Miss A’s had a fabulous first year at school, and her teacher, Ms Bond has been amazing.

A couple of months ago, I spoke with Ms Bond about making her a top or skirt as her end of year thank-you gift (I like to be organised!).  Ms Bond indicated she’d love a skirt.  Several weeks later, I showed her line drawings of Jenny Gordy’s Tulip Skirt, Sewaholic’s Crescent Skirt and Megan Nielson’s Kelly Skirt.

The Kelly Skirt was chosen and measurement were taken.

I started work on the skirt last weekend.  Can you believe I was nervous?  I’m not used to sewing for other adults.  Do you feel nervous when sewing for others?

I selected an olive green medium weight fabric from my stash.  The fabric was purchased on a recent fabric buying binge at The Ark Haberdashery.  I’m not sure of it’s fibre content, but the fabric has great drape for it’s weight.

I lined the pockets with some left-over Japanese Cotton Lawn from this top.

After a fitting session to check the skirt length, it was apparent that the waistband was too snug for tucking tops into it.  So, after some excellent advice from Nikki (while I was choosing buttons in Tessuti) I removed the waistband, let the back pleats out a little, re-cut and attached a slightly longer waistband.  The great thing about redoing the waistband was that I didn’t interface the top, bottom or side seam allowances, which reduced the bulk when it was sewn to skirt.

The button holes made me nervous, but they turned out fine.  There was a moment of panic when the automatic button hole foot on my machine decided to make the last button hole 4/5 of it’s correct size.  There was a long moment of what to do – ignore it, repair it by hand or unpick and try again – followed by some swift unpicking and re-doing.  There was no evidence of a second attempt, so I’m going to notch that up to a good decision.

My main learning on this skirt was with regards to the button placket.  I wish I’d interfaced it (it was an optional step depending on your fabric).  I did a test button hole and I thought my fabric didn’t need any extra structure.  What I had failed to appreciate was how it would behave once the buttons were sewn on and buttoned up.  The photo below show the slight bulging on the fabric on the last 5 button holes.  The waistband was interfaced, so no bulges there!

The Kelly Skirt was a dream to sew.  Megan’s instructions and diagrams were very clear and the skirt came together quickly.  All in all, I’m super pleased with this make.  Here’s hoping Ms Bond likes her skirt it as much as I do!