Rosso Arancione Giallo Verde

This skirt was the precursor, the practice run. The Fat-quarter Quarter Skirt. I used the excellent Sew What! Skirts book, where you learn to draft a pattern for any skirt you can think of based on your own measurements. This model is the basic A-line with zip. Somehow despite my drafting, it is too big; see how far below my actual waist it sits? I think I don't need to allow nearly as much "ease".



Sadly I made a right hash of the waistband and zip. It was late on Friday night when I tried it and I broke 2 needles on the machine, a sure sign I needed to stop what I was doing and walk away but I was so close to finishing. It's almost wearable. You know, with a long top. And maybe I'll pull out the waistband and try again, although seeing as I used a fancy leaf stitch from the new machine which would be a cow to unpick, there's a good chance I'll never bother.



But anyway, at this stage the I-want-to-make-a-funky-skirt Bug had well and truly bit and Fixit remarked, more than once, on my new obsession. Within 24 hours of completing the Fat-quarter Quarter Skirt project, (time spent sleeping and teaching kiddies to tap) I took up the Rainbow Skirt Project, using mostly fat quarters given to me by the lovely Jan of Sewjourn as part of Trash's Rainbow Swap, and if you think I've been quiet this week, here's why: tonight, she is finis.



I made Fixit double-check the maths for computing 7 equal-ish pattern strips and then I cut and sewed with a lot of care. I ironed and pinned and did practice swatches every step of the way, which is very anti my natural tendencies. When I hemmed the skirt, I changed cotton for each different coloured panel. I did! And I didn't even mind the extra work.



I tried the skirt on after putting in the zip and found it was too big so I carefully unpicked 2 panels and made them thinner.



I've pulled off the best zip of my short career, (which is not saying much), including sewing up the zip each side in different coloured cotton. I don't think I've quite got the hang of the closing bit on top of the zip, but I think you'd only see that if you took a big close-up of it. Like this.



The bias waistband with the pretty loveheart detail was sewed at snail's pace to avoid snarls and general wonkiness (not altogether avoided but mostly good)



And now it's finished, and it fits, and it's quite well-sewn by my standards and there's only one thing left to say really...


.... Ta-da!!!