Black Zip-up Hoodie

This zip-up hoodie is the kind of wardrobe staple that I wear over and over again. I think that it's easy to avoid making basic clothes when bright fabrics and interesting patterns are there to distract, but I really enjoy making something that I know will be worn again and again. That's not to say I don't enjoy sewing something a bit exciting from time to time though!

Last year, I bought myself a ready-to-wear grey zip-up hoodie. Since then, I've worn it again and again as a way of easily adding an extra layer. Instead of buying a second one, I wanted to try and make one. I chose to make a black one as, like grey, it's a colour that goes with a lot of clothes that I already own and can easily be worn as an outer layer. 

Plain fabrics get a bit of a bad reputation for being 'boring', especially when sewing. Obviously, a plain t-shirt isn't the most exciting of makes but with a design like a hoodie, there are so many surprising ways to add interest. With this hoodie, instead of using the same fabric for the entire thing I've added in ribbing for the cuffs and hem-band as well as tape for the drawstrings. The zip and metal disk also add extra detail, meaning that there are several different textures. I did consider adding a patch to add a bit more colour but decided to keep it simple as I'm not actually trying to make the most interesting hoodie in the world, just a hoodie that I know I'll wear a lot!

When making something simple, I think the most important thing is to use the right fabric. I used this black French Terry fabric from Fabrics for All which is the perfect weight for a hoodie. It's thick enough to add warmth and hold the shape of the hoodie without being bulky. The fabric also feels so nice and has retained its colour well after being pre-washed. But if I was going to give this fabric an award, it would be for how lovely the wrong side of the fabric is! There's nothing worse than a fabric that looks nice on the outside but feels horrible to wear next to the skin. Not only is the wrong side nice and soft, it also looks nice which is so important for this make as I'll be wearing it unzipped most of the time and the inside will be visible.

As strange as it sounds, I think that the cuffs might be my favourite part of this make! One of the main ways in which shop-bought and homemade clothes differ is in having notions that perfectly match the fabric. It's easy to buy a top with a matching zip but much harder to buy a zip in the exact colour of your fabric. This is the same for ribbing. In the past, I've tended to just use the same fabric for the cuffs and hem band of a jumper but I've always wanted to use a matching rib to make it look a bit more professional. I really wanted my hoodie to have this professional feel, and so I ordered this black rib from Fabrics for All to go with the French Terry. I'm so pleased with how it looks - the two fabrics match perfectly! 

There is one final touch that I added to complete this make - a metallic disk. This is something that I completely copied from the RTW hoodie that I already own. I love it when high-street shops add little details like this and also love adding them to my makes. This is a plain silver disk that I sewed on near the side seam, a really quick addition which makes me smile every time I see it.

I wasn't expecting to feel so proud of this make but in really taking my time over the details (especially the topstitching!) I've made something that I really like. It doesn't take a lot to turn a make from something boring into something a lot more special. Knowing that I was going to wear this a lot also made the sewing process a lot more enjoyable as it provided a reason for taking my time over small details.

This fabric was gifted to me by Fabrics for All as part of their blogging team, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Gingham True Bias Lander Pants

Making these trousers was pretty much inevitable. Ever since making my first pair of Lander Pants, I've been wanting to make myself some more. I've also wanted to make another pair of gingham trousers as these ones no longer fit and there was a gingham-trouser gap in my wardrobe! However, I wasn't planning on making a pair of gingham Lander Pants, partly because most of the gingham trousers I've seen are narrow-legged. I also wasn't actively on the lookout for gingham but when I saw this lovely grey checked fabric I immediately wanted to buy it and make a pair of Landers out of it - and so the gingham Lander Pants were born!

My love of the True Bias Lander Pants pattern will never end. After finally making a pair in January out of black denim I realised that this was the dream trouser pattern for me - it's the only trouser pattern with a waistband that actually fits me with minimal alterations. I also love the style of the Landers and whilst the black pair were a little out of my comfort zone when I made them, I have enjoyed wearing them so much. In making a second pair I've also discovered the versatility of the pattern - I'm not sure you could tell that the two pairs are made from the same pattern! In changing the pattern, colour and weight of the fabric, as well as the fly closure, the two pairs of trousers feel so different.

