FO: On Point Hollyburn Skirt

 

Now that I'm sewing again, and now that I'm smaller than I was previously when I sewed clothes, it was time to recreate a few favorite patterns I've worn all these years. I've made 5 Hollyburn skirts over the years and I wore every single one of them all the time unless I sized out of them. Now I'm down to 2 - my original green one that was too tight at the time and my purple one - but these are technically too loose as well. I could take them in, but I just haven't wanted to mess with that yet. Why not make a new one instead? 

The Hollyburn skirt is a very simple design from Sewaholic patterns. It's knee length, a-line, and has huge pockets. Sewaholic designed all her patterns for pear shapes, so this skirt works particularly well for me. The pockets are simple to construct, but they are secured in the waistband seam, making them very sturdy and easy to access.

I made this one up using a Cotton + Steel print linen/cotton fabric that I was given by a friend who was destashing back in March. Can you believe it? She is a quilter and she had a 3 yard cut of this fabric and I jumped on it immediately. The print is from Melody Miller's Mustang collection and it's a dusty mint green with arrows and metallic details all over. I knew the arrows would accentuate the center seam line and come to a bit of a point there and I think it worked really well for this design. The only qualm is that this fabric has some slightly faded crease lines from how it was stored in my friend's stash, and since I was working with just 3 yards of 44" wide fabric, I couldn't avoid them. They are angled right across the center front, but honestly I don't think anyone else notices them but me. I'm hoping that washing the skirt a few more times will relax the creases out - at the moment, no amount of ironing will touch them since they were folded and had other things stashed on top since 2014.

 

At first I tried to follow the true directions for the pattern and use a slot seam zipper insertion, but friends ... it's been a long time since I put in a zipper, lol. It did not go well. The original zipper looked like garbage and I decided to just follow my heart and do my favorite - the lapped zipper. I had a little struggle with this too, but in the end I used the directions on the vintage zipper packaging and I think it turned out lovely. 

I serged all the seams inside the skirt and hand stitched the waistband as well as the hem, which I think turned out very nice. I used to avoid hand sewing like the plague, but I find that I'm more prone to choose it nowadays for the added control and the invisible finish outside. Here's another look at the lapped zipper - gosh I just love this method. And I happened to have the PERFECT colored vintage metal zipper in my stash. I still can't believe I had this because it's such a muted mint green, but my stash came through this time. Love it.

So that's my new Hollyburn skirt :) I'm thrilled to have one that actually fits me like it should and I already have a stash of fabrics in line to make more. This is such a quick and satisfying project, and I love wearing these skirts, so I don't mind making them at all. Hooray for a lovely fabric and a great pattern pairing!

Summary:

Fabric: 3 yards of Mustang "Leap and the Net Will Appear" mint arrow print cotton linen fabric by Melody Miller for Cotton & Steel Spring 2014 - Free

Pattern: Hollyburn Skirt by Sewaholic Patterns - at this point, it counts as Free

Notions: 9 inch metal mint zipper, $0.10, thread - $0.50, Pellon SF101 Interfacing - $0.25

Time: 4 hours

Total Cost: $0.85

FO: Gray? Green? Skirt

Well, I meant to post this a day or so after my previous post, but it's been a crazy time. Interestingly, this skirt is now too big for me even before I managed to post about it. Interesting. Anyway, when I made my Fairy Tale Voile Sailor Top, I really wanted a new neutral skirt to wear with it. Enter one of my favorite patterns: McCall's 7475.

This is my usual use of this pattern: view B plus the back pockets from view A. Add all the pockets always! I've made this skirt 2 other  times, both of which are still worn weekly, so I knew this was a solid choice to help out my dwindling wardrobe. Interestingly, I don't have a lot of bottom weight neutral fabrics in my ridiculously large stash. I have plenty of cool prints and then things like denim that would stand in a corner on its own, but not much with any type of drape. The fabric I used isn't ideal, but it did the job credibly for a mystery cotton twill. I grabbed this gray? green? fabric at a thrift store for $1.00 simply because it was a usable neutral. It's the weirdest color. In real life it has an olive-green tone, but in these pictures it looks totally gray. But it's not really olive green as you can see by the contrast it shows against my top in the pictures.

