Little Garden Skirt

Like I needed another skirt made of quilting cotton...

This Amy Butler fabric jumped out at me so I bought a half yard. It is from the Gypsy Caravan collection, called Windflower in colour Linen. Yes, I know a half yard is basically a quilting supply, so this was a bit risky. But, with a contrast waistband, the half yard was the perfect amount for a summer mini.

I had this cream polycotton in my stash and it was the perfect colour match for the waistband. 100% cotton would have been better but this is what I had. I applied interfacing to both the front and back waistband pieces to thicken it up and luckily the seam allowances don't show through. Much. I should have added another layer of heavyweight interfacing at the buttonholes so they don't pull as much.

How is this for a skirt fastening? I am pretty proud of this. I didn't want to buy new supplies for this project and I have a huge button stash so I decided to fasten the skirt with buttons rather than a zip. To make the opening, I enclosed it in a pocket. It took a bit of working out (and just the slightest bit of unpicking) but I got there in the end.

Here is the pocket when open. You can see the opening where a zip would normally be, it now has a pocket behind it. The pocket bag is not attached to the waistband, only to the side seams. The top of the pocket bag is reinforced with a strip of binding, cut on the straight grain, not the bias. I still need to put in a tiny buttonhole at the top of the pocket and a tiny button on the inside of the waistband, this will help it stay up when the skirt is on.

Here is how it looks, inside out, with the pocket turned out.

For the waistband pattern, I used my standby New Look 6057. The pocket piece is from the Sewaholic Cambie, cut on the fold. I gathered the excess floral fabric to fit the waistband. I liked it better for casual wear, rather than darts or pleats. I hand stitched down the inside of the waistband. I didn't want the skirt any shorter, so I made a bias facing for the hem.

                 
I'm really happy with how this turned out, it is a casual and flexible summer miniskirt. I'm treating the colour as a neutral so that it is not an orphan.

Costs:
 Fabric: floral, £5.19
             contrast, gift
 Interfacing: stash
 Thread: stash
 Buttons: stash
 Patterns: stash
Total: £5.19