I made my first pair of Landers in black denim to get a really classic look (which I love) which is then contrasted by the exposed button-fly. The majority of the Lander Pants that I've seen are made from plain denim, it's the most obvious fabric to use and it works really well. But what I didn't account for was how well the pattern would work in a lighter weight fabric. 

I picked up this grey gingham at 'Le Marché Saint-Pierre' in Paris. If you've ever been, you'll know it's a kind of crazy fabric super-store with 4 or 5 floors, each floor has a different type of fabric on it. Considering the fact that the shop is a bit haphazard, they actually have a surprisingly good website! I've been there a few times and while it isn't the calmest fabric shopping experience (I'd recommend Frou-Frou a few doors down for that!) they do have a lot of really great fabric. This gingham fabric was actually a 3m coupon - I usually avoid coupons as I never need that much fabric but I loved the gingham so much, and at €12 for 3m there really wasn't much to complain about!

I think I have a pretty good track record with that fabric shop now as not only do I love my new gingham trousers, but the fabrics that I bought there years ago were also made into successful garments. Last time I bought two needlecords, one to make a burgundy Delphine Skirt and one to make a burnt-orange Cleo. I don't wear the Cleo anymore but I did wear it lots when I was younger, and after shortening the Delphine skirt and adding trapezium patch-pockets I still wear that one lots during the summer.

Because the fabric was a coupon I have no idea what the content of it is, but it feels like it's a really nice quality. It's slightly heavier than a cotton but lighter weight than a twill or canvas. At any rate, it's the perfect weight to hold the structure of the Landers and was really easy to press flat. The size of the gingham squares meant that I didn't worry too much about pattern matching but I did try my best for the waistband, fly and pockets. The waistband and fly turned out pretty well, the pockets slightly less as they weren't actually cut straight so pattern matching the entire pocket was impossible!

Like I said, I had no intention of making a pair of gingham Lander Pants. It seemed to me like the majority of gingham trousers are cigarette-pant style and that a wide-leg would look slightly strange in gingham. I'm really not sure what made me think that, but there we go! I do still think that a traditional black-and-white gingham would look best as a narrow-legged pair of trousers but the fabric that I bought feels very different to a gingham like this one. I think it's a combination of the weight, colour and size of the squares that just screamed 'Lander Pants' to me when I saw the fabric and I'm so glad I went with this as I think the fabric and pattern were just perfect together. Because so many gingham fabrics are light cotton it's really nice to have found this one, somehow it feels a bit more grown-up. I also love the shade of grey, again I think it's a combination of the colour and size of the gingham that makes the fabric work so well.

Although I do technically have a pair of gingham trousers now, these weren't what I had in mind when I wanted to make another pair to replace these ones. Of course, this just gives me another excuse to make some more! I really loved these gingham trousers that I made a few years ago but they don't fit me anymore (I made the legs too short). I also didn't choose the best pattern, so I'm looking forward to making another pair of black-and-white gingham trousers which fit much better.

This also will definitely not be the last of the Lander Pants! In making these I've been reminded once again of how much I love the pattern.

I like the style of this pattern a lot, but that's not the main reason why I like it. I mainly like it because it fits me so well. I have long since given up on finding a trouser pattern which fits me perfectly (to be honest, I'm not sure anyone has a pattern that fits without any adjustments) but the Landers fit me by far the best. For me, the problem with trouser fitting is two-fold: I have a sway-back and a large difference between my hips and my waist measurements. This means that with any pair of trousers or a skirt with a waistband, I either can't get the garment over my hips or it bags massively at the waist. Obviously, neither is ideal! I've managed to confront this a fair bit thanks to making my own clothes, but on nearly all patterns I have to take out a wedge of fabric at the centre back seam and at the side-seams on the waistband. It works, but often leaves a bit of excess fabric that bunches up at the centre-back (this happened with this skirt). With the Lander Pants, I found that I didn't have to take any fabric out at the centre back seam, all I needed to do was take a wedge out of the side seams starting at 2.5cm at the top and sewing diagonally to join up with the normal seam allowance at around the base of the pocket. It's amazing! Because the adjustment is made to the side seams you can't see it at all.