Pardon the all over wrinkling, but these pics were taken after the same July 4th trip to The Sewing Studio. I particularly love this pattern because it takes no alterations at all for my sway back - it just curves how it should at my lower back :) And I love the look of the pockets on the front, plus they are big enough to fit my enormous phone. As per usual, I top stitched all the seams with a triple stitch. This proved interesting when choosing a color for the thread, but I just took the fabric to the store with me and chose a strange greenish color, lol. Still don't know what to call it.

Another of the things I love about this pattern is the fly front. There's something so professional feeling about a fly front to me. This one actually went very well, so I'm thinking I am getting better at them. Another reason to love a fly front is when you don't have a weird green/gray colored zipper on hand but really want to sew this skirt up. Since a matching color wasn't an option, I decided to grab a zip from my stash in a color I would be unlikely to use elsewhere - so this has a mustard yellow zipper inside, lol. Yay for fly fronts.

I actually managed to sew the top stitching correctly on my back pockets this time. Usually I mess up the little triangle in the upper corners that helps to reinforce them so you don't immediately pull the pocket away from the skirt when you put your hand in. Usually my triangles are weird shaped and different sizes and overshoot the edge. This time though, they look great :) Yay for progress.

And now for the saga that this skirt became. I finished this entire skirt - hem and all - tried it on, and discovered it was over an inch too big at the waist :/  I was so ticked off. I had gained weight at the time, so I knew it needed to be a bit bigger than the last time I made the pattern, but it seems I overcompensated. I had to unpick the entire two piece waistband with top stitching, the waistband seam, the side seam and top stitching halfway down the skirt, and all the serging on the edges to take this skirt in. Nothing like doing a full scale alteration on an item you just finished, right? Not fun. It took me over an hour, but I got closer to a decent fit and sewed it all back up.

Later that week, I went to my moms and sewed the final step - the buttonhole. That night I cut open the hole with my chisel and sewed the button on, only to discover it was just a tad snug in the hole. So I grabbed my seam ripper to just barely open up the hole a little more... AND I SLIPPED. I've seriously never had this happen, but I guess it must happen to everyone at some point. I slit right through the buttonhole stitching and through my tab to about 1/4" from the edge. I was so ticked off, lol. The only thing I could do was sew a perpendicular line to hold the two sides together, then sew an extremely tight zig zag stitch over the rip and then fray check it within an inch of its life, knowing full well this repair may not hold up very well. I've managed to wear and wash this a few times now and thus far it has held up ok, so hopefully I was being overly pessimistic. Interestingly, I have now lost a weight since I made this and the photos were taken (I don't say this to brag - it has not been in a healthy way, but in a "I'm so stressed out I don't feel hungry" kind of way, which I don't recommend), so the skirt is WAY too big yet again. Like 2 inches can easily be pinched at the waistband :/ So who knows how long I will keep this one in rotation - I don't really fancy picking it all apart again, plus it seems to pull a bit odd across my tummy with each alteration at the waist. 

Anyway, I do still wear this skirt in spite of its issues because it makes a great casual, "go with everything" type piece (and my shirts always cover the buttonhole and the loose waist anyway). Mostly, I'm just glad to have sewn something wearable up in my sewing room back in June :) Here's hoping I can make something again soon!

Summary:
Fabric - 1.4 yards gray?ish cotton twill - $1.00 (thrifted)
Pattern: McCall's 7475
Notions: 7" mustard yellow zipper - $0.10, green button - free, green thread - $1.00
Time: 6 hours
Total Cost: $ 2.10

FO: Quill Peggy Skirt

After making my new Sailor Top, I found myself with yet more sewing time thanks to being sick for a few weeks (ugh,I know). Let's call this sewing time the only perk of that illness, lol. So it only made sense that I should make the skirt I planned to wear with the Sailor Top next, right?

