Completed: Woven maternity skirt

In the spirit of honesty, I am committed to showing you my failures as well as my successes. And I've had a few successes recently so was due a failure...

I actually made this a while ago. Before my jersey gathered skirt.Well, it was the same day, apart from the hem, which took me a while.

The skirt was loosely based on this one by Shivani, and is made using exactly the same method as I used for my jersey version, but for this I used jersey for the waistband rather than ribbing. This was because I wanted the waistband to be black. I was sceptical it would work, but since Shivani had had some success with a jersey waistband, I thought it was worth a try.

The other changes were to leave a huge hem allowance - 5 inches - because, as per Shivani, I want to be able to use this skirt post-pregnancy; and that I lined it.

The fabric is 100% polyester! I know! Me? With polyester? But I love the print, which reminds me of leopard print without actually being leopard print.

The fabric is really thin, hence lining it. But this was an impulse make from the stash, and I didn't have any spare lining fabric, so I cut it out of something in my refashion pile! This means the lining is less full than the skirt, but that doesn't matter too much.

I bought the polyester in Mandors at the Glasgow Meet Up in February. I'd seen it in Mandors previously but didn't buy it, but it stayed in my mind, so I had to buy it when I went back. The original plan was for a dress. The skirt was to be the polyester print, with a short sleeved black jersey bodice (based on Lady Skater), and a Peter Pan collar made from the same poly print. I still love the idea of that dress, but I faffed and put it off and then it became too late to make a maternity dress. So I decided on the skirt.

I still think the dress would have been nicer, so have left the large hem. This gives me scope to keep it as a skirt, or to make a non-maternity dress at some point in the future. I have fabric leftover to make either a waistband or a collar.

So, back to that honesty thing; this is a very sloppy make. I somehow failed to line up any of my seams, so the waistband has 2 seams which sit in a different place to the one side/back seam on the skirt, which differs again from the side seams on the lining. Once again the jersey waistband is too big, and the fabric was the wrong choice, so the skirt falls down. Plus I somehow really messed up the hemming. Since I started off with a tube, and used the selvedges, so the fabric was definitely straight and on grain, I'm not sure how I ended up with a hem that was fuller that the fabric I was attempting to stitch it on to! I must have somehow twisted it during sewing and as a result, it's a bit very messy. But I just put that bit to the back, so I can't see it when I wear it!!! I should unpick it, but I actually found the hand sewing aspect of this skirt tortuous. I couldn't find a comfy position to sit in, my back was sore, and my tummy was in the way! I therefore am not doing any more hand sewing until this baby is born!

I have worn this skirt once, to work. I put it on again for the photos, and I was reminded of how much it just doesn't work. Not only does it fall down, but it just doesn't sit right. The rubbish hem sewing bothers me, plus, it being polyester, it didn't press that well. Pity because I do love the fabric. Hopefully I can still make it work under another guise, post-maternity.

But in order to finish this post on a positive, how do you like my new necklace? I received a gift voucher from either P or Small Boy for either my birthday or Christmas (neither of us can remember which) for an independent Edinburgh store called Curiouser & Curiouser. This week I finally got round to using it, and I bought this! I love it!

Small Boy thinks it's a snowflake, but it's actually a bee, with some flowers and honeycomb. So cute! And it goes perfectly with this colour!