Navy Pleated Skirt

I have been a terrible blogger.

Seriously, I pretty much disappeared all summer (my mental health was keeping me from sewing much) and then I got very busy with school and just haven't had time to post anything. 

Anyhow.

I started this skirt back in June (or possibly July) but I had the worst luck with it and didn't finish it until early September.  First I pressed open a seam and discovered that the fabric scorches easily, which required a trip to Joann's to replace the fabric.  I then proceded to run out of lining fabric, thread, and hooks & eyes, and then break my sewing machine, so time just got away from me.

Now not only is it finished, but I've also taken pictures of it.

My only real complaint is that I used too light of an interfacing on the wasitband and so it creases annoyingly, like so:

The waistband is only a minor annoyance though, and all the other great details make up for it.  The tabs at the side seams and cute little gold bows weren't really visible in the first picture, so here's a detail shot:

The skirt fastens on either side with a crazy complicated system of two sets of hooks & eyes and three sets of snaps on each side.  There's a pocket on each side, but it isn't sewn at the top so it can sort of open out to get the skirt on and off (I hope that made sense!). The bow buttons are purely decorative.  

(Hooks & eyes, and first set of snaps.)

(Pocket, and second set of snaps.  The third set isn't visible, but you can see the stitching for one of them by the tip of my finger.)

That's enough about fasteners; let's talk about lining.  The lining is made of solid blue cotton, and gathered instead of pleated to add a little bit of body to the skirt.  (We don't want any limp skirts here, thank you very much!) I discovered that my sewing machine came with a blind hem foot (who knew?) so for the sake of science I blind-hemmed the lining, as opposed to the fashion fabric which is hand-hemmed.

The side seams on the two layers are sewn separately with French seams, and the pocket goes through both layers, which made things a little tricky. I ended up taking out quite a bit of stitching and redoing it by hand.

(French seams, ugly thread tails, and a bit of the pocket seam allowance.)

I love the pockets because they are very deep, and I finished the edges with an overlock stitch, which was lots of fun (the overlock foot was another foot I didn't know I had.) Here's the skirt inside-out, with the pocket visible:

(Lo and behold, 'tis the third set of snaps!)

I know most of my pictures and explanations were as clear as mud, but jut trust me that the skirt looks amazing in person (and even better when it isn't all wrinkled!)  I hope to get some pictures of me wearing it soon.