This is the outfit I managed to make - and it's kind of ... eh... I mean it's not awful. When I first finished this skirt and put the whole thing together, I was really bummed. As I mentioned before I bought the top fabric specifically because it was the best fabric I could find to coordinate with this skirt fabric. The skirt fabric definitely came first - I love this print and the quality - and after a whole shopping day finding nothing else I went with the quilting cotton for the top since I knew I would have a hard time matching this skirt with anything but a plain white t-shirt, which just feels boring to me now. I did wear this out on my birthday (with my yellow Swedish Hasbeens) and a girl who works at Anthropologie complimented my whole outfit, so maybe it's not as bad as I thought originally. Anyway, let's talk about this skirt, shall we?

This is the Peggy Skirt by Blue Ginger Doll Patterns. I've made this pattern few other times and I always plan to make more. It's a great high waisted skirt with tucks at the waist and adorable pockets that gape away from the body. I did my usual adjustment of shortening this by about 4 or 5 inches (the pattern is made in a more vintage midi length) just because I like knee length skirts. No changes other than that since this is a fairly easy skirt to fit. The fabric is called Quill designed by Valorie Wells for Robert Kaufman and it's a cotton/linen blend. Guys, I love this fabric. It's firm enough to feel secure wearing it but so breathable. One of the things I like most about this pattern is that the skirt kind of bells away from your legs, and this fabric really helps with that shape the pattern creates. And it doesn't wrinkle as bad as I thought it would - yay, lol.

As I hope you can tell, I went to great pains with my pattern matching on this skirt. These large medallion shapes are lovely, but they would look like crap if they didn't line up right and it would completely distract the eye. I spent quite a bit of time matching up the design, and it looks almost perfect everywhere except where the side seams flare out. Technically these seams are matched as well, but the flare interrupts things. Since I had to choose what would match I went with the front and back seam and the pockets. You can see how I still tried to keep the medals in line in the above photo though.

The back seam I am pretty stinking proud of, lol. It isn't totally perfect, but at a glance that seam basically disappears - exactly what I was going for. This was my first time matching a print this large, so I'm really thrilled with my results. There is even a lapped zipper in that seam :)

Check out that shockingly bright zipper! I love doing lapped zippers for many reasons - they look so tidy and I find them more enjoyable to insert - but a big reason is for the opportunity for coordinating but not "matching" zippers. I had this acidic yellow zipper in my stash (can you believe it?) and it is the exact color of the yellow in the fabric. This is a metal zipper from the 60s, which I'm also quite happy about because those things last forever. So while no one will really see it but me, I love how this design choice makes the skirt feel extra cool. I know that sounds silly, but there it is.

And of course you can't talk about this pattern without highlighting the awesome pockets :) My hand is covering it here, but you can see in the earlier photo at this angle that I pattern matched the pocket lining (and it turned out really well). I adore these pockets, folks. Do they make my hips look wider? Yes. But I feel that you can see it's the pockets that do this, not my body, so it contributes to the design in my opinion. And they just beg you to put your hands in them as they are open all the time :)

And I couldn't talk about pattern matching without giving the best prize ever to the front waistband seam. Check that out, ya'll! I think because I haven't done a ton of pattern matching, I am always surprised and thrilled beyond belief when it works out, lol. I'm so proud of that waistband seam. I just feels like magic that it worked.

And some close ups of the details. I used a large acid yellow vintage button from my stash (which I love). And you can see that pop of yellow in the zipper here as well. And I just had to show that lovely pattern matching again close up :) I stitched in the ditch to secure my waistband, and you can just barely see the stitching if you look close. I also should mention that I hand stitched the hem to get a truly blind finish.

So that's my newest Peggy skirt :) It's comfy, it's pretty, it's pattern matched. What more could you want? This skirt really taught me that taking your time with cutting out can pay off in a big way. Incidentally I found a shirt in Anthropologie that is the perfect color match for the yellow.green in the print (and it was on sale!). Being from Anthro, it's a very detailed and different type of shirt - it's all eyelet and lace with a high collar - so I'm curious to see how much I wear it because all together this will be quite the attention grabbing outfit, lol. I'm still on the fence with what top to wear with this skirt, but I can tell you it will be worn! I love this skirt and I am determined to make my fears of it being a wardrobe orphan unfounded. Yay for projects that pay off!