I did still have to take a further 4cm out of the waistband on either side (again using a triangle-shaped tapering method) but it's really a minimal adjustment compared to what I've had to do with trouser patterns in the past. Also, this is where the beauty of using a light-weight fabric came in: I made this same adjustment to the waistband on my black denim pair of Landers but the bulk that the denim caused puts me off wearing a top that doesn't cover the waistband with them. With the gingham, the darts that I created pressed perfectly and didn't create any excess bulk.

I love the shaping that the back darts create with this pattern. Just like with my last pair, I omitted the back pockets as I really don't like the shape of the square pockets that come with the pattern.

Onto the most obvious change that I made to the pattern - I added a fly zip! The exposed button-fly is one of the main selling points of the Landers and I love how it looks with the plain black fabric. Obviously, that wouldn't have had the same effect with a busy gingham! I could have still done an exposed button-fly with these and just used matching buttons but I think it would have looked way too busy. Also, I just prefer zip-flies in general. I knew from the start that the gingham fabric would need a zip fly which probably would have led most people to choose a different pattern, but I wanted to make the Landers for their fit and also the style of the pockets and legs. I've sewn a lot of zip-flies before so felt pretty confident in changing the button-fly to a zip-fly (although without instructions and with a pattern drafted for a button-fly that could have been a disaster!). True Bias has actually released a zip expansion pack for the Landers with actual pattern pieces and instructions, but I was able to do it without any additional pattern pieces and for free so I'm not sure how much it adds.

I'm so happy that the fly worked so well, I'm really proud of how neat it is. If I do the zip-fly hack again I'll definitely add on a left fly extension like the Closet Core Patterns Ginger Jeans have - I followed their tutorial for these trousers but my zip isn't set as far in as I'd like it to be because I didn't use a pattern that matched the instructions. It still worked though, so I'm counting this as a big success!

I loved these so much from the minute I finished them and wore them the day after! They are the best fitting pair of trousers that I have ever owned, I actually can't quite believe how comfy they are. I think that's partly to do with making the pattern out of a less rigid fabric. These trousers feel so 'me' and I know I'm going to wear them lots. 

Also, this white t-shirt continues to be one of my most worn makes ever! I basically wear it with every pair of trousers that I own and I love it. I desperately need to make a replacement though because the fabric was horribly cheap and it's pretty much falling apart!

Handmade top with v-notch neck

A few weeks ago I found myself in a bit of a sewing slump. I really wanted to do some sewing but felt like I really didn't need to be making any more clothes and so didn't feel motivated to start a new project. Of course, I probably don't need to sew any more clothes, but sewing is my hobby and it's really important for me to have a sewing project on the go.

As is often the case, this sewing indecision was due to me completely overthinking what I was going to make out of the fabric! I loved this floral fabric the moment I saw it and always planned to make it into a simple t-shirt. However, I really didn't want to make another basic top. Not so much because I have a lot of them (which I do!) but because I wanted a slightly more challenging sewing project. 

The situation somehow magically solved itself with a bit of RTW inspiration. I was looking at some online shops and saw a top with a v-notch neck detail, which I thought would be the perfect detail for a top made out of the floral fabric. It makes the t-shirt a bit more interesting but still lets the fabric do the talking! 

Making simple tops with extra details have always been some of my favourite things to sew. These tops allow me to learn new techniques like ruching or plackets while making something that I know I'll wear. Other ways I've made simple tops a bit more interesting have been to add a patch, a ruffle, buttons and even a zip. I guess I'll be adding a v-notch neck to that list next time!

Once I'd decided on adding in a v-notch neck I (naturally) wanted to make the top straight away. I looked online to see if there were any tutorials for making a v-notch neck but couldn't find anything, so I made up my own technique. I might create my own step-by-step tutorial as it was actually pretty easy to do once I figured out the technique and it's a nice detail that you can add to any jersey top pattern.

The most important thing for me was to keep the neckline really neat, especially at the base of the v where messy stitches would have stood out. I'm really happy with how neat the v-notch is, although such a busy print would be quite forgiving to any mistakes. 

