A friend of mine from work asked whether I'd make a couple of basic summer skirts for her.  Now, skirts are my favourite thing in the whole wide world to sew, I just love the embellishment opportunities they present, so I jumped at the chance.  (Ever since my horrific accident almost 3 years ago I haven't worn a skirt.)  Another plus with Jane is that she's tall and slim and a knee-length A-line skirt shows off her fantastic pins to advantage.

I chose a basic McCalls pattern I had in my stash, pattern #3341 and chopped off the top 7cm of the pattern because this is where Jane wears the "waist" of her skirts.  This made the darts pretty short and sharp but I went with it and when I tried the first skirt on her it fit perfectly - not one alteration!

I ended up making 3 skirts within the budget Jane had given me plus one from leftover scraps of Amy Butler fabric that I just couldn't bring myself to throw out.

Skirt 1 is a cute pink number made from Japan cotton, which has a lovely heavy drape to it.  This was the test skirt and seemed a bit short on Jane so I added a self-fabric band at the hemline and edged it with braid as a feature.  The other colours in the fabric - red, sky blue, yellow and grey - are some of Jane's favourites so she shouldn't have any problems finding a t-shirt to go with it.

This close-up of the band shows the braid detail and my Hells Bells label.  I topstitched around the label using a 90 needle so that it would punch a hole big enough for the thicker topstitching thread to go through.

Skirt 2 is made from an embroidered cotton voile.  The fabric is lovely and light but a bit thin for a skirt so I lined it in rayon, nice and natural for our hot summers here.  When I was finished I thought the skirt looked a little plain so I crocheted up some colourful doilies and scattered them at random down one side.

Here is a close-up showing the doily detail.  I really like the look of crafty embellishments added to a garment and I was pleased with how this turned out.

Skirt 3 is made from a stretch cotton.  I added a self-tie belt in the same fabric and a fabric rose, also in the same fabric using this tutorial by Tristan.  A couple of things I would add, though, such as you need quite a long length of fabric, at least 75cm, to make a decent size rose and I would overlock the raw edges for a neater back.

In this close up of the flower detail you can also see the pintuck detail that I sewed instead of sewing the front darts.

Skirt 4, as I mentioned before, is made from scraps of Amy Butler fabric.  I love the quality and depth of pattern in her fabrics, perfect for a summer skirt.  I hemmed the lower edge of the skirt with white bias binding and added a Hells Bells label.

You can see the hook and eye closure in this close-up of the back of the skirt here and a close-up of the invisible zipper below that.  I must admit I do like the look of an invisible zip!

Wish I could slip on a nice cool cotton skirt as I speak, humidity here's about 90% and has been all day, must be a thunderstorm coming soon...