I'm really pleased with the skirt that featured in my last post, particularly because it only really cost the price of the zip to make it! I raided my stash of fabric and found some leftovers from my last effort to start sewing seriously, which was about a year ago. I made this tartan skirt with a huge flounce from Cloth magazine.

1. Up-scaling patterns by hand is a real pain - it takes more concentration and patience than I have.
2. The photocopier at my local supermarket is SO frustrating to use, effectively upping my stress levels x1 million.
3. Printing patterns and piecing them together isn't so fun, but at least I'm capable of cutting and sticking.

I think I'll be sticking to pre-printed patterns in future! 

I still love the fabric and had plenty leftover, so I set off making a skirt that I would actually wear. The pattern is from the second Great British Sewing Bee book, which I'd really recommend. It has full sized patterns ready to trace (I used a roll of greaseproof paper as I couldn't find pattern/tracing paper anywhere!) and really clear instructions to follow.

The skirt itself is really simple to sew and reminded me of some of the basics, like creating darts and inserting zips - especially tricky when your sewing machine hasn't got a proper zipper foot! I also learnt how to do a pretty nifty uneven slipstictch for a nice, neat hem.

The new skirt has already had a few outings and has survived it's first run through the washing machine. I'm already planning a second version!