A Most Basic Skirt

 So, after the hubris of the previous project, I wanted to make a simple black skirt to go with it.

Now...I don't lack for simple black skirts, but this time I wanted it to be a very long sheath skirt.  The last trip to the creative re-use store brought Simplicity 9815 from 1990 into my pattern stash

(and yes, I have found a nice plastic sleeve to put it in, just in case those spots are malevolent.)

As simple skirt is a boring project, and using a new pattern meant I wasn't quite sure about the size, so it took a few days--with lots and lots of pauses--but here it is

and, oh, yeah--black is hard to photograph

This is the same thrifted wool crepe I used for the newsboy cap (still attracting just as much lint.) I did have to shorten the skirt by about a half inch to get it to fit on the remaining fabric.

Since this is a lovely spongy wool(en), the blind stitches sunk into the fabric

They really are there!  You're just distracted by the lint.

The back closures are straightforward.

In retrospect, I should have lengthened the waistband a bit--I added some width to the center front, but thought it would be fine to ease it into the size 16 band.  It's...snug.  I'll probably only use this pattern when I want to make a very long sheath skirt, since New Look 6843 serves me so well for short sheath and A-line skirts, and maybe then I'll remember to add a bit at the waist.

There's a kick pleat at the center back hem, and this may be the first skirt I remember making with a kick pleat that didn't flop open and sully the line of the skirt.  I don't know if it's the fabric or the pattern or if my skills have improved, but it's nice.

As with most of my iterations of New Look 6843, I added a lining.  It's the black(?) poly I also picked up the last time I went to the creative re-use store.

My big laziness in this project was using the navy thread in the serger, instead of changing it to black.  

I might go back and fold in that long serged edge of the bottom part of the kick pleat.

I did not want to do the brain work  to bag a lining around a kick pleat, so I made it free hanging and just hemmed the straight edges.  Making the lining slit also saved some fabric, since it meant I could cut the front and back side by side instead of offsetting the back to have enough width to cut the kick pleat extensions.

It might get weird when I walk?  I'll find out once it's cool enough to wear a long lined wool skirt.

The outer hem is 1½", so I folded the lining hem up 1" twice and stitched along the edge.

Navy serging, charcoal lining.  It's harmonious.

I still haven't figured out a way to attach the lining around the zipper that makes a good compromise with my sewing laziness.  This isn't pretty, but it's attached, and, so far, the test zip actions have not caught that corner of the lining.

No picture of the full back, because it would have been a featureless black rectangle.  But it's a finished featureless black rectangle!