M4M Siena Skirt | Sewing Pattern Review

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Here’s a cute skirt pattern. This is the sewing pattern review for the M4M Siena skirt.

This is another pattern from the Made for Mermaids Whistledown Collection. Siena is the opera singer in Bridgerton who has a secret relationship with Anthony Bridgerton.

I’ve never really been a big skirt person. I tend to prefer dresses more, but when the opportunity came up to test this skirt pattern I thought I’d give it a try.

This is also a little different for me in that this is made using woven fabric. I’ve been working with a lot of knit fabrics lately.

The M4M Siena Skirt Pattern

The Siena skirt has a couple of nice options – a tiered skirt option as well as a high-low ruffled option.

The tiered skirt option comes with various length options, as well as various waist elastic options – regular and ruffled. There are also instructions on attaching the tiers regularly or with the raw edge showing.

Fabric Options

This pattern is drafted for woven fabrics with a lot of drape. There is a lot of gathering and you want it to hang nicely.

Be wary of woven fabrics like certain linens and cottons (like quilting cottons) as they are stiffer and won’t have as nice a drape.

Sometimes gathered skirts can look boxy so you want to make sure there is good drape so it hangs nicely and doesn’t add width to your frame.

Sewing Pattern Review

I am a big fan of Made for Mermaids patterns. They really are my style. Even though I’m not a skirt person, I really do love my makes.

The tiered skirt is quite easy to make. Essentially it consists of gathered rectangles of fabrics.

I really like the added touch of the ruffled waistline. It’s basically 3 lines of elastic. It makes it quite comfortable to wear and reminds me of a lot of shirring.

Details on how to lengthen or shorten are provided. You’ll want to make sure that any adjustments that you make are proportional to the tiers of the skirt. Details regarding waist-to-knee and knee-to-floor measurements and how to adjust are given in the pattern.

I sewed these up using both my serger and sewing machine. While I tend to try to use one machine only, the elastic waist casing needs to be done on a sewing machine, which is everything else I was able to do on my serger.

The high-low version was a bit new for me. I have never worn a style like this but I really like how it turned out. There are two versions for the high-low – above the knee and below the knee. I made mine below the knee.

Since the Siena skirt is somewhat full in nature due to the gathers, you may wish to style this with a more fitted top to balance your silhouette. The M4M Eloise top, also from the Whistledown collection, pairs perfectly with the Siena skirt, as seen in my photos.

Sewing Tips for the M4M Siena Skirt

Gathering can be a lot of work. I will admit that it is not one of my favourite sewing techniques to do and to be honest, I even used to avoid items that had gathering for this reason. The gathering was never even and I didn’t like the way it looked.

I have since learned how to gather using my serger and I find it so easy now. Be sure to check out that blog post and you will be amazed at how easy it is to gather. I typically find that going around twice makes just the right amount of gathers. Honestly, I only ever gather this way. It’s so much better. I’m not intimidated by gathering anymore!

Don’t worry if your final, gathered length is not exact to how you need it. There is a bit of stretch and wiggle room for you to adjust to make it fit. As long as it is pretty close, you can make it work.

When attaching the gathered tier to the main part of the skirt, I used the quarter method. Find the mid-point between the two side seams on both the skirt and the tier. Match the side seams and mid-points and clip or pin into place. From there you can add more pins or clips to make sure the gathers are evenly distributed.

When sewing the gathered tier to the main part of the skirt, I like to serge with the gathered tier on top. Take the time to smooth out the gathers and make sure they lay flat, perpendicular to your needles. This way you won’t get any weird angles with the gathers or any bunching.

Whenever I sew an elastic casing, I tend to forget to leave an opening. This is especially true when working with dark fabrics when I can barely see the threads. In order to know where I should stop, I leave a clip on the edge of the skirt, reminding me to stop there and not completely close up the casing.

Also, I never measure my elastic. I fit it around me comfortably, include some overlap and go by that. While guidelines are given, this ensures a custom fit and no errors in cutting.

I feed the elastic by using a safety pin. I put a clip on the end of the elastic to make sure it doesn’t slip inside the casing.

For the exposed hem, use wonder tape to hold it in place. This will make it much easier to attach. I personally didn’t make this version as I gather using my serger and it doesn’t look nice for an exposed hem. You would have to gather the regular way in order to do this version.

This skirt is so comfy and easy to wear. Not only is an elastic waist comfortable, but the fact that it is wide (3 inches) makes it even comfier.

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