Summary:
Fabric: 2 yards Quill by Valorie Wells Cotton/Linen blend - $9.70
Pattern: Peggy Skirt by Blue Ginger Doll
Notinos: yellow 7" zipper - $0.10, knit stay tape - $0.25, Pellons SF 101 - $0.50, blue thread - $1.50, button - free
Time: 4 hours
Total Cost: $ 12.05

FO: Minty Floral Skirt

This is yet another piece I've had planned for literal years and I am so thrilled to finally have a finished item to wear :) In fact - I have a whole outfit for it:

The dream of this outfit is what finally made me buy the Agnes Top pattern. I bought this cotton twill fabric from Hobby Lobby in 2016 always intending to make a fly front jean style skirt. It's mint green with tiny white flowers and a decent weight for a skirt. At the time, I did not have a pattern that fit my needs yet. I purchased the Sally Skirt from Style Arc and made up a muslin to see if it was worthy of this adorable fabric, and it wasn't quite what I was wanting (plus it needed a lot of fitting help). Soon after that, McCall's came out with the 7475 skirt and culottes pattern. I would never go for the culottes, but the skirt is a great pattern. I made a black version last year to test out the pattern and in spite of the not so ideal fabric on that version I still wear that skirt all the time. The fit is great and it's very comfy but cute. So when I was making my Make 9 list this year, I put this combo on it to inspire me to finally sew up the minty skirt of my dreams.

This pattern has all the details I wanted plus the back yoke fit me perfectly with no alterations. Usually I would need a sway back adjustment on most any skirt I make, but this yoke has the perfect shape for my body. I get zero bunching at my lower back with no extra effort - major score :) I also love the slight a-line shape - just wide enough to keep cool in the hot summer. And I LOVE the pockets in this pattern. Technically the pattern includes back pockets with one version and front pockets with a separate version, but I love pockets and wanted it to look like a classic jean skirt, so I added ALL THE POCKETS. I did the same thing on my black version and I love the look. Do I use the back pockets? Not even once that I recall. I just love the look of them.

The front pockets are equally cool with a neat shape and they are the perfect size in my opinion. I can carry my keys around at work in these no problem and they also fit my whole hand in there should I so choose. These pockets feel very 70s to me since it's a detail I see on a lot of vintage patterns.

Then there's the fly front. I have no idea why I like fly fronts so much - they add a little bulk to my tummy, which I would usually steer away from in other circumstances. I guess it just feels so professional to have one. I am always trying to find classic jean skirts in stores, but I never find any that fit me right; so this has apparently instilled in me a desire to make them. Any cute twill or denim I come across is automatically evaluated for this type of skirt. Again I was surprised at the quality of instructions on the fly front. I had no issues inserting this fly and I only used the pattern instructions. On my black version I didn't want to add the bulk of a button at the waist (and I was secretly afraid my machine wouldn't like sewing a buttonhole through all that bulk) so I used a pants hook and eye, but this time I wanted to go whole hog and make it just like a ready to wear version with a proper button.

Here are some up close details and "design features". The one problem I had on my fly front was keeping my foot straight as I top stitched the fly from the front. I sewed it a few times and because of little bumps on the underside, I squiggled when I should've stayed straight :/ This mean that I had to unpick this line a few times, and being me I accidentally made a hole in the front of my skirt. I was not happy, but at that point you have to make due. I decided to put my bar tacks right over that spot, lol. So I neatened up the area, applied a lot of fray check, then added a long bar tack over top of the hole. I did a little more fray check just in case after stitching, so I'm hoping this spot holds up. At least you can't tell anything happened. I used a 7" white metal vintage zipper from my stash. My button was a one of in my stash that probably came with a garment someone bought who knows when. It's covered in some type of white poly twill and I knew it would lay fairly flat, and I'm really happy with it. I went all out on top stitching with this skirt. Every seam is overcast inside and then I used a triple stitch with regular white thread to top stitch the seam allowances down. The pockets, yoke, hem, and waistband are also top stitched. I wanted a decorative pattern on the pockets, but when it came time I couldn't think of anything interesting, so I just went with a double V. Hopefully next time I can think of something more interesting, but I think in this version it's fine since the print makes the stitching more subtle.

