Lazy Mother Skirt

Even though I love sewing, sometimes I find it hard to get the motivation together to start making something. So when the mood finds me then I make the most of it and sew as fast as I can.

After gaining yet more inspiration from Pinterest, the mere sight of these pleats was enough to set me off on a mission to make a skirt for my daughter. First stop fabric, and faced with the whole inventory of M is for make, my daughter chose this lovely Firefly print.

Win for me because it is cheap (I was expecting her to go for some of this) but also a surprise because it is red (with pink of course) and she never goes for red. Bring on the revolution I say.

I was limited by the fact I decided to make this skirt from 2 fat quarters so giving me a fixed width. I measured her waist added an inch for ease and got started. I decided to line the pleats up carefully with the pattern, because (a) I am a perfectionist and (b) it looked nice. So it meant a fair bit of pleating, measuring, realising it was too small, and then re-pleating. I got there in the end. I'd love to give you a tutorial on it, but it was just a case of hit and miss.

I then thought about lining with this, and putting a zip in, but being a lazy mother I decided I couldn't be bothered and went for an elasticated waistband instead. They are much easier to put on after all. This meant adding in a bit more ease so that the skirt would go over the hips. Of course I added in far too much and when the skirt was all put together it was about 2 inches too big around the waist. I have no idea how that happened. So I had to take a couple of pleats out, and re-do the side seam making the skirt feel rather less like a lazy-mother-skirt and more like a spend-hours-at-your-sewing-machine-mother kind of skirt.

Add to this the decision I had made to finish the skirt first thing in the morning so that she could wear it that day when her friend was due in less than an hour and we were both in our pj's with unbrushed teeth and bird's nest hair.

I got there in the end and am pleased with the result.

The pleats run into the waist band which I like, I think maybe next time I would prefer a bit more fullness and got the whole hog and use 3 fat quarters and 2 side seams instead of 1. I would like to make her a gathered skirt next time as these are especially popular due to their whirling qualities. They are however more fabric hungry.

My daughter likes it though, it's nice to see her in bolder colours. She obligingly did some ballet in the garden for me.

So perhaps not such a lazy mother after all. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see someone wearing something you have made, and for kids, summer is a great time to knock up a few dresses and skirts, I hope I have inspired you to get sewing too.