Simplicity 1783 - Part 2

Big Bear's birthday party was Saturday, and it seemed like all of the kids had a really fun time. Woo! I hope to share more on that soon, but I need a bit more time to decompress. In the meantime, let me share part two of Simplicity 1783. In Part 1, I shared View B, the top. This time around I made View D, the skirt.

What drew me to this one was the front kickpleat and the fact that it called for only 1 yard for fabric. The fabric is a poly-blend plaid I found on clearance at JoAnn's back in 2008 (yay for finding using stash (but it is true that I forgot I had this, it was buried so deep)!).

It turned out really well!

Just don't look too closely at the pockets. Ugh. I decided that I wanted to try and add some interest to the pockets by having the plaid on the diagonal. I knew this would mean I'd be working with all bias edges, and if I had followed the instructions in the pattern as written, it would have resulted in all kinds of wonky. So I decided to first underline the pockets with a quilting cotton (highly stable) and then follow the instructions as written. Unfortunately, there was a fair amount of bulk and I had a hard time trying to keep everything pretty and even. What is worse is that the first time I attached them to the skirt, I didn't even line them up-- which, with the plaid, was VERY evident. And then, after attaching them the second time, I realized that they are actually different sizes. Doh! I don't know why it didn't occur to me to actually compare the finished pockets before I attached them to the skirt. Fortunately, I don't feel like it is very noticeable when I'm wearing the skirt. Certainly, not noticeable enough to make me do them a third time.

I gotta say too that I am pleased as punch with how the fly turned out. Woo! I've never done a fly in this manner before, and it was definitely more involved than the ones I've done in the past, but I really appreciate the finished look. Very snazzy.

I made a size 16. The only changes were to use 1/2" side seams and to use hem tape at the bottom hem.

The hem tape allowed me to do a 5/8" hem instead of a 1-1/4" one, resulting in a really nice, wearable length for me. I'm not sure I would have felt as comfortable even 1/2" higher. This is already what I consider very short for me. I am 5'4", so if you are any taller, you may want to add some length.

While the top in this pattern may not have been my cup of tea, the skirt is definitely a winner!