I was inspired to make a Zinnia skirt by the sew-along being run The Stitchery in Glasgow. I knew right away that I wanted to make version 3 – the lined version that can be made in a lighter, see-through fabric. I love a good patterned polyester me:)

Having perused  Barry’s Fabrics I settled on this John Kaldor polyester. It’s navy blue with an irregular pink spot pattern. As you can see the fabric is quite see through so I lined it using a dark blue lining fabric.

Once I’d cut out the fabric for my Zinnia I used what was left over to make an Afternoon Blouse (which I was determined to make from stash fabric). So I could actually dress head to toe in this fabric, but that would look wrong…

I have to admit to a couple of errors during the making of this skirt. I had attached my skirt pieces together and sewn the pleats in place when I luckily decided to test the fit of the skirt and found that it was definitely going to be too small. It only just fit around me with no seam allowance left over and I still had the zipper to attach. So…I unpicked two pleats from the back of the skirt, one from each side. That put me back on track but when I came to attach the waistband I found that was also too small. I’d used up all my fabric (between the Zinnia and my Afternoon Blouse) but just managed to cut a new waistband from the largest scrap in my fabric bin! I’m not entirely sure If I cut this out one size too small or if my pleats were too large or what. I know other bloggers have had issues with the waistband being too small, but not sure anyone else has found the whole skirt too small!

Other than sizing issues this came together well and I’ve been wearing it tons since finishing so it’s definitely a successful addition to my wardrobe.