Welcome to the second part of this destashing Odyssey. I decided I was going to put some of my precious hoarded patterns into service. Last time I made the blouse from this pattern and I’m now going to tackle the skirt. I have made this skirt before a long time ago and I want to do it again. I was always seduced by these cover shots with these lanky models who must be pushing close to 6-ft tall and imagining the fit of my 5-ft 6 frame in the same way. well, we’ll see.

Originally, I made the jacket and skirt in a lemon coloured linen for a friend’s wedding. However, I would have loved to have made it in what looks like some kind of peachy crepe kind of fabric as in the cover picture. The fabric I’m using this time is closer to the original, courtesy of Minerva.com – this skirt is another Minerva make.

Well, I have to grade up to 16 now as it’s a skirt. I’m top heavy so need 18 for the top but 16 will do for the bottom. It’s an interesting pattern as you’d expect from a Donna Karan design. The skirt pieces are cut as two sides rather than the usual front and back. This detail will actually make it easier to enlarge as I mostly need to add into the centre back seam

Using my new favourite newsprint I measured a strip using the existing increments as a guide.

I made this skirt almost 30 years ago and can see that I cut a size 12. This was long before I knew you were supposed to trace patterns. I’m sure I only intended to make any given item once so it wouldn’t have crossed my mind to preserve the pattern pieces. I have stuck the additional paper to the original. In the unlikely event that I lose weight, I’ll chop it off again.

The large pattern piece came in two sections and you can see where I joined it, there is a strip of browned sellotape across the skirt pieces.

I laid out my pattern pieces with the extra I’d allowed for the centre-back but try as I might I couldn’t get them to lay flat. it seems like the old Sellotape but I’d used for to join the length and shorten and points t had shrunk because if I got the bottom to lay flat the top of the piece wouldn’t, so, in the end, I cut out the Sellotape removing the join in the middle and then laid it out lining up the pieces using the centre front and the grainline as reference points. This allowed me to flatten out my pieces so I could cut them properly.

The construction is unusual in that the lining and fashion fabric are joined before any of the shaping, such as the darts are done. Once together they are treated as one piece of cloth.

There is an interesting combination of pleats at the front to make the drape – a facing holds it all together to form a waistband which has a casing into which elastic is inserted.

Through the construction of the skirt, I start to get flashbacks, this is a deceptive pattern, it looks like it should be easy and for the most part is straightforward but when it came to finishing up the waistband, I remembered I had faltered here before.

The instructions say that the waistband forms a facing into which you put some elastic. Now I must have read them 20 times and still couldn’t figure out how to finish off this elastic and casing. To be honest I couldn’t see why they needed elastic anyway. After fitting I decided that I would do without the elastic and simply slip stitch the waistband and use hook and bar closures for the skirt.

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Okay okay, it’s miserable weather here atm and I can’t go anywhere pretty cos … Lockdown, so it’s another #spareroomphotoshoot for the final pics. Here you go!

I’m happy with how this turned out and think it goes nicely with its pattern mate, the floral blouse and will make a great summer casual/elegant set for the summer.

Continuing sewing for better times, I can’t wait to be able to wear this out. Are you sewing for After Covid?

Thanks for dropping by,