Fusion skirt ....

A few weeks back I finally stopped procrastinating and made a skirt using the McCall's 3341 A-Line pattern. It was a great experience. I learnt some new things, reconfirmed some old things and made other things up as I went along.

You really can't ask for more - or can you?

Well you can.  The McCall's 3341 pattern results in a high waisted skirt. I like my skirts to sit on my hips, so I decided to try make skirt to my liking.

Using the McCall pattern and an old favourite skirt as a template I had another go at skirt making. I call it the Hmil-McCall fusion skirt.

It was a surprisingly easy process. All I did was fold my favourite skirt in half and place it on some tracing fabric and cut a basic outline (I added 1" for seam adjustments).

I then placed the McCall's 3341 pattern over the top to make sure I was in the right area in terms of hip width etc. and hey presto - a new skirt template.

After that, I simply cut the fabric out and got on with assembling it.

The McCalls 3341 pattern has a back zip and asks you to play around with darts on the waistline.

I didn't bother with the darts on my fusion skirt because I found that they actually created a ballooning effect across the abdomen - not a great look on me.

So no darts, just two pieces of material sewn together with a side zip.

I added the side zip following some great instructions I found on Sew Mama Sew.

The blog author recommends using glue to hold the zip in place before sewing. I wasn't too sure about this at first but I have admit it's better than using pins. Saying that, I still managed to wobble a little on the sewing.

Next  I added home made binding for the waist and the hem.

I chose to use binding partly to create interest and to get out of hemming. I know, I can be very lazy sometimes.

Did I make adjustments along the way?

Yep but just the one -  I took a further 2.5 inches off the waist to make sure it sat on my hips (I really don't like high waist).

My Hmil-McCall fusion skirt may not be perfect (it looks better than this photo) but it's a step in the right direction. For the next version I plan to take another inch of the waist and to slim down the actual skirt shape.