Fit wise, I'm very happy with this version. I made the largest size and used a 3/8" seam allowance on the side seams. I also added 1/2" to the length based off my first version. This wasn't absolutely necessary, but I figured I would try it out just that little bit longer.

So that's my new skirt :) I've worn this outfit a few times since making it, and I really love both pieces - I mean how can you not love flowers and flamingos? I particularly love how they look together. I like that it's coordinating colors but not matching patterns - I'm never very good at combining prints, but I think this tiny floral makes it easier. I'm thrilled that I finally made this up and I'm definitely planning another version in the future.

Summary:
Fabric: 1.8 yards minty floral printed cotton twill - $11.00
Pattern: McCall's 7475
Notions: 7" metal zipper - $0.10, Pellon SF101 Interfacing - $1.00, white thread - $1.00, white button - free
Time: 6 hours
Total Cost: $ 13.10

FO: Khaki Melissa Skirt

My love of the Melissa skirt by Muse Patterns is heavily documented on this blog. I've made 1 "eh" wearable, one amazing favorite, and two sad duds with this pattern, always hoping to strike gold like I did with my favorite brown version. Maybe 5th time's the charm? Could this finally be the skirt I've been trying for? 

When moving my stash, I came across some smaller cuts of what seemed like a twill with some polyester in it and in very neutral colors. They were only 1 yard cuts, but they were 60" wide. I held them out wanting to contrive a pattern to use them for, and then moved everything. When digging through my fabric in its current "home" location, I came across them again and wanted to satisfy my curiosity as to if I could fit a Melissa skirt on the pieces. It took some major Tetris and it required that the waistband and the pocket panel pieces were cut on the cross grain, but it actually all fit. This is a miracle for someone my size! I was so excited that I immediately cut out this skirt.

In my darkened sewing room, it looked like the cross grain would not effect the finished look, so I didn't think further about it. Once it was completed and I started trying to photograph it though, I could see that the twill weave was going in a different direction, giving the pocket panel the effect of being a lighter color. It's hard to see in the photo, but I can see a texture different at the very least. I have yet to wear this out and about, so I don't know yet how much this will bug me. Hopefully not at all, lol. For this version, I made the same alterations to the pocket panel pieces that I always do, adding 1/2" to each side so my hands fit comfortably in the pockets. I also took a wedge out of the center back panel seam - another usual adjustment. But aren't the pockets great? They are always my favorite thing about this pattern - it makes a great basic with a little something different.

The back is where I'm not entirely sold. I had this sewn - waistband stitched in the ditch and everything - only to try it on and it was just tight enough to be uncomfortable. I was going for a comfy everyday type skirt here, so that wasn't good. I picked the entire waistband off, lengthened it by 3/4", and sewed it all back together. That was a lot of added work, but it feels much more comfy. The one big issue I have still is wrinkling on the back. Even on my first version of this pattern that I hardly altered at all, the skirt had to be gathered into the waistband a little at the end. The pattern does not mention easing the pieces together, but it happens to me every time. The panels are cut on the cross grain, so it's not stretch from the bias or anything like that. With me adding to the sides of the pockets, that does create excess fabric at the waist, but the wedge I take out for a sway back adjustment should take care of most of that. I'm stumped on it, but I always have to ease - this time I had to down right gather. I tried to keep the gathering at the back, but it seems I got an almost pucker along my center back seam.

You can see the pucker here. For the top picture, I deliberately smoothed it all out, but as soon as I move it will look like this picture again. This fabric has a good deal of body, which I'm hoping will soften with washing, but I know that is part of the issue. At the moment the fabric feels so stiff it's like I'm wearing a bell, but if this twill is like my brown twill from the favorite version, it will soften with time. I'm still trying to decide if I should unpick the waistband across the back and redistribute that pucker, but I feel like it will just pucker again somewhere else.

I forgot to mention - I couldn't get quite all of my pieces cut out in the twill fabric - the center fronts are supposed to be cut on the fold, but I had to cut them as individual pieces. To compensate, I cut a piece out of a white acetate lining for the inside. I just sewed them together and understitched the lining piece to make sure it doesn't show outside. This worked like a charm :)

I even used buttons from my stash :) These came from the Hobby Lobby clearance section a few months ago and they work perfectly - just a touch of contrast but still neutral in the darkened silver metal, and they have a neat design on close inspection.

