School Wardrobe

Khaki Skirt

Now that I'm back home and back into the routine, it is time that I start finishing the school wardrobe. This isn't as exciting as showing you the insides of vintage dresses or fancy special occasion dress, but this is what I'm doing at the moment! Thank you all for your compliments on the previous two posts - I'm glad you're enjoying the dresses as much as I do.

At this point, my goal is to finish the warm weather things, and then start on the remaining 4 or 5 or so cool weather items in September some time. This skirt is part of the warm weather items, as is a dress that I'll be making this week.

This skirt is from Simplicity 4897, which I made last year as a denim skirt. This time, I've made it in the ubiquitous khaki twill that should match with most of her school blouses. The pocket and linings and waist facing are made from the butterfly fabric leftover from her blouse.

The photo above isn't the greatest (she's more excited about her new sweatshirt, but that's another story), so here's the detail of the front and back at the waist line:

I did add a few things to the original pattern. First, and most obvious from the photo above is the back elastic. This helps the skirt to fit her better right now and can be removed later as she grows. The elastic was stitched to the side seam allowances before the facing was top stitched in place. Once the facing was topstitched in placing (stretching the skirt flat while stitching), I put in an additional row of stitching to act as a casing. The elastic I used was about half the width of the facing, so that extra row of stitching is useful for keeping the elastic in place.

The other thing that I added to the skirt was a tab and button on the inside under the zipper. I added this just for extra security in case the zipper decided to go south of its own accord. The tab was stitch to the center front seam allowance and then the facing was stitched over the top.

Now, I need to get back to working on REC before dropping my daughter off at camp for the week!

Parting Shot: Birthday Cake. Rather, birthday cheesecake. My daughter wanted a cheesecake with raspberries for her birthday. No problem! We made this one on Saturday and here it is complete with candles yesterday afternnon.