Skirting the heat

Spring is an awkward time for the library - the building, not the organization.  On days when the temperature spikes into the high 70s and low 80s, we don't have air conditioning yet.  A lot of the buildings on campus have systems that can do both heating and cooling, but they can't quickly switch back and forth.  So when we're still expecting some weeks where the temperature is going to hover around 60, they just turn the blowers on and pull in the cooler night air.  It keeps us from insane temperatures, but it's still 81.5 in my office.

I had a meeting across campus yesterday, and as I was walking back, I decided I needed to make a skirt.  I have a handful of skirts, but several of them were bought when I was ten pounds lighter, so I really only have one that fits.

My first concern was fabric; I wasn't sure what I had enough of that

1. was thick enough not to be revealing
2. didn't look like curtain fabric
3. would go with the shirts I would be wearing.

After going through my small stash of material, I settled on a navy blue material with little white-outlined cats on it.  It's one of the several fabrics my mom has given me, and I think I had about four yards of it.  (It's a little darker than the pictures suggest due to the effect of the flash.)

Next consideration:  I don't have a skirt pattern that doesn't require elastic for the waist.  I have no elastic in my sewing supplies stash, at least not waist-band elastic.  Patternless, gathered waist skirt it was!

That meant a zipper.  Crap.  I have zippers, but I had never actually sewn one with a machine into a garment.  I apparently used the one 4" navy zipper I had, so I had to go with a black one, which I had about a half dozen of.

I guestimated a length for the skirt based on my natural waist to land below the knees; I estimated long just in case, and I ended up cutting about 2" off the bottom before hemming it.  First step then:  cutting two rectangles that were basically selvage to selvage so I wouldn't have to finish the seams.

Okay, okay.  The real first step was moving my planters off the dining room table so I had room to work.  The legumes are, as usual, growing fast.

Beans, peas, tomatoes & peppers, brassicas

Back to the skirt!  I sewed one seam together, then put in two loose running stitches to gather the waist.  Other than the little bit of gathering I did for Practice Dress's sleeves, I hadn't done gathering of any serious length since... junior high?  When did I make the sundress for 4-H?  Yeah, that long.  It was at that point I realized that, hey, I needed to cut a waistband.  Ahem.

So I cut a strip about 5" wide, selvage to selvage, trimmed it down to just below my waist's length +1", hemmed over a half inch on each end because of how I had my order of operations in my head (I could have waited if I finished the waist after the second side seam and the zipper), and then gathered and pinned to fit it.  After attaching it, I ironed it over to a 1" band, trimmed the inside to 1 1/2", pinned under 1/2", and stitched it down so that I had a 1/8" below/7/8" above the stitches waistband.

Waistband

Once I had the waist finished, I stitched up the side seam to the point I planned to start the zipper and tried it on to make sure I'd gotten the waist right.  (It fit, yay!)  Then I got to put the zipper in.  I only had to rip it out once, after misinterpreting the directions on the zipper package.  I'd really have preferred a longer zipper, but 4" leftovers from Christmas was all I had.  In the end it turned out mostly okay:

Zipper and a hook & eye side closure

Once the zipper was done and I'd added the hook & eye, all I had left to do was hem it.  I settled on 28", pinned that, ironed it, then trimmed again to about 1 1/2" and pinned it down to 1" to stitch the hem.

1" hem

And I have a skirt!

I threw it in the wash this morning and hung it out on the line, so I should be able to wear it tomorrow, when it's supposed to be around 80 outside.  Hopefully between the fan and my iced tea maker I won't be too much of a puddle.