A-Line Skirt

One of my August goals was to make a skirt, and by the end of the month, I had finished the muslin (which I made to check the fit and practice installing an invisible zipper) and was ready to make the real thing. Then I got sick, and the fabric I’d cut just sat in the dining room…until this weekend! I finally finished my skirt and it turned out so well that I wore it to work today.

(And as a bonus, my officemates said “hey, I like your skirt” which means I got to say “thanks…I made it!” That was pretty awesome.)

Feel free to pretend like you don’t see all of Emma’s toys…

It looks pretty simple, but there are a few things going on that you can’t see that make me particularly proud of pulling the whole thing off. First of all, it’s lined — so no worries about using thin or light-colored fabric, since the lining provides an extra layer of coverage. The lining gives the whole skirt a little more structure as well, so it doesn’t feel too flimsy. Second, there’s a side zipper in the photo below — but you can’t see it because it’s an invisible zipper and I did a rock awesome job of installing it!

The pattern came from a book called The Essential A-Line, which tells you how to make several different skirts from the same pattern. This very straightforward version actually isn’t one of them, ironically enough! The first variation in the book had a ruffled lining, but I wanted something super simple and sleek that I could wear to work. Overall I give the book a mixed review. The pattern is good, and worked well for me as you can see — and something like this really doesn’t need any pattern alteration since the only thing to fit is the waistline. But the way the book was structured was a little confusing. In order to avoid repeating the same steps over and over, most of the big steps (like how to install the zipper and how to attach the lining) are covered in separate sections in the front. Trying to go back and forth between all the sections was confusing and could have been done better, I think. Maybe it’s the engineer in me, but I ended up having to write my own step-by-step checklist to make sure I was doing everything in the proper order.

I got the fabric at Joann. It’s a basic quilting-weight cotton, but now I’m wondering what would happen if I made the same skirt in a different fabric. I have a few other projects I want to move on to next (making a Halloween costume for Emma, continuing to work on her Christmas stocking, and making a top for myself) but I’ll definitely have to revisit this pattern again in the future.