A High Low Skirt

I'm greatly influenced by what I see on the streets where I work.  There's probably so much inspiration because I work near the garment district and walk through the district every evening on the way to the Port Authority. 

This week's inspiration was an amazing high-low skirt on a pretty young thing that was walking towards me. Her high-low was so obviously high as in thigh length which made the low so dramatic because it was ankle length. Now I knew I couldn't pull that look off but I could a regular high low skirt.

I came home that Thursday evening aching for one, especially since I've worn the pink version of Simplicity 1621 to death because it's so comfortable...the most comfortable thing I've made this summer! I knew I should have looked for a pattern for this skirt but Simplicity 1621 was still on my mind. It was really easy to adjust the dress pattern to make a skirt from it.

Here's what I did ~

1. Folded both the dress front and back at the waistline markings on the skirt.
2. Laid the pattern pieces down on the fabric and added 1" to the top of the
    pieces by marking with chalk.
3. Sewed the front and pieces together and pressed the seams open.
4. Added 2" elastic to the waistline.

Sewing order ~

• measured the elastic around my waist, pulled and cut it 3" shorter than my waistline
• Sewed a 1/2" seam in the back to work with the elastic in the round
• Placed pins at the 4 edges of the elastic
• Elastic was pinned to the skirt at the four points
• Then stitched to the skirt by slowly sewing and stretching the elastic and fabric to match.
• After the first row of stitching, I stitched it again all the way around to insure that the stitching would hold.
• Pressed the gathers flat
• Stitched it down

I turned up 1/2" hem and stitched it down. The skirt was done. I used a lightweight linen that I bought from Marcy Tilton's booth at Expo in March. I'm determined to use as much of that fabric purchase as possible this year. The 2" elastic for the waistband was in the collection. I have it in white and black. It was bought a couple of years ago to make skirts like this.

A few pictures ~

...and worn with a RTW yellow sweater...

Conclusion ~

I couldn't believe that the skirt made up so quick and easy! It's nice to have a trendy, yet age and work appropriate piece. If you want to make one of your own and don't have Simplicity 1621, try one of these...

This will go into rotation this week cause it's still hot here!

...as always more later!