Mindi Skirt Muslin

This is only a muslin, made from the tail end of the fabric I used for my jeans and some left over quilting cotton.  Due to fabric constraints I had to cut the main skirt at the mini length, could only cut one waistband from the main fabric and had no room to cut out the pockets.  Never one to be defeated, I dug around in the quilting fabric stash and found the spotted fabric, which I block fused with cotton interlining to give it a similar hand to the twill, then cut the zipper facing, inner waistband and pockets from the spotted fabric.  I then cut several "four inch deep by width of pattern hem" pieces of the twill and sewed them to the bottom of the skirt to lengthen it to a point that was more suited to my age and preferences.  Using the black and white spotted fabric also allowed me to use up three rather clunky, double ended white plastic zips that had come in a pack of several for £1 from Abhakhan. 

The pattern, is Style Arc's Mindi and as always with Style Arc, is very well drafted and fits me with minimal alterations.   Its a really fun style and the styling suggestion is to wear it with the Ziggi Bike jacket... which I am planning to sew reasonably soon... its got to the top of the tracing pile but not moved much further yet, though I have three potential fabrics set aside for it. 

   This is the skirt straight from the packet, no fit alterations at all.  As you can see, it fits me somewhat better than it fits Twiggy since I've put on weight but she, of course, has not.  It seems I need to exercise more and eat less cake.  The waistband needs a teensy bit of a dart out of it at the back to make the skirt fit perfectly, but that's not much of an alteration really and it can be worn quite happily as it is. 

I must admit, I didn't plan for this to be a muslin.  I thought it would be a cute and wearable skirt.  However, I don't like the spotted fabric as much as I thought I would, the pockets went  wrong, the front bands aren't very neatly done and the front zipper is a bit of a disaster.  I have limited experience with inserting open end zippers and do find them a challenge... one that I need more practice with.  But hey, this was practice too and the finished result is a bit neater than my last effort so improvement is happening... just not as fast as I'd like it to.   The zipper instructions were reasonably easy to follow though and since I really like the skirt style (if not this particular iteration) some more versions should give me the practice I clearly need.  And I suppose using a contrasting, very large zipper in an application that always causes me concern probably wasn't the best idea I've ever had.  

Taking my lead from other reviewers on Pattern Review, I pinned the upper and lower portion of my pocket pieces together and cut the pocket in one piece then marked the zipper placement, and made a window to put my zipper into.  I used a strip of the cotton interlining, sewing it on with sticky side up so that when I cut the window open, and folded my interlining  to the back I could stick it down with the iron, and get a neat opening.  A trick that worked really well.  What didn't work so well was my measuring of the gap.  The zippers have really heavy, large pulls.  I measured the width of the pull and decided it was necessary to have a gap as wide as that, and not just as wide as the zipper teeth.  In my head this made sense.  When I put my zippers into the gaps.... it... erm.... didn't.  So a fair bit of my zipper tape is showing along with the teeth.  Ooops.  Anyway, I used my trusty Steam A Seam to stick the zippers in so I didn't have to pin them and thus they would not buckle or move when sew permanently.  Once the pockets were completed and pinned to the skirt I stood back to admire them and realised that one of my zippers was the wrong way round and zipped upwards not downwards.     That aside, the whole operation was easy, painless and, had I concentrated properly, would no doubt have produced a nice looking pocket that was also easy to get into.

Construction of the main skirt was super simple even allowing for the extra step involved in adding the extra strips to the hem and there is lovely shaping in the back seams that is really flattering.  My waistband is lined in spotted fabric and the facing is spotted as well.