FO: Khaki Linen Skirt Refashion

I have been on a major linen kick lately - not just with sewing, but also hunting it down in thrift stores and online second hand apps like Mercari, Poshmark, and ThredUp. This skirt was found at Goodwill (who honestly just tick me off every time I go in one, but I digress) for $6.99, which is way more expensive than I would usually pay for a skirt at a thrift store, but it was a neutral color, ankle length, 100% linen skirt from a good brand that I knew I could refashion into something I would wear, so I bought it. 

At first my plan was just to shorten the skirt to knee length and add patch pockets using the piece of fabric I cut from the bottom, so I started there. I just put the skirt on and folded up the hem until it hit were I wanted and pinned it. This wound up being just over 10 inches shorter than it came to me as. I sewed a 1 inch hem to match the original (which took like 20 minutes) and then tried it on. It was definitely better, but I just didn't love the elastic waist on me, so I decided to jump into altering the waist to have elastic in the back and a flat front. This lead to me unpicking the French seams at the sides (never in my life have I owned a store bought item with French seams), then cutting a curve to the front edges and stabilizing the front waistband before resewing the side seams and casing at the back. I didn't love how the fabric pulled at the side seams where it changed from front to elastic back, but I decided to just see if pockets distracted from this issue.

I moved on to the pockets. I decided to draft my own because I wasn't finding any patterns in my stash with patch pockets like I was envisioning. To do this I just laid my phone down on a piece of tracing paper and traced out a pocket that would be big enough to hold it. Then I cut  from the excess fabric piece using the original hem as the top of the pocket opening to save myself a little work. I eyeballed my first pocket placement and then measured to make the other look symmetrical. Then I top stitched in hopes that I was finished with this skirt. When I tried it on at the end, I discovered that the pockets were placed just a bit too high and center - I should have tried it on and then placed the first pocket in the mirror *sigh*. It was wearable, for sure, but that night I thought I would unpick it all again to redo. I hung it in my closet and just worked on other things until I felt like unpicking it again, but then I was taking photos of the other things I've made lately and decided to go ahead and photograph this one as well just like it was. And you know what? I don't hate it. 

Admittedly, the tush area is not exactly doing me any favors. It just feels like there is too much fabric gathered there. I think the main issue is actually that it should be slightly more snug over my hips. This added area from it being a wider size originally is kind of giving my hips the illusion of being wider, which is not something that ever makes feel my best. The reality is, though, that I will always wear this with a shirt that covers the waistband area. If I wear it with a looser top - like my linen Cielo, for example - the problem areas are all covered up and it's just a straight khaki skirt. So I'm keeping it as-is for now.

I did a little tag alteration wizardry on this piece as well. The tag was originally longer and said size 18 at the top with a name written in the space above in permanent marker. Now I'm not squeamish about wearing secondhand clothing in any way whatsoever at this point, but having someone's name inside tells me that this belonged to someone in a nursing home of some kind, and the fact that they gave this skirt away kind of tells me they are probably no longer with us. That's just the reality of donated clothes, but at the same time it's not something I want to be reminded of every time I put on a piece of clothing, you know? Since I had the waistband open anyway, I decided to unpick that tag and just fold it lower so I could tuck the unwanted info up inside and stitch over it. The result came out better than I expected - now the previous owner's name as well as the original size are completely gone. I'm not prissy about sizes in clothes either - things either fit you or they don't, the number doesn't matter - but at the same time it's nice to not have to see a size that I was before I lost weight every time I put this skirt on. Maybe that's vanity, but either way it was a simple change to make, and this skirt is no longer that size anyway. Now it's size Megan.

The finished skirt came out as a great basic in a beautiful fabric. This khaki has a greenish tinge to it - the thread I used was obviously green and it matched perfectly - but it actually is the perfect cool tone to go with a lot of other things I wear.

The pockets are maybe a bit narrow, but still fit my hand or my phone, so that's all I can ask for, really. I like the shape.

I still don't absolutely love the waistband transition from the elastic to non areas, but it's not bugging me enough to change it yet and I have worn this to work with no issues.

And this is how the skirt looks how I will wear it. Still looks good to me :) This is a really comfy basic skirt to have, and the linen makes it wonderfully breezy for Florida summer. I'm sure this will be used for a long time to come.