The world's quickest skirt

Normal life got in the way of sewing yesterday, and I didn't get to sit down at my desk until just before 9pm.  The beautiful Clothkits needlecord skirt was still sitting in pieces on my ironing board and I didn't have the energy to deal with zips and facings at that time in the evening.  So completely on the spur of the moment, and with that pile of jersey fabrics from Fabrics Galore still sitting enticingly in a soft pile by my sewing machine I decided I could still make myself a skirt - but a simple jersey one instead.

It is based very loosely on one in the Ottobre Women edition for spring 2010, but in the end heavily modified.  Here's what I did:

• I measured from my waist down to where I wanted the skirt to fall (just fractionally above my knees), and added on 6cm for waistband and hem.  That came to 66cm.
• I cut a piece of jersey 66cm long, across the full width of the fabric, from selvedge to selvedge.
• I stitched the two selvedges of the fabric, right sides together, to create a tube.
• I pressed down 1.5cm towards the wrong side of the fabric at the top of the skirt, and then folded down a further 2.5cm. 
• I stitched down the bottom of this fold (leaving a small gap of about 4cm) to create a channel at the top of the skirt and then threaded through some wide elastic (1.5cm wide), before stitching the elastic together and closing the gap in the channel.
• I pressed under 2cm at the bottom of the skirt and gave it a lettuce hem (again using the Oliver + S tutorial you can find here as I did with my t-shirt the day before).

I remembered to turn off the iron and then went to bed.  The time was about 10:30, so the whole thing had taken barely an hour and a half including measuring, cutting, sewing and finishing.

This morning I took some photos, and was reminded again - as I balanced precariously on a chair in front of the mantelpiece - that I really need to get a full-length mirror.

This sort of simple, elasticated skirt usually only looks good on young girls, and is unflattering for adults with hips and waists because it bunches up and gives a plump, rather frumpy, matronly look.  And that's not a look that I would seek out.  However, the drape in jersey means that it falls beautifully and will skim the waist and hips rather than add (more) bulk where you don't want it.  I hope these photos show that quick, simple skirts are entirely possible for adults - as long as you sew them from jersey.

I am very pleased, and shall now turn off the computer and return to the Clothkits skirt.  Possibly more to show-and-tell tomorrow!