'Waiting for the fall' - Knipmode skirt finished!

Fabric: cotton corduroy
Pattern: Knipmode (Dutch magazine) 5/2011 model 22

- It is a summer skirt pattern but I was attracted by the little flared model and the huge pockets and thought it would work great for a heavier skirt which I could wear with boots for the fall. This is the first skirt I make which is doesn't have a lowered waist which I normally prefer.
- I used a corduroy fabric which I had cut up about 10 years ago, remaining with a bunch of UFO's
- I like how the hem stays out a bit because of the stiffness of the fabric
- The instructions given in the magazine weren't really clear, I figured it out anyway...

- To perfect the fit I had to add 2 darts both in the front as in the back
- I used leftover butterfly fabric from this project for the facing of the waistband

- The original pattern instructed making belt loops too, which I eliminated, just because I don't want to wear a belt with this skirt.
- The only thing left is to make a muslin for the waistband - am I working backwards??? The reason: I really love this skirt but I can't make another one since I did all the changes along the way on the fabric while sewing. To start with, I'm going to try to cut a size smaller, because I had to take in about 4 cm in the waist, plus added darts witch took out another cm of 3...



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Skirt - finishing the waistband and the hem

I'm planning to finish the skirt today!
I didn't make a muslin for the skirt because I thought that fitting problems could easily be solved here. The fit wasn't great here, it was okay on the hips but way to big above that:

So I decided to place darts both in the front and the back. The fit is already better with the back darts here:


I used the leftover fabric from my Butterfly garden dress for the facing. I love the contrasting colours! The zipper isn't inserted yet:


Understitching on the inside:


I stitched the upper part and the sides of the facing (right side on the right side of the skirt) and then turned it back. Now I have to topstitch on the right side:


The inside after the topstitching:


Since I have an old sewing machine there is no buttonhole making program on it. I had to experiment a bit to get it right by using zigzag stitch. The try-out buttonholes are not so pretty:



And here they are! They aren't perfect, but work just fine! I marked the place of the buttonholes with a contrasting colored thread first.

   



Since the facing of the waistband is bright colored I decided to use a contrasting colored bias band on the hem. The combination of dark green - pink fascinates me somehow!

(I used plain zigzag stitch to finish the other seams. Just because the fabric is too thick and didn't want to add more stiffness.)

Progress on skirt

I managed to cut the skirt pieces from the piece of fabric that was still uncut. The pockets are cut out of the back pant pieces. Because of the fabric (vertical ribs) I had to change the grainline on the pocket pattern pieces. I cut them with vertical grainlines instead of horizontal ones. The vertical lines of the fabric now matches at the side seams.
I've traced the pattern pieces without seam allowances (this counts for every European pattern) but since I find really, really easy to work with US patterns I added 1.5 cm (5/8 inch) all around.

The pockets:




Front:


Back:


The pockets are sewn on the skirt layer, so I marked the line and pressed the seam allowance on the pockets to the wrong side before attaching them:



The result:

Next up... a skirt

I had this idea of making a fall version of the Ceylon dress out of a beautiful dark green rib fabric I had. Unfortunately, I seem to have cut up the fabric about 9 years ago and ended up with a piece of 1.30 meters and two hopeless UFO's. At the end of the day, no way I can manage to make a dress out of the bits and pieces. But what I can make is a skirt! I have to puzzle a bit to get all the pieces out of the fabric.
I don't really have skirts for fall and winter so this seems to be a good opportunity to work on some separates!

UFO nr.1 some kind of 3/4 trousers (this is really a 'what was I thinking' moment...)


UFO nr.2 a really mini skirt (well, back then it seemed long enough...)


After unpicking the seams (well I did a good job on finishing those pleats!) I'm left with quite a big piece of fabric, which I think I can use for the pockets:


And this is the plan, from a Knipmode magazine:


I think I need to make the skirt less full, but otherwise I can manage it.