Skirting the issue

#18

Simplicity 4206
Love this pattern! I used the capri's for some PJ's last month, but purchased the pattern for the skirt.

A few months ago, the idea came to me that it would improve my daughters' relationship if the older one had the chance to serve the younger one. I knew I was going to make a skirt for the younger, so I asked the older one to help me. She was excited to help. It was enjoyable to work with her on the project. We traced and cut out the tracing together. We laughed a lot and I encouraged her to work, even though there were other things more "FUN" to do. She also stitched the hem on the lining, which you can see below. We used purple because I was planning on doing a decorative stitch on the hem, but then my daughter wanted to sew it, so we stuck with a straight stitch:

(You can also see my catchstitch on the hem of the skirt if you look closely).

I was supposed to let her have a turn on the handstitched hem of the skirt, but I forgot . . . . so next time. Incidentally, she wants a skirt from the same fabric. Making the skirt with her made it even more meaningful. It is challenging for me to include others in my sewing, but I like it every time I do. 

The fabric is a Swiss dot that I picked up at Hancock this spring. I LOVE IT!!! I wish I had more. I love the colors, and cute cottons are sometimes tricky to find. I tried to get a closer up photo of just the skirt, but my model moved, so it ended up blurry.

I practiced gathering again here, and feel more comfortable with it. On the second tier I gathered, I remembered to leave the gathering threads long at the beginning and that was a much happier experience. I also figured out which markings on my sewing machine are exactly 1/4 in apart, which made it delightful, as well. I think I will buy the larger sizes in this pattern as well--we have lots of little girl skirt years ahead.

I self-drafted the lining which went fairly smoothly. The fabric is quite sheer.

When I inserted the length of elastic recommended by the pattern, (waist measurement plus one inch) it was WAY too big. Is this typical? I cut off about four inches and then the fit was right. I learned next time I will TEST it out before sewing the casing closed . . . . just to save some ripping out.

The daughter who wears this skirt begins first grade tomorrow!! That's the issue I was trying to skirt by putting it off. . . . . but she is ready.
I am not ready, but the time is here anyway. At least she's going CUTE!!!!!