not too many hitches after the ‘on the small side’ realisation. this was generally a nice pattern to sew - no awkward waistband to do. i mainly chose this pattern because it uses so little fabric as i’m hoping to get a pinafore dress out of the same stuff. i just love the fabric, it’s a super-soft babycord from my original MS stash, the colours are totally gorgeous (difficult to show in the pix, maybe a little more muted irl). it was lovely and easy to work with but was slightly more delicate than previous stuff i’ve used and i got pulled threads from the pins in a couple of spots, hopefully not too obvious.

i love the fact that it’s lined , though i did find that the lining turned out a lot smaller than the outside, think i should probably have staystitched the waistline. i used leftovers from my frilly skirt to line and found it slightly more manageable second time around. steaming the excess fullness from the hem definitely made a difference, though i was still left with a few ugly tucks. i topstitched too close to the zip so it doesn’t quite go to the top, but i think that was the only other hitch.

i felt confident enough to stray from the instructions and hem before i pressed the pleats, i took the chance to practice my blind hemming again, since i thought the stripes should hide it a little. while it doesn’t look as prominent as a topstitched hem, blind it definitely aint (evidence:)

i wasn’t confident enough to go it alone when the instructions decided to stray though. i managed to totally lose the issue half way through - still haven’t found it. massive thanks to faith from the ottobre english list who so kindly typed the whole lot out for me!

of course much as i adore this skirt it’s totally impractical - a skirt that has to be ironed every time it’s washed is so far out of place in this house it’s ridiculous. i was wondering about stitching in the pleats - i’m sure there’s something about running stitching along the line of the pleats in my sewing book. i wondered whether i could just sew the inside pleats so if it didn’t work out it would barely show, but it still gave a bit more structure… ? comments welcome.

it turns out it’s waaay too big - lengthwise and around. i made the smallest size (92) but it seems a fair bit bigger than her other 92 skirt, possibly down to stretching during construction, i’ve still got the pattern pieces handy so i’ll see whtehr that’s it. i’m a bit worried that by the time she fits it lengthwise she’ll be out of nappies and might have nothing to hold it up. and i so want her to wear it cos it’s lovely :)