Floral Skirt Hack

On the weekend Tim and I visited the North Melbourne Market. Apparently one little old lady had won the sewing competition: "she who dies with the most fabric wins" and her family were selling her enormous and beautiful fabric stash at the Market. There were boxes and boxes and boxes. Due to limited space only a few (like, 10) boxes were opened at a time. I went with the goal of buying knit fabrics but there wasn't any displayed at the time. Instead, I bought two great floral pieces: a pink, yellow and mauve cotton/poly blend (about 5m) and approx 2m of a white blue, and green cotton which is much softer than the first. This cost me $6 total!!

I wanted to make something from the fabric straight away. I decided on a full floaty, high wasted and pocketed skirt. I didn't have a pattern that matched my idea, but it was so simple I knew I could improvise. I decided to use the pink fabric as I had more of it and it wouldn't bother me as much if I screwed it up.

I cut a waist band 31 1/2" long (my waist plus + 5/8" S/A plus 1/2"ease) by 5 inches wide. I finished one long edge with bias binding. I was going to just cut some rectangle pieces around twice the width of my waist and gather for the skirt pieces. Instead, I decided to use the skirt and pocket pieces from the Emery dress as I loved the shape on my first version in particular.

I sewed the the skirt and pocket pieces together, attached the waist band, attached a regular zip (because I had one in my draw), folded waistband down and stitched in the ditch to attach the waistband facing.  Finally I hemmed the skirt and that was it. A finished skirt in a few hours.

I'm starting to get more confident and willing to make up simple patterns with a mix of self-drafting and pattern hacking. It's lovely to have an idea and make it happen within a few hours. I love how it turned out. It's sweet but super comfy. It's probably not the most flattering look on me, but I'm  loving it anyway. Thankfully the sun has come out this week so I've been able to wear it. It pairs really great with my Modified Colette Hawthorn blouse. I probably wont have many more chances before it's put away for next spring/summer. I can see myself making more of these skirt next spring.

Apologies for the indoor pics! Daylight savings is over and Tim isn't around much in day-light hours during the week. Hopefully during Autumn/Winter I'll still be able to mostly post OK quality outdoor pics. But, every now and then indoor shots will have to do.