This fabric (which I bought in Tokyo!) was so perfect for the collar as it's a fairly stiff jersey. At least I think it's a jersey, but it has basically no stretch - it just has the feel of a knit fabric. The stiff fabric holds up the collar really well and also made it a lot easier to sew the bias-binding onto, I definitely wouldn't enjoy sewing a v-notch collar onto a stretchy lightweight jersey!

Like I said, I made up my own technique for the collar which worked really well and ended up really neat. I spent quite a long time figuring it out and basically sat on the floor with a few fabric scraps, cutting and pinning a mini version to find out what would work!

The rest of the top is really simple, I used the same pattern I use every time I made a top like this one, which in it's simplest non-hacked form leads to a t-shirt like this stripy one. Because the v-notch is bias-bound for a neat finish, I added bias binding around the entire neckline instead of a neckband like I usually would add to a t-shrit. I wasn't expecting to like the bias-binding so much but I actually really do, I think it's down to the lack of stretch in the fabric that it worked so well.

This lovely top was exactly the kind of sewing project that I needed. It was fun and easy to make and I really enjoyed figuring out how to sew the collar. I'm so pleased to have made something so wearable out of the fabric as I love it so much but it's definitely a little out of my comfort zone! I can't believe that I've almost used all of my fabrics from Tokyo, after this top and my recent polo shirt I only have one more left!

And I love that v-notch detail so much! 

Paper Theory Zadie Jumpsuit

If you'd told me two years ago that I would make a jumpsuit, I probably wouldn't have believed you. I probably wouldn't have believed it a year ago either. But here I am now in a me-made jumpsuit! Over the last few years, I've seen more and more jumpsuits emerging both on the high street and as sewing patterns. At first, I wasn't entirely sure if I liked the style, but as different jumpsuits started appearing I began really liking them. My apprehension about making a jumpsuit wasn't because I didn't like them but because I could never really see myself wearing one. 

Because I started making my own clothes when I was quite young I've often felt that a lot of patterns aren't really aimed at what I want to wear. I've mentioned before that I think there is a gap in the market for teen sewing patterns, but in general, I've been able to overcome this by drafting and hacking patterns. I'm also not overly bothered about wearing clothes 'aimed' at my age. 

Anyway, as I've got older I've felt able to make things that I've always liked but haven't necessarily wanted to wear; jumpsuits fall perfectly into that category. This is also something I've felt with wide-legged trousers like my Lander Pants which I would never have worn a few years ago but now love wearing.

What truly sold me on making a jumpsuit was this pattern, the Paper Theory Zadie Jumpsuit. I know that it's been around for a while and I've certainly liked it for a while but I now felt like I could actually wear it if I made it. I decided that I wanted to make a jumpsuit at the start of this year and have spent a long time looking at patterns - there are a lot of jumpsuit sewing patterns out there! The main thing I wanted was for it to be fitted at the waist, and I like the design feature of the tie. Thanks to the popularity of the Zadie Jumpsuit I knew about this pattern and thought it looked lovely. I was particularly inspired by Kathy and Fiona's versions, especially as I'm fairly short and was worried a jumpsuit might swamp me. 

The only thing that put me off the pattern was that it's PDF only (and I hate PDFs!) but I liked it so much that I bought the pattern anyway. I bought a copyshop version from The Foldline so that I didn't have to print it which is great, except that it's definitely not worth it cost-wise compared to getting a paper pattern and I always trace my patterns anyway.

Again, thanks to the popularity of the Zadie Jumpsuit I knew that there were some common tweaks that most people made to the pattern. I read quite a few blog posts that people had written and a recurring theme was that it came up really big and that the crotch was way too long. I'm not sure I was quite prepared for the extent of this though! 

When I saw the pattern I noticed how long the crotch was but didn't want to take too much length out in case it was part of a design feature. Well, it may be part of the design feature but I find it hard to believe that the extent of the crotch length is intentional! I took out 1" at the lengthen/shorten line on the trousers and decided against taking out more because there would be no solution if the crotch ended up too short. I was slightly amazed at how long it was even after this adjustment once I tried it on though!

