0 The Circle Skirt of Procrastination

It's finally finished!  I had reaaally hoped to finish this sooner.  Yikes, so many delays!  At least it's still cold enough to wear it!  (I SUPPOSE that's a good thing- I do hate the cold though).

It's a wool blend so it's quite warm, and there's loads of fabric to wrap me up :)

Hmm, look like I've got a headache here, lol!  Just adjusting my hair!

I made the skirt from Casey's circle skirt sew along.  I have to say, the instructions were a little hard to understand in places.  I almost drafted a waistband with zero ease since she didn't mention adding ease in her drafting post!  That would have been embarrassing!  I used 1.5" of ease in the waistband.
I was inspired by Casey and Lauren's very cute versions.  But I'm not sure I wear it so well.  It's a lot of fabric, that's for sure!

My husband had some feedback during construction:
Husband:  Your skirt is very... voluminous.
Me:  Yeah, it sure is.
Husband:  It gives you weird proportions.  It makes..
Me:  ...my butt look big?
Husband:  Yeah.
I can always trust that one for honest opinions, lol.  Luckily, he liked it once it had been hemmed.  Hemming makes a huge difference!
Speaking of which, hemming took me FOREVER.  There is a lot of hem in this thing- it took me days of work!

First of all, I let it hang for the bias to drop.  And it did, a lot!  It was very uneven.  I hemmed it by hanging it on my dress form and marking evenly around.  I didn't want my poor husband to have to do it for me!  Of course I had to sort out a stand for my dress form first and that is another story altogether...another reason this skirt took forever.

For the hem finish, I decided to try out a bias tape faced hem.  This way seemed easier than the narrow hem- less laborious in terms of measuring, pressing, and stitching.  I stitched the the top of the bias tape down by hand for invisibility.  Yes, it took ages!  But I'm pleased with the results :)  I really like the bias tape hem and would definitely do it again!

Here's me holding it up while wearing it.

I did a machine rolled hem like Casey's sewalong described for the lining.  Geez, what a nightmare.  It's not the best, so no close up pic!  Haha :)  It was rather dodgy.

To show off hem in action:  Mandatory twirling pic!

This skirt is quite dramatic but I think I can get with it.  Styling it is all about getting the proportions right.  Maybe it makes my butt look big, but it does work to make the waist look nice and small!
I think it looks better with the top over it, rather than tucked in. Somehow it's more balanced.  I think it would be nice tucked in if I had a cardigan over the top to break it up though.

Maybe a yoke waistband like New Look 6594 would balance a circle skirt better.  Hmm, worth an experiment sometime....?  Or perhaps go with a half circle skirt next time...?

I learned a few new things-  Since it has no side seams at all, the zipper had to be made with a slash insertion (part of the sew along here).
Guys, don't face wool with wool when it comes to this.  It looks bad.  Just bad. 

my thick and chunky "duck lips" zipper

I picked it out (which was really freaky with a seam allowance of 2mm), and faced it with the lining fabric this time.

A lot less fat!

Muuuch better.  In hindsight, I should have hand picked it for more invisibility!

Shot of the back because why not.

I notice a lot of people with crazy contrast linings on their makes, but not me!  Good ol' grey on grey.

And that's my skirt! :)