Well, yeah. It fits.

I am trying to accept that age and genetics are catching up with me and giving me the same body shape as my Mom's Mom and Sisters.  As this is a body shape that I, as a 12 year old who thought she was funny, mocked, and that Mom, who I loved and respected and who was also a Very Fit Aerobics Instructor at the time, also mocked--and the entire Troll fad of the early 1990s which I despised pretty much had the same body shape, too--it may take me a while to accept this.  (Enough of  'a while' to finally do something about it, after gaining 20 pounds in 2017 after being sick at the end of 2016?  Ah...knowing me...probably not.)

I also technically understand that clothes that are tailored to fit will always be more flattering than clothes that are too tight or too baggy, no matter what shape the body being tailored to is.  'course, the first step to creating properly tailored clothes is that whole 'accepting the body I really have' part...but...might I be able to accept it more readily if I have clothes that fit correctly?

Soooo...is that a vicious circle or a catch 22...

My shirt pattern size has not changed as drastically as my skirt size, so my stash of size 10-16 patterns isn't a problem there, but I do have a distinct lack of the size 20-22 that my measurements say a skirt would need.  Now, I could have waited for a pattern sale and bought something, but...um...listen, we all know how impatient I am.  So I scrutinized every pattern I had in the even vaguely correct size range and finally settled on a thrifted 1978 McCall's pattern with a blazer, slacks, and a skirt in two lengths.  "Yes!" I thought, "I can look past the dated fabrics in the illustration and see a good basic-but-somewhat-structured skirt here!  This will be great!"  And then I took out the tissue and discovered that all that was left of the skirt pattern was the length cut off of the long view to make the short view.

I put the pattern back into the file cabinet until I had the thought that, maybe, I could make a more basic skirt by using the top parts of the included pants pattern, then tracing another pattern to get an A-line skirt shape.  (At this point I did start wondering if it would be easier to just finally learn how to draft patterns.)  And I did that, then remembered that I want to make all skirts from now until eternity be skirts with pockets, so I borrowed the pocket bits from good ol' KwikSew 2544.

And how did that go?



Well...I made a lot of alterations as I sewed, then tried to similarly alter the hastily-scrawled pattern to reflect the widths I took out, but not in the same way I took the widths out on the actual garment. (Which was made from some clot hthat's been in the stash for ages, and that I really sincerely did try to iron, both before and during sewing, but it only laughed at my cheap iron.  And turned pink where it was hot!)

Uh...yeah.  Basically, I ended up with what looks like a lot of style lines.  But, no!  They really did do something!  And, if  my pattern has been altered correctly, they'll never be needed to do anything again.

The second picture is the back--improvised center back seam and a lotta darts.  Darts I remembered to draw before sewing!

because my stitches wiggle and wander otherwise.

This thing ended up having the back width be five inches less than the front.

So, while, when it's on the hanger, the pockets  appear to wrap around the sides

when it's on my body, the side seams are exactly where they should be.  (Yay.)

I also finally remembered to try ditch stitching the waistband with the zipper foot

and that worked well enough--I could've adjusted the zipper foot so the needle would be closer to the edge, but, at least I never once accidentally guided the needle over onto the waistband, something I invariably do with the straight stitch foot (even on doll waist bands that are only about 7" long.  Five times that and my attention will wander.)

And the zipper foot got a lot of use on, y'know, the zipper installation, if only because I was overconfident and skimmed the instructions for this style of zipper--which I haven't sewn in years--and I missed one word...which I didn't figure out until I thought I was done and went to remove the basting thread and things were...wrong.  Well, no, actually, I didn't notice the missed word until after I'd ripped out every stitch and started over, this time paying attention and seeing the same mistake happening again.  After I properly read the instructions and ripped that mistaken stitch out, things went fine.

...well...mostly fine.  I rushed the curve on the second line of topstitching around the zipper and it looked awful so I tried to obscure it with a zigzagged tack (or two) but it still looked wrong so I re-stitched one small bit and then picked out the offending stitches.

I mean, honestly, no-one should be looking there when I wear this skirt, so...good enough. (The second line of topstitching from the zipper down is also, like, a mm or two too far away at the start, and that bothers me, but not enough to pick out and re-stitch there.)

There were also areas of the hem that I re-stitched, but these were more related to sewing over thick thick seam areas than to even noticing if my stitches had meandered a few millimeters.  Honestly, they probably did, but this was the last thing I sewed--yes, I even hauled out the buttonholer before sewing the hem!--and I just wanted to be done.

See how happy it made me

Really, though, that face was because I was trying to take this picture without turning on the camera view screen.  Also, gappy pockets.

Still, I'd say it was a success.  I already have plans to make another, using the altered pattern pieces and deviating from that, too.

And I'm totally not hoping that I make a bunch of these and end up unable to wear them next year because I've lost weight...