After attaching the legs to the bodice I had to take out a further 1.25" by literally cutting fabric off the top of the trousers. This is not ideal as the wrap doesn't quite match up and risks the pockets becoming too small but luckily it worked fine, I don't think it's at all noticeable. The important thing is that the jumpsuit is still entirely wearable and because the pockets are so big I can still easily fit my hands into them. Also, I now know to take out a good 2" when I cut the legs next time!

The other adjustment I made isn't really an adjustment but on as recommended I sized down and made a size 6 which is the smallest size. Again, I was wary about doing this but I'm so glad I did as it fits perfectly. I have quite a large difference in size between my waist and my hips and often find that things are too tight on my hips but this pattern is loose in style and is still nice and roomy.

There are some really interesting details in this pattern, in particular the wrap which comes up from below the waist. I'm not a massive fan of bias binding but I've grown weirdly fond of sewing it recently and enjoyed taking my time to make it really neat. 

I chose to make the 3/4 length wide-legged trousers (a style which I love, evidenced here) and the short sleeves. For the fabric, I knew I wanted to use a plain chambray and this one from Craft Cotton Co is so perfect. One thing I would say is that this pattern is a fabric eater! The fabric I used was relatively narrow so luckily I had 3m because it was almost all used up.

Whilst this jumpsuit is still slightly out of my comfort zone I really love it and it does feel very 'me'. In using a plain fabric and having short sleeves and a shorter leg length it is a lot easier for me to wear and feels really perfect for the summer. I'd really like to make this pattern again, possibly in black and I'd also like to make a short playsuit version.

Oh, and I've been wearing it! Tentatively at first, but I really love it and I feel so good in it. You might have noticed me wearing it in this post, in which I talked about my English Paper Piecing project. I was wearing my jumpsuit on that day and realised it went perfectly with my quilt and so I had to take photos of the two together. I love those photos so much, the plain chambray next to the colourful quilt is such a great combination.

An Update on my English Paper Piecing Quilt

I don't think I've ever been this excited to write a blog post about pieces of fabric glued to paper before!! I am so in love with this English paper piecing project, it just keeps getting better and better. Now that more and more colours are present it's even more gorgeous to look at, I think half the time I spend English paper piecing is actually spent admiring the fabrics!

For a bit of background on this quilt you can read the introductory post I wrote in June 2019. After planning a large EPP project for a while, I finally decided on the design and fabrics for this quilt in around January 2019. My mum named it 'The Soothing Quilt' as the project is intended to provide a way to soothe or relax, which is exactly what EPP is for me. 

This quilt is all about the sewing process rather than the actual finished result, so if this seems like a never-ending project which will take forever to complete - that's the point! Having said that, part of me can't wait to finish it to see what it looks like when it's completed.

Since introducing the quilt on my blog I've written two posts about its progress: one in August 2019 and one in February 2020. I can't believe how much it keeps changing and I love having the photos to look back at and see what it looked like before certain colours were added on. I had been sharing an update every time two additional rows of blocks were added, but because it's a square the number of blocks to add on with each row increases and so the time taken to sew them on increases too! Also, I love how it looks after my latest row so much that I wanted to take photos before it changed again. 

I have definitely been working on this quilt more often during lockdown, it really has been the perfect project to fill some very long days! I've also become really eager to add on more colours, even though I know it will pay off in the end with the gradient part of me still wanted to add in more colours at an earlier stage!

The best part of this quilt has definitely been adding the pinks to it. I love how the different colours begin to creep in a little at a time! When I first started adding the yellows I couldn't wait to change the blues and purples which I'd become bored of. But now, I've now become bored of sewing with yellow and want to go back to purple and blue again! I have wanted to add the pink in for so long and I can't wait for the next row which has even more pinks and darker purples in it. Cutting the fabric is kind of strange because I've almost run out of fabric for some of the colours but with others, I haven't even cut into the fabric yet! I think after the next row every fabric will have been used so I'm looking forward to seeing that.

