you'll only find love if you stop looking... Half-Elasticated Skirt edition.

So a few weeks ago, near the end of Me-Made-May, I made a mash-up of the Megan Neilsen Brumby and Kelly skirt patterns.  I like the deeper pockets and gathered waist of the Brumby, but the button front of the Kelly.  I also wanted to try the more a-line shape of the Midi-Length Brumby because I thought it would give my pear-shaped figure a little more room to breathe.

It's 100% linen, so it's always kind of rumpled, even though I ironed it in the morning before work... but I don't mind at all - I really love a lot of things about this skirt.

I tried a new construction method, based on a couple of things - one, a waistband construction that I learned when making my sadly unwearable Liesel + Co Everyday Skirt muslin (That was also just blogged about for pants on Lladybird's blog) where you sew the right side of the waistband to the wrong side of the skirt on the inside and flip it outward, to get a smooth finish on both sides.  PS - I am completely in love with this method!

I had so wanted that Everyday Skirt to be a TNT pattern because I have some RTW half-elasticated waist skirts that I love & had failed a tutorial of making my own pretty badly too, due to my extreme pearness.

So I decided to give up on half-elastic and think of other ways to make a forgiving skirt for my new size, since I've gained weight. I had read a Cashmerette blog post on "What to sew when your weight fluctuates?" that talked about sewing wider seam allowances and the comments to this post suggested sewing the back and front of skirts separately - which is exactly how the half-elasticated patterns are put together...

I tried it, but I think that front/back with wide seam allowances approach only works for straight seams, like a rectangle dirndl - not the gathered waist a-line shape of the pattern I was using... the gathers bunched up in an awkward way when I tried to sew a wide seam allowance, so I sewed it regular 5/8" + ended up with a skirt that was way too big.  Like 6" too big.

I unpicked the back waistband, cut it smaller and gathered the fabric more tightly to take some of the extra ease out. It was better, but still sitting low on my waist.  I wore it to work a couple of times, but was worried about my tummy showing between my top and waistband, so I set it aside until last week when I had an epiphany.

I had been waiting till I had the patience and time to unpick/recut the waist and attempt to gather even more tightly when I realized, I could just unpick the waist side seam and add elastic!!!!  I only wanted to take about 2-3 inches out of the back half and the elastic could do just that by sewing a channel for elastic in the back waistband piece.

It worked!!! Rather than having to gather up several times its length in fabric, which is what was happening with the previous skirts I tried making... this elastic is only being asked to take up a small amount of slack... but it makes a world of difference to having a polished, yet comfortable and forgiving skirt.  I love it & it's not particularly obvious like it was with those other attempts.

I think the real key with hips so much larger than waist is to make a skirt that it just a little too big and cinch it a few inches with the buttons in the front to get it on and off, rather than asking the elastic to do too much work to create the shape of the garment.

I love all the buttons - I've really been loving the slower parts of slow fashion and just savoring the details - 12 buttons?  Yes please!

Here's a good picture of the skirt and silly picture of my face... why did I end up in the banking and finance section of the library to take selfies on my lunch hour? So boring - I guess that's why it was totally empty and I could geek out in peace... however it shows on my face as I am contemplating these titles.

Also wearing new shoes today - I went to the doctor and got a "medically stable" status on my ankle and she said I can stop wearing boots all the time, but still have to wear "supportive shoes" for 6 months... so no sandals, flipflops, wedges, or ballet flats for the whole summer. Sadness.

I bought myself these oxfords to console myself. They're a sort of distressed shiny copper color with open cut-outs... the closest I can get to summer shoes this summer. I actually really like them.

Happy to make one of my Make Nine items work for me and I look forward to making more of these skirts - slowly making headway toward TNT status.