Amanda vs Gingham Ginger Skirt

After enduring inglorious defeat at the hands of my nemesis Beignet I thought that returning to my sassy A-line skirt roots would be the ticket.

Enter Ginger.

She’s a lovely, clean A-line with a zesty high waist that can feature three different waistbands. As someone who has not rocked high-waisted before (we’re so not counting the three failed Beignets) I went with the simple band. I’m also aiming to keep up with the Sew Weekly challenge which this week has accessories as a starting point. Cue my ruby red glitter ballet flats paired with some giant blue checks and magic will happen.

It started of innocuously enough. I read some blogs on check matching, did a little research and carefully lined everything up. My first attempt at check matching went well.Old

And then disaster struck. The Wicked Witch of the Check raised her cranky head. My checks for the front matched perfectly. Awe inspiring. But whenever I tried to match the back and side seams things went wrong. Two hours and much googling later not even my Scarecrow brain could sort this out. I had twisted and turned the pattern pieces in every direction and was about ready to eat some delicious cake in rage. Instead I sucked it up (there was no cake to be found anyway) and decided to have the front and rear checks match and the side seams be slanty-shanty.

And boy do those front and rear seams match. I pinned everything carefully and sewed things an inch at a time, checked, sewed some more. My new and improved invisible zip seams rocked out and resulted in the checks lining up at the back as well. Huzzah!

The terribad side seams were eating at me. How could I move past this? And then I had a crazy idea. Time to make an epic side stripe like tuxedo pants to break the checks up. I rummaged in the smooshed fabric shelves and found some blue poplin. I then cut off strips, ironed them in half and then folded the sides in to meet the middle (faux-bias binding, I guess?). I added some white grosgrain ribbon on top and Voila! A sassy solution.

My next step was the waistband. The Wicked Witch of the Check laughed maniacally as I tried to get this all to line up properly to no avail. It was time to raid my blue poplin stash instead and go for a plain waistband. The method of construction for this is quite cool and even required some hand-stitching, supported by TV and wine, to secure the inside panel to the skirt.

With my little dog, it was time to head down the yellow brick road for the unveil. Firstly, the back view…

And finally Dorothy Ginger… complete with my little dog too!

What I loved about this pattern:

• It’s an A-line. What’s not to love?
• Very little mucking around. This was quick and easy.
• The interchangeable waist bands. Love the idea!
• Super easy directions. The waistband facing looked a bit tough but the instructions were clear and simple and I love how it turned out.

What I would change next time:

• I’d like to try stripes before taking on checks again. I think I need to do a lot more reading on the topic and some trial and error work first.
• Make the skirt a little longer.
• Provide a bit more room around the thighs. Post 15km skate this morning it was starting to feel a little snug.