Finished! The brocade skirt

After posting a pretty excited work in progress picture yesterday, I cleaned the house, made cookies, did some laundry, and then managed, with the help of one sick boy who wanted to lie about (and walk over drawings) and another little boy who was completely into drawing (lego) ninjago murals (next to my sewing corner) to finish off my McCalls 5591 skirt.  Yes, we stayed in our pj's almost all day!  Yay for the first day of school holidays and a Saturday with no committments.  Although I probably didn't need to clean the loungeroom at it will need to be done again today!

I was unusually careful with this skirt and every time the instructions said to baste I basted and even hand sewed the waist band on. I do like a bit of hand sewing so this wasn't really against my nature, but the careful bit absolutely was. So here it is.

I LOVE this skirt.

Of course there are always things I could have done better and this morning, in the cold hard light of day I realised there is a little mistake with the waist band and pleats.  C'est la vie. Overall I am so happy with the zipper and the pleats which are both way outside my comfort zone.  In fact this is probably the first time I've sewn a zipper in and haven't then thrown the whole thing back in the cupboard as a disaster.

The brocade was fun to sew and I love how it sticks out a bit.  I've never sewn a McCalls before and found the sizing a bit strange.  For example a 27" waist is a size 12-14 but with collette patterns it is a size 4???!!   Anyway, I've taken these photos this morning, but I will DEFINITELY be wearing this to work tomorrow and feeling money!

I'm wearing a stripey (what else!) and my good old black patent shoes, but I think this skirt has a few options for accessorising and I have a great pair of blue shoes in the wardrobe that would look great with this skirt for an edgier option.

I will definitely be sewing this again.