Simplicity 1370, Skort

I'm a bit fan of a Skort. The most confusing item of clothing to all men (wow such a short skirt, wow but it has legs, wow but it's a skirt? But it's shorts? No I don't understand), and the most essential item of clothing for any girl in a band (wow, it's such a short skirt, but no you can't see my knickers from the front row and it's not going to ride up against my guitar). 

I'd had my eye on the Simplicity 1370 Skort pattern for a while. In fact it's been in my stash almost a year I think. With summer just around the corner (it's still coming right????) it seemed like a good time to get my skort ready to go. 

This red herringbone was exactly the kind of weight fabric I was looking for in Hillsborough Fine Fabrics. It's sturdy and presses well but doesn't seem to shrink with heat. The herringbone was both a nod to my love of geometrics and a handy helper for lining my pattern pieces up along the grainline and getting symmetrical pieces. 

I think I got this fabric a bit cheaper due to it being 'end of season'. There is something certianly a bit autumnal about it, but with the weather feeling a bit more September than May right now I think we can get away with a bit og herringbone all year round. 

I made no alterations to the pattern sizing! I think I could take a little bit out of the waist or maybe scoop a tad out of the back for a slight swayback alteration, certainly if I was using a thinner fabric, but I'm reallllly happy with the fit of the medium. 

Watching the shape come together is so fun (have I said that in every single blog post ever?!). Flaps!! I decided to line the flaps to give them a bit more stability. I could apply very light interfacing to them next time for crisper seams and points, but I am really happy with the finish of them as they are. Attaching the lining with a 1.5cm seam allowance meant that I didn't have to turn under the hem of the flaps,. If you aren't lining them you can just turn them under 1.5cm like the pattern suggests. I then understitched the seam alloance to the lining as far as I could and stay-stitched the lining to the skirt along the top and side seams so it could be treated as one when attaching to the side seams and waist band.

I swear my herringbone fabric was exactly the same on both sides, which made it really hard to identify the front and back of the flap before I lined them.... and as a result. I. Maybe. Ended up with a mirror image of the flaps on the pattern packet but I really do think I prefer it that way!! No really!! 

I love the sneaky pockets (my Topshop skort definitely doesn't have pockets), they aren't super deeo or spacious but a great feature. I guess you could omit them without altering the pattern too much if you were running low on fabric supplies, or you could cut the side panel piece in a contrast fabric.

I decided to do a blind hem instead of visible hem seeing as I didn't hace a visible stitch line along the bottom of the flaps. The hem would have benefitted from some interfacing for a bit of a crisper finish but thats an easy one for next time! 

I didn't scrimp on interfacing in the waistband though! I interfaced both the waistband and the waistband facing as I seam to remember one of my old teachers sayign you could never add too much interfacing to a waistband. Anyone else heard this one?

I made a little change to the suggested zip style and decided to do a concealed zip instead of a semi concealed zip. The fabric around the waitband just seemed a little too bulky to press an exact seam allowance in to create the lap. Instead I machine tacked the back and waistband where the zip would sit and then placed the closed zipper along the seam and attached to the seam allowances only. Flip the skirt to the right side and then topstitch down evenly through all the layers to get a nice even zipper placement. Unpick the tacking and whoa! One lovely lil zip.

I'm in love with my finished lil skort. It's structural, it's practical, its a little bit sexy and it has pockets!! It makes a fab team with the Simplicity 8513 bodysuit and suspect it will make a great little scrap buster for left overs in the future too. If flaps ain't your thing, there's an option of basic shorts or mini skirt too. 

x
Location: Mortimer Road, Sheffield
Currently listening to: Never Look Back, Night Beats