White "mini" skirt

Months ago, just as the weather was getting warmer and the days longer, I decided I needed a white denim skirt. I don't remember where the idea originated exactly, but it was likely sparked at my favorite daily outfit blog.

So I set out to find a lightweight white denim, and failed. Instead I found a light weight white twill with a window pane pattern weaved right in. With a white underlining it worked.

I scoured my pattern collection just knowing that I had to have something suitable. I could have gone with one of my many pencil skirt patterns, but I really wanted it to look like a denim skirt, with front fly and pockets. I found a pattern in my stash that fit the bill: McCalls 3529.

I made it back in 2002-2003 and wore it to TC's BYU graduation. See?

The problem was that the pattern is now out of print and I was heavier when I first made a skirt from this pattern. I was stuck with sizes 14,16,18. I wear a 12 in patterns, so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to size it down a bit. And it turns out it wasn't difficult at all. I just folded the pattern piece the same amount down the length of each piece. There is probably a better way to size things down, but this worked for me.

As for the lining, rather than making essentially two skirts, I basted the lining fabric to the underside of the skirt fabric and then treated the two fabrics as one. It worked out really well. The lazy person's approach to modesty. :)

Here's the result.

If you can see past the cheesy smile, you will notice that there is no show-through on this white skirt, which is awesome. The underlining works. You may be able to see, if you look at the waist band, the fitting issues. The waist band is straight across, so it doesn't hug my waist as it ought to, but gapes. It's almost like I'm wearing a box. I would not be able to wear this skirt with anything tucked in because of this. It just looks silly. And the skirt requires me to tug and straighten nearly constantly because it rides up all on its own.

Once I finished this skirt and wore it around I remembered that back in 2002 I had the same issues with my brown version of the skirt. Of course, I didn't remember that detail until I finished with this one. Stupid faulty memory.

That being said, the fit issues haven't stopped me from wearing this skirt a lot this summer. It's easy to throw on and the necessary tugging gives me something to do.

The verdict on McCalls 3529? It needs some contouring in the waist and hips to perfect it. I probably wouldn't use this pattern again because although I could make the necessary tweaks, I'm lazy, and would rather use a pattern that already works for me.