It was so much fun taking these photos because I usually have the quilt folded up and don't see it in all of its glory. This photo is definitely my favourite - you can see the colour gradient for the first time! The quilt is so big now (I just ran upstairs to measure it and it's 1.25m x 1.25m) it's a bit of a struggle to sew the blocks onto it! 

Handmade Polo Shirt with embroidered patch

Much like my zip-neck Freya top, this make was something that I have had planned since I bought the fabric but it's taken me a while to actually make it. I knew as soon as I saw this fabric that I wanted to buy it, it was just too cool to pass over. I think it's Airtex, something that I've never seen for sale before. I also loved the colour so much and I really wanted to make a polo shirt out of it.

I'm still really enjoying getting through the fabrics that I bought from Tomato in Tokyo, they're all fabrics that, almost a year later, I wouldn't hesitate to buy again. A quick update on where I am in terms of sewing up those fabrics: I've made a grey Linden, a purple Linden and a red turtleneck top from the ribbed fabrics, a pair of Anima Pants and a top for my mum from the checked fabrics, the top I'm sharing today from the blue Airtex fabric and then the only two fabrics left to be made into something are a pink jersey and a floral fabric. 

These makes are some of my absolute favourites, they're all things that I spent a long time planning to make something that I will wear again and again from the gorgeous fabrics.

Like I said, I've had this planned ever since I bought the fabric. I always knew I'd make it at some point so wasn't too worried about having the fabric lying around for a while. My main concern for this top was having no idea how to approach making a polo shirt. I didn't want to buy a pattern because the type of shirt I had in mind was quite specific. Also, most polo shirt patterns available are designed for men. I actually bought myself a polo shirt in February and in the end was able to use this as a base to create a pattern to make this one - I'm really not sure what I would have done had I not bought one though because I don't think I could have drafted this from scratch!

Although the construction of the shirt was fairly easy and I knew the order in which to do all the steps, the placket was pretty difficult. I googled lots of different placket tutorials but none of them looked like the shirt that I was trying to copy. You can see that there isn't a seam on the right-hand side of the placket which I really wanted to achieve for the more fluid look. All the tutorials I could find had a seam added in there (you can see the difference if you look closely at this placket), so I basically had to make it up as I went along using the RTW shirt to try and figure it out.

I'm so happy it worked in the end but there was a moment where I thought it was a complete disaster and I did also have to do a bit of hand sewing to close up a slit I cut!

The best part of this shirt is, without a doubt, the little fish embroidered patch that I added on! I really love embroidered patches and have seen quite a few RTW tops with them added on recently. I don't add them to my makes very often but I thought this shirt needed one as the finishing touch. I bought the patch in Japan at the start of our holiday before I bought the fabric, but as soon as I planned this shirt I knew that the fish was perfect for it. It's also nice to have put it on something rather than just keeping it in a drawer for years which is what sometimes happens! I definitely need to add patches to my clothes more often, I think the only time I've done it previously was with this top.

I enjoyed a very successful button shopping trip a few weeks ago when my local craft shop reopened (it's the small things in life!) when I bought the buttons for my Shelby Dress. I wasn't intending to buy buttons for this shirt as I was going to just use white shirt buttons but I saw these and really loved them. They were just so perfect for this top, and luckily also ended up being the perfect colour to match the fabric. I didn't have a fabric sample with me when I bought them so it was a bit of a gamble but luckily they were just right.

You might notice that the buttonholes aren't sewn in a matching thread colour - I actually did the first one in a matching thread that I found in my sewing box, but the thread that I had was really old, too thick, there wasn't enough of it and the buttonhole looked so awful that I unpicked it. I wasn't sure which colour to use and tentatively chose a pale grey thread but I actually love it! I'm really proud of how neat these buttonholes are and I also think that the grey looks so good with the pale blue.

To make this shirt extra-nice, I made a 1cm wide rouleau loop and hand sewed it along the inside of the collar. It took a long time but makes it so nice, especially as I wasn't happy with the messy finish inside once I sewed the collar, you could just about see the unfinished seams when the shirt was on.

