Happiness is a good skirt

Now this is more like it. My basic summer uniform is T-shirts/tank tops and skirts, so why haven't I been making skirts? Making a skirt is easy! I made this one yesterday. I got the fabric at Ikea, of all places -- $7.99 a meter, and it's wide enough that one meter was enough. It's superheavy cotton, like a heavy denim or canvas, so this is a solid year-round skirt. (I like a sturdy fabric on the bottom half, holding everything in.) I like that the fabric pattern looks like it could be sprigs of berries, or it could be microscopic creatures of some kind.


I used the skirt pattern from Sew U, size large. In Sew U sizes, my hip measurement is large and my waist is off the charts, so I just made the large size without sewing any of the waist darts. I wanted the skirt to sit low, and I certainly didn't want it to be tight (two words: muffin top), and by omitting the darts I ended up with the right shape for my body. It just meant I had to cut my own facing pieces rather than using the pattern pieces, which is easy enough to do. I put the facing on the outside, just for visual interest, with the fabric pattern flipped vertically:


Next time I'll reduce the width of the pattern by an inch or so. I was so determined not to make this skirt too small that it's a tiny bit too big. (I also think that I, like lots of women, think I'm bigger than I really am.) Bill thinks I should make it shorter, too, but ... he's a boy. Also, I'll make the next one more A-line. I'm thrilled with my first skirt, though -- I'm already looking forward to wearing it with boots in the fall.



Have a great weekend! The humidity is creeping back into Montreal. Ugh. I think I'll escape it today by going to a matinee.