, cut out a rectangle that is 3 inches wide and is the length of your waist plus 2 inches. Line up the top of the waistband with the top of the skirt, right sides facing, so that ½ inch of fabric from the waistband hangs off both sides of the skirt. Using a normal stitch length, stitch the waistband to the skirt using a ½-inch seam allowance. Fold the waistband in half horizontally so that the right sides of the waistband are facing each other. Stitch the ends of the waistband closed using a ½-inch seam allowance.
Trim off the corners of the waistband and flip it inside out. Fold the raw edge of the waistband under so that it covers the stitch line. You can either press or pin it so that it stays in place. On the right side of the skirt, topstitch in the crease where the waistband and skirt meet.
Sew a hook-and-eye on the waistband at the placket at the top of the skirt. Hand-sew the bottom 2 inches of the placket closed (if there is no button there) using a slip stitch.