There was a moment when I really regretted not making this shirt long-sleeved. The reason I didn't was that the shirt I already own has long sleeves and I didn't want the two shirts to be too similar. I was worried that the short sleeve would end up looking strange but I think it's worked really well. I turned up the fabric at the hem to create a cuff which I like a lot.

I'm really happy with this shirt and I love that I've made something really nice out of the fabric. This shirt really came together thanks to the finishing touches - the buttons, the patch, the cuffs. I'm also really pleased to have learnt a new skill of making a shirt with a collar and placket, although next time I think I'll use a pattern! In fact, having made my dad a shirt over three years ago maybe I should make him a polo shirt next!

Handmade Floral Viscose Skirt with Split

This make is very much all about the fabric! Since making my floral viscose Shelby Dress I have been slightly obsessed with viscose. It's just the perfect fabric for summer, especially for summer skirts and dresses as it has such a lovely drape to it. I really love the current trend for ditsy floral viscose fabrics and was on the hunt for one to make myself a skirt. 

I found the perfect fabric at Fabrics For All who have a wonderful selection of viscose fabrics, and while I hesitated over which one to get I kept coming back to this one.

There are a lot of floral viscose fabrics around at the moment but what I love about this one is that it's slightly different from the classic white on navy/black background. I wouldn't usually choose a green fabric but somehow this colour just works so well with the white petals and splashes of pink. 

I've had the idea for this skirt in my head for a while so I knew exactly what to make out of the fabric when it arrived. This is a style which is a bit out of my comfort zone as I tend to stick to above-the-knee skirts, but I kept seeing skirts like this one on the high street and really loving them. The common theme seemed to be a below-the-knee length (so not quite midi-length) with a split up the side. My favourite RTW skirt that I found which matches this design is this one, but why buy it when you can make it yourself?!

I spent a really long time (as in, way too long!) deciding on the exact style of this skirt. I've seen so many variations with elastic waists, with or without splits, the split in the side-seam, the skirt flaring out...etc that it was hard to choose the exact features that I wanted to include. I decided that I wanted the skirt to have a zip rather than an elasticated waist and for the slit to be on the 3/4 of the way across the front skirt rather than in the side seam. I spent a long time deciding whether or not to include a panel on both sides of the centre front but eventually decided to only have an extra panel on the side with the slit. I'm so pleased I made that decision as it makes the front a lot smoother.

I was going to draft the pattern myself by creating a kind of trapezium shape that came in at the waist. Then, on a genius (if I may say so myself!) spur of the moment idea, I realised that I could use the skirt of my prom dress pattern to make it! To make my prom dress I used Simplicity 8330. Looking at that pattern you can see that the skirt is quite different from the skirt that I've made here. It was, however, the perfect base pattern to hack. It's a fitted skirt with darts at the back and front and on top of that, I'd already hacked it to add in a split when I made my prom dress.

The only difference between this skirt and the skirt of my prom dress is that this one doesn't have that extra panel in the front (it also has the zip in the side-seam but that's not a very obvious difference). I honestly confused myself a fair bit when cutting out the front pattern pieces as it involved some fairly inaccurate pinning of pattern pieces on top of each other and fabric flipping, but the point is that the pattern was perfect in the end!

In order to get the fitted look that I wanted I chose to finish the skirt with an invisible zip which I put into the side-seam. I'm pretty pleased with how invisible it is! I chose this dark grey zip which I think goes nicely with the fabric. To avoid breaking up the print I cut the back skirt pieces on the fold and inserted the zip in the side seam rather than the centre back.

I'm especially pleased with the fit that I managed to achieve on this skirt, mainly thanks to the darts. The only problem with a skirt like this one is that there is no give in it, meaning that once zipped up it has to fit perfectly at the waist. I was nervous about making it too small and actually ended up making it a little bit big, so had to go back and take it in by 2cm at the side seam. It's still a little loose but that's definitely preferable to it being too tight!

I finished the waist with a bias binding that I folded over and topstitched down. It's such a lovely neat finish and gives the skirt a special touch.

I really love this skirt and I'm also really proud of how well it fits. It turned out exactly as I hoped it would and I can't wait to wear it when the weather warms up a bit. 

This fabric was gifted to me by Fabrics For All as part of their blogging team, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.