Sewing cures what ails you. Or me, anyway.

So, remember I said I was going to finally sew this week?  Yeah, well, first I had family stuff Tuesday and Wednesday.  Then Wednesday night my youngest started puking.  Thursday he ran a fever all day and insisted on being held.  The cuddling was adorable, but every single time I attempted to put him down, I was met with this:

and this

I did manage to work out a sketch of an idea that I had bouncing around in my head, loosely based on skirts from the 1940’s, as inspired by A Lemon Squeezy Home’s Sewing Through the Decades challenge.  But it veered slightly.

(Lisa Marie-please note how messy this sketch is. xoxo)

I also got the fabric all washed and ready to go.  And that’s where it ended because Thursday night whatever my toddler had, hit me.  So Friday, the day set aside for me to finally sew this week, my kids were all healthy but I woke up too sick to do anything but watch Backyardigans and Phineas&Ferb with my three kids cuddled up next to me. 

Thankfully, that prescription was just what I needed, though, as by this afternoon I was feeling well enough to get up and throw this little number together just in time to enter it in Crafterhours Skirt Week.

Though my little one still insisted on my attention.

And yes, I got dressed, put on makeup and even brushed my teeth at 7:00 p.m. just for this awesome photo shoot.

It’s a basic straight skirt, with a button front opening down the length, just off center to the left. 

Two darts in the back help with the fit in the waist and give it some shape.
Also, there is a little kick pleat.

I did a wide placket/hem that goes all the way down the length of the skirt, and across the back hem.  I cut it on the bias to add some detail and to insure that it curved nicely at the knee, as I wanted the opening there to have a fun shape to it

The waist band was also cut on the bias, and closes with another button

Not too bad for a sick day.
      
Here is where I noticed my next door neighbor watching me.  Awkward.

Linking to some of these parties.

I didn’t do a full tutorial, as something like this probably isn’t much help without an actual pattern.  One day I’ll learn how to do those.  Maybe.  Anyway, give me a bit and I'll briefly go over the construction process in another post.  ETA: meh, I just added it to this post, after the jump ("read more").  enjoy.

I used 2 yards of thin whale corduroy from JoAnn.  Washed it.
Cut two panels, 25.5” by 18.5” & 25.5” by 23”, measurements based on my hips and the knee length I wanted

I curved the bottom inside corner of each panel, using a French curve ruler (scored from the local thrift store!)

To make sure they were the same, I layered the two panels before cutting
  

I cut 4 inch strips of the corduroy on the bias, and made some big ol’ bias tape

Then I sewed one edge of the bias tape to the outside edge of the skirt panels, right sides together, from the top, down around the lower curve and to the back edge.

 

Folded the tape in half, bringing one half up just overlapping the seam on the wrong side.  I pressed that in place

 

and stitched in the ditch on the right side, catching the edge of the bias tape on the other side as I sewed

 

Right sides together, I placed the two panels with raw edges of the back (non-curved) side matching.  I marked a 6 inch kick pleat

 

And sewed the two panels together up to the kick pleat marking
Then I folded the open fabric to the back, pressed and sewed in place, bar tacking at the top to secure

 

Measuring my waist, I marked my dart placements at the waist on the back

And sewed two darts
 

I used the same wide bias tape, and the same method, to make a waist band as I did for the hems.

Then I made some button holes along the right hem/placket

Followed by the buttons on the left hem/placket

 

And that was it

And look how happy it makes me!