So will this take the place of my brown version? Only time will tell. I'm excited to see how this washes up and if it softens any. If it does, I have another piece of this fabric in olive green lined up and waiting to become the next Melissa :)

Summary:
Fabric: 1 yard khaki twill - $0.25 (thrifted), 1/2 yard white lining - $0.25 (thrifted)
Pattern: Melissa Skirt by Muse Patterns
Notions: 1/2 yard Pellon SF101 interfacing - $0.50, khaki thread - $2.50, 7 metal buttons - $1.50
Time: 8 hours
Total Cost: $ 5.00

FO: Black Fly Front Skirt

I've wanted to make McCall's 7475 ever since it was released about a year ago. I'm not a fan of culottes (at all!) but the pattern showed a very cute skirt. It's been a long time since I used a Big 4 pattern and I was a bit skeptical of the sizing, so I searched out the finished measurements and went from there in choosing my size knowing I would have to alter the waist. I had to take a wedge out from the hip to the waist at the side seams, but other than that it went together well and I now have a nice skirt for the Summer of Basics challenge :)

The details that drew me to this pattern are still my favorites: the fly front and the patch style pockets. I love that this pattern is designed like a typical jean skirt but with a bit of a retro flare in the pocket choice. I made sure to top stitch everything just like a jean skirt would have to accentuate the details and get things to lay flat.

Since I didn't know how this project would turn out, I used a thrifted black twill fabric I picked up for $1 so I wouldn't be too heartbroken if I didn't like the result. Happily it turned out great and I have a nice basic skirt in full rotation now.. The only thing I don't love about it is that this fabric loves to pick up dog hair (and I have a very hairy dog), but a little lint rolling before I leave the house has helped me not look like a crazy person so we're good :)

I have a little bit of wrinkling at my waist line just above the pockets, but that may be from how I just took a larger seam allowance in that area (it's wedge shaped on both sides), so I will have to look up different ways to do that in the future. Since I knew a style like this would be washed frequently, I made sure to overcast all the inside seams before I top stitched them down.

The pattern offers the front patch pockets OR the back patch pockets, but I decided to go for broke and use both. I mean you can never have too many pockets, amiright? I know these picks are a little crooked (and blurry), but I'm happy with the pocket placement and spacing. I also am really happy with the fit of the back yoke - typically I have to make a sway back adjustment on every pattern I sew for the small of my back, but this lays nice and flat there. Woo hoo!

I also really like that this back pockets are such a nice size - look they fit my hands no problem! This may sound like an obvious thing a pattern should have but in my experience it has not always been the case - and no I do not have large hands. This is also my first time reinforcing the pockets by sewing the little triangle at the sides of the opening - they didn't come out perfect (and I know you really can't see the black on black in these pictures), but I'm fine with them since the fabric doesn't show this off anyway. So now my pockets are reinforced and no one will really know it's not perfectly top stitched.

I really love that this is a fly front and it just feels really professional to me having this in a skirt. After the trouble I had on my other fly front (the Sally skirt) I was concerned it would be tricky to figure out. I'm really impressed by the instructions in the pattern for the fly! I was able to just use the instruction packet and it turned out great. The only thing I had to constantly remember myself was to finish the seams before I stitched the fly, but that's not that big a deal. I used a vintage metal zipper from my stash and it worked out great. I did use a hook and eye in place of a button at the waistband and this was purely aesthetic. I have a full tummy, so buttons tend to just stick out there, plus I pretty much always wear my shirt untucked and it just looks odd to have the button poking out under my top. I liked that the hook and eye would make it lay nice and flat, so while it maybe seems less "store bought" this way, it works great for me. And why sew it yourself if you're not going to make little changes from how it would be in a store, right?

And finally my top stitching :) I'm pretty happy with my pockets all things considered. I knew I would like this style, but I honestly like this particular version much more then I thought I would. I've worn it quite a bit since I finished it - it's a nice basic, slightly casual style, and it's black so it goes really well with a lot of things. I will definitely be making more of this pattern with some of my stashed twill fabrics. Yay for a win from a Big 4 pattern, right?! And yay for a very wearable muslin!

