Simplicity 2451 - I made a skirt!

In all its wrinkly glory

In the spirit of having some actual sewing on my blog before going to the Birmingham sewists' meet-up next weekend, here is my Simplicity 2451. I first mentioned it way back in October, and it's been almost done for quite a while. Since getting my sewing machine I've zig-zagged some seam allowances, and today I finally took some photos.
Please excuse the wrinkles - it had been through a whole day at work. And of course this is just an accurate representation of the fabric...

I made view D, the short one, and it really is short. I made the biggest size as I was worried about making it too small but this wasn't the right thing to do - what should be the waistband sits on my hips. At least this means it hits just above the knees rather than being a crotch-grazing super-mini... If it had turned out like that I don't think it would have got half the wear it has, so it's not all bad.
Since this was intended to be a wearable muslin I made it out of a remnant of bottle green sheeting from John Lewis and used a scrap of amazing tropical fabric inherited from my Grandma for the pocket and back waistband facings. Sadly I didn't have enough for the front waistband facing too.

I'm not sure what you call this type of pocket but I like it. Also in this photo you can (not) see where I've stitched-in-the-ditch. I was a) apprehensive about doing this b) had a lot of spare car journey time and c) couldn't be bothered to change the thread in my Mum's sewing machine, so I did this bit by hand. It looks somewhat rough on the inside, but that's only for me to look at so it's ok. In future versions I'll conquer machine ditch-stitching - now I know how simple my machine is to thread I'm more likely to bother doing it :)

Changing feet was also beyond me (and I'm not sure Mum has a zip foot - her machine is a lovely old 70s Bernina so it probably wouldn't be cheap). I think I did a pretty good job for my first lapped zip. It's slightly wonky at the waistband but it's good enough for me!

The inside is definitely not glorious. I didn't really put much thought into seam finishing 'til I was mostly done. Then I naively thought zig-zagging with my new machine would be a good way to neaten things. Ha. Wobbling and puckers everywhere - my flatmate was quite alarmed at the outbursts this caused. I might go back and apply the pinking shears one day, if I can face it.
I think future versions will feature lining to hide the insides and prevent sticking when wearing tights (i.e. always).

There's that awesome back facing and the somewhat fudged waistband finish. You can also see here that I used white for the majority of the stitching (see laziness, above) which means that you can see the darts stretching out. Not attractive.

The main fabric cost £2.57, and the zip maybe a couple of pounds. Everything else came from my stash or Mum's.Having made this once and found it pretty straight forward I'm sure there will be future versions. I'd like to try to move the zip to a side seam, add a lining, use a thicker fabric, and make things generally a bit straighter and neater.
I'm fighting my perfectionist instincts but I know that for a first skirt I've done a pretty reasonable job :)