It’s a good thing that there was plenty of curtain fabric!  I’ve just finished a skirt for Freya, which will match her bag nicely!  Here is a photo of the front laid out flat:

And hanging up:

I was quite proud of myself making this one because I tried encountered a few challenges and tried out some new techniques.  I am generally very wedded to the pattern – I rarely deviate from the instructions, although I probably should try different ways of doing things.  This time I have!  No consultation with the pattern instructions at all, and I even changed the pattern pieces.

My first challenge was with the fabric – there were a couple of worn spots and small holes, so I needed to be fairly careful with pattern placement.  The side and bottom hems and curtain tape all had to be unpicked to give more fabric to work with, and the pattern is directional.  Although I haven’t been able to do a perfect match at the centre front seam (the poor flower gets a little cut in half) I did the best I could, and overall the placement of the flowers is okay.  It also worked out okay on the back.

The pattern I used was a straight-ish skirt with darts – rather than using it as it was, I slashed the pattern pieces up to the darts, folded out the darts and spread the rest of the pattern to give much more flare at the bottom and made it into a four-gore A-line.  I’d read a great article in Australian Stitches magazine about skirts and grainlines, so placed the pattern pieces with the grain running up the centre of each piece, which places all the seamlines slightly on the bias.  I think that this has given the completed skirt a much nicer drape.  There is a centre-back zip, and I have used petersham ribbon to face the waistband rather than the facing pieces included with the pattern. 

Now I just hope that it fits!  Although I did check the waist measurement, it looks a bit big to me – maybe the skirt will sit nicely on the lower waist / upper hips.  I suppose that I can alter it though if I need to.

I sewed my finger for the first time ever while inserting the zip – so it’s a good thing that Freya is a “blood” relative!  I managed not to bleed on the fabric.

There is a little bit of the fabric left, which may become incorporated into Sherbet bags for Freya and for me!