Summary:
Fabric: 1.5 yards black cotton twill (60" wide) - $1.07 (thrifted)
Pattern: McCall's 7475 - $1.99
Notions: Pellon SF101 Interfacing - $0.50, 7" metal zipper - $0.10 (thrifted), black thread - $1.00, hook and eye - $0.15
Time: 5 hours
Total Cost: $ 4.32

FO: Navy Skirt Refashion

This was a case of fabric love at the thrift store. I was searching the skirt rack of my favorite shop during a bag sale (everything they can shove in a paper grocery bag for $5), which  means I was being much more open to refashions, when I came across this lovely skirt. The fabric is 55% linen 45% rayon, and it's a 6 gore style with a button front. The only problem - it was extremely small. Actually I believe it was actually a size Small considering it had a 26" waist (the size tag was gone). In spite of its waist measurement, the skirt was very long and very flared - like almost a circle skirt - so I knew it was a great candidate for a refashion :)

I started by measuring my waist (39") and then measuring at various points down from the waist of the skirt to find the spot that fits my waist measurement. It happened to be about 6" down. So I made sure to add seam allowance and chopped the waist off.

I had to make sure the top button hole would still be accessible, so I had to fudge around with where to cut, but I got there in the end. Next I overcast stitched the cut edge (this stuff was already fraying like crazy) and pressed 1/4" over from the edge. I decided to use a ribbon for the inner waistband (from a spool of also thrifted ribbon). I cut the ribbon to measure plus a bit to fold over, then I melted the edge and pressed about 1/4" inside to give a smooth edge at the button bands. I edge stitched the ribbon at the pressed line of the new waist. Basically I understitched the ribbon to the fabric. This way I could just press the ribbon inside and it was all invisible from the outside. Then I top stitched around the other edge of the ribbon (about 7/8" down). My thread was such a dead match that the top stitching sinks right in. I had to do some forceful pressing to get the ribbon to curve around the waist, and I had to fold the ribbon under at the button hole so I didn't cover it, but it all looks fine from the outside now.

Next I had to figure out the buttons. The skirt already had lots of buttons, but with the new length on me the buttons stopped about 5" above my knee. That's a bit high for my comfort, so I took the buttons off the section I removed from the waist and made new holes for them below the original buttons.The bottom 4 buttons in the photo on the right are all new ones I added. I also had to decide on a finished length. After changing the waist it hit me about mid-shin, which is not generally a length I go for, but it wasn't awful. I just had to decide if I should leave the length or go just below the knee. Eventually I decided on just below the knee to keep with the summery feel (I just really like knee length skirts).

I now have a delightfully swishy linen skirt :) I love the fullness of the skirt - it really makes this feel more girly and fun. I was hoping this skirt could replace a previously much loved Refashioned Navy Blue Skirt. I wore that skirt until it was coming apart at all the seams. I still miss it, lol. So this new navy skirt helps to fill that void. This new skirt is certainly a bit fancier feeling being a linen/rayon blend and having such a wide hem span, but the color goes with a lot and most of my wardrobe is a bit dressier anyway so it works great in my wardrobe.

 Back view - I love the way this drapes. I'm narrowing down more and more clothing aspects that I like or don't like, and I don't really care for true circle skirts because they end up with pools of fabric over the tummy area. It just feels like I have to fiddle with them to keep them looking good. This skirt doesn't pool until below the tummy, giving a nice smooth look over my area I want to distract from, which I love. I will admit that the buttons seem a bit heavy for the angle of the grain of the fabric, meaning that they like to sink between the folds of the rest of the fabric (you can see this in the first photo), but that's a minor issue.

And what's a big skirt project without a twirl photo? I really like this skirt. Having worn it a few times now I may change the ribbon waistband to a petersham ribbon - the polyester I used was a cute color and I had enough, but it's a bit scratchy on my skin sometimes. Other than that I love this and know it will be a great piece to have in the Florida heat. And even better it only cost me about $0.50 to make :)

Yay for refashioning!