Floral Gathered Skirt

Back at the start of summer I decided that I was in need of more skirts. I wanted a quick and easy pattern that I could whip up in a day or two.

I ended up following the instructions from Gertie’s Blog for Better Sewing, for making a basic gathered skirt.

To make the skirt I found a lovely floral fabric from my pattern stash to use. The fabric had a sixties look to it and was soft cotton. Since it was a rather thin fabric I decided to line the skirt with white cotton.

I had just enough fabric for the skirt and found it to be a little shorter than I liked so I opted to add a color band of white to the end of the skirt. I’ve down this often and it seems to be somewhat of a trend right now in fashion, so I’m happy with the look.

I used French seams to sew the sides of the skirt. I’m obsessed with French seams they make the inside of a garment look so clean.

While the skirt itself was easy enough to put together I tried to shortcut the gathering process that lead to tears.

I figured since I needed to gather the skirt and lining I would do it in one swoop, by sewing the gather to both at the same time. My thread wasn’t strong enough to pull through both fabrics at once and kept breaking.

I attempted this three times before finally getting my gather together. I have since decided it foolish to gather skirt and lining simultaneously, unless someone out there knows of some secrete method of doing this.

The only down side to the skirt is once again the waistband. I made it about 2″ to big, and can really feel it when wearing. I would up stitch the band and adjust it but I foolishly sewed it on with 1-inch stitch length, it’s so tiny I can hardly see the stitches.

Thus, my only alternative is to add some belt loops, which I have yet to do.

Despite my own foolish mistakes, all in practice right, I really do like my summer skirt. It also happens that I had just the right cardigan, brooch and hat to pair with the skirt.