Working on my 10,000 Hours...

This skirt is not my best work.  I'm more than a bit shy of 10,000 hours at this sewing thing.  I bought the fabric last winter after getting flannel inspiration from Tasha.  I almost bought the same flannel because I really loved the palette of her outfit, but realized I don't like to wear anything on a white background in the winter, so I went with this brown/rust/green/plum toned plaid cotton flannel instead.  It was on the clearance rack, and very inexpensive--that probably should have tipped me off. 

I initially made it into a simple box-pleated two panel skirt, to avoid having to cut the selvage, as the weave of the fabric is very loose and it is very difficult to get the fabric to stay on-grain.  The skirt looked bulky and awkward on me and I took it apart almost immediately after finishing it. 

I let it languish in my fabric bin until early October--I think I may have pulled the fabric out at the end of my Papal Sew-A-Thon.  I decided that I wanted to use the fabric for my winter rotation, and thought recutting it into a straight skirt using my Anne Adams 9481 would be the way to go.  I didn't have a lot of extra fabric, and it had already been cut to length last year, so I couldn't put in pockets, but I was already dreading matching up the plaid, so I thought it was probably just as well.

I fitted the skirt in late October, around the same time that I refitted the corduroy skirt, and did the rest of the hand sewing sometime in early November.  I put the skirt into my winter rotation pile and eagerly awaited the beginning of December to wear it.  Unfortunately, the skirt is now just this side of big on me.  I have about an inch worth of ease in the waistband, and there is excess fabric around the hips in the front.  

I did attempt to match the plaid on the side seams, but with the loose weave, the fabric wants to go off-grain constantly, so it was really hard to get it to stay lined up, even with careful pinning.  I also had to redo the side seams to take the skirt in 2" all over when I was fitting it, so that made the side seam matching just hopeless.

I guess it isn't too noticeable.  E for effort, I suppose.

I will say that it is a nice soft and squishy flannel, and I do have another dark green sweater that matches the green in the plaid perfectly, plus a plain purple pullover sweater that I think will match as well.  I pulled out this new-to-me merino cardigan this morning when I was feeling cold, and ended up layering another sweater over the top anyway!  It really isn't that cold per se, but it is very damp after two days of steady rain.

I hand-worked the button hole, and stabilized the waist band with Petersham.  I used an orphan brown button from my stash--it came from my great aunt's button box, I think.

The palette of this skirt is probably better suited to my fall rotation, but my beloved Shetland flannel skirt is too big now, and I needed another skirt to round out my closet for this rotation.  It works best with the sweaters in my winter rotation, anyway, so I'm going to go with it.  I expect this will be one of the first skirts to get swapped for the green wool Pendleton skirt that is slightly snug.  I figure this will be too big by the time that skirt fits well.  

The red leaves are really coming off the trees now--they are my favorites.

Just the facts:

Plaid flannel skirt: random yardage from fabric.com, Anne Adams 9481

Purple merino cardigan sweater: Gap

Black cardigan sweater: St. John's Bay via ebay

Boots: B.O.C. (Macy's)

Pinecone Earrings: Willfulmina (etsy)

Wardy Squirrel resin brooch: Acorn and Will