I made this skirt 
with an offcut of fabric donated when I belonged to a sewing group. It was a suede fabric with a silkyunderside. I have a skirt draft with 6 panels that I often use for making gored or flared skirts and decided to use that. I had a couple of ideas in mind design-wise that my brain was playing with in relation to the pattern. One was a skirt with a slit up the side and the other was to pick out a seam by adding some colour. I ended up kind of combining the two.
I had thought of highlighting a seam by stitching a zipper tape into it. When I went zipper shopping there really wasn’t much to choose from that went with the fabric I had. Nylon zippers are definitely more available but that didn’t really provide the edgy sort of look I wanted, only metal teeth would do. Zipper length was an issue as well. In the end, the only zipper long enough with metal teeth that went with the fabric was this really long separating zipper. Once I started putting things together, I realised I could have a “slit” up one of the panels by using the zip as it was, only upside down, with the separating bit of the zipper at the top of the skirt and leaving it unzipped at the bottom, as far as I dared. This would mean that the feature zipper could also be the closure of the skirt . I had been intending a short invisible zip in the side seam initially.
I was somewhat nervous of wearing a skirt with a zipper running the length of it and nothing underneath if the zipper ever broke so made an inverted pleat behind the zipper that ended at the knee. Modesty preserved! The area from the knee to the hem, has a facing either side so I could leave part of the zipper unzipped. 
I hate having anything tight on my waist so often omit one of the back darts either side and add some elastic in the back waist. Other construction methods I use at the waist are to face it rather than have a waistband. I am very shortwaisted and if I use a waistband it ends up almost right under my bra when I sit down. So I always cut the front waist lower and face it. At the sideseam of the facing, I unpick a short distance so that I can turn the facing under at the back and stitch it down to insert elastic. I find it much more comfortable to wear and use this method on both skirts and pants.
The length of the skirt was limited by the amount of fabric I had and looking at my photo finish, I’m really not happy with it. It’s too short for my proportions, especially at the back, so I shall start again with another fabric. I’m also rethinking that skirt shape.
It was interesting working out this design. My last bits of sewing have been a basic T-shirt, a pair of pants which also didn’t work and copying a dress. I haven’t really worked out a new design for quite a while and although I’m not happy with this particular skirt, I’m happy with the concept of the design and will use it again.
I really do need to re-do my slopers. This skirt was a lot shorter at the back than usual and I had trouble fitting the last pair of pants I made. My bum has got bigger! I really hate redrafting my slopers, I’d rather be designing something. I lost a lot of weight a couple of years ago and almost did it then but ended up just trimming bits off. Now things have just plain moved and I need to come to terms with it!
Fitted Curves 