A Grumpy Gathered Skirt

Last Saturday I had a lovely afternoon eating and fabric shopping with a great bunch of sewers. I picked up a couple of items from Clear It and also from The Fabric Store and was gifted a Cynthia Rowley pattern (S2250) from @suluswabi who was de-stashing (Thank you!). 

I was looking for something drapey to make another high waisted gathered skirt similar to my floral emery skirt hack. At The Fabric Store I was immediately drawn to this silk/cotton blend with a black background and pink, purple and blue dotty stripes.

As it was going to be such a simple make I immediately cut into the fabric and started sewing. I was happy-as-larry when I begun cutting out the skirt pieces but quickly turned into a complete grump. The main problem being that I kept changing my mind throughout this project and lost patience with it.

Here's what went down:
1. Started out with the emery skirt and pocket pattern pieces and a self drafted waistband piece. Added about an inch to one end of the waistband as I wanted to have a button tab closure. 
2. Looked up a tutorial for French seaming when using in-seam pockets and decided it looked a little messy and imprecise. Ditched the pockets.
3. Started sewing the skirt pieces together and came to the late realisation that the skirt should probably be lined as it was slightly transparent. Cut some more skirt pieces out of a skin coloured viscose which I'm glad to be rid off because it shifts around and stretches out while sewing.
4. Gathered the lining and main skirt pieces, attached them to the skirt, serged the S/As. Realised I forgot to leave the end on the waistband free of skirt fabric to allow for the tab.
5. Cracked it (the shits, not the skirt), and wondered whether my skirt was looking a little like a circus tent with these beautiful colourful stripes.
6. Unpicked the tab end of the skirt/waistband and re-gathered the skirt so that it ended where is should have. Changed my mind all together about the tab and just snipped off the extra 1".
7. After turning an incredibly simple make into a frustrating afternoon I sewed the invisible zipper into the skirt and simply serged the centre back S/A's, turned the waist band under and stitched in the ditch, and finally hemmed the lining and the skirt.

Nothing in the above is all that terrible and it was still a quick sew, but somehow I turned a simple project that should have been lovely and satisfying into a complete frustration. This skirt has taught me a lesson about thinking through a project before cutting into the fabric (no matter how simple it seems). Also, perhaps it's best to stop sewing when you start chucking a tanty over the smallest issues.

Thankfully the final product is quite pretty and exactly what I set out to make - a drapey gathered high waisted skirt. That's enough grumpiness for one day! Thanks to Jess for taking these photos at work today.