The Platonic Ideal of a Summer Skirt

For the past several summers, I've been on the hunt for the right chambray for a summer skirt.  Denim is a little too heavy to wear in the heat, and I've been stymied in my attempts to find a chambray that has some decent drape to it.  Shirting weight tends to pouf weirdly and doesn't stand up well to the stresses of wear in skirt form (as my previous attempts at chambray skirts have shown).  

 

 

Last summer, I dithered over a light blue Brussels linen that was chambray-ish, but wasn't really the denim-y shade I was looking for, and ultimately passed in favor of a lavender color.  As with my marigold corduroy skirt, patience was rewarded, this year, as Kaufman has a denim color of Brussels linen that is perfect!  It is exactly the same shade as my one pair of shorts (rtw) and goes with everything. 

I made the Rose skirt hack again, and used Ban-rol in the front waistband for interfacing, and Ban-rol elastic in the back, sewing several lines of stitching over it.  It should be noted that Ban-rol elastic behaves quite differently when it is sewn over like that, and I don't really know why. 

 

It seems to become a bit looser or something. In this case, it doesn't matter, and the fit is really great, but just something to bear in mind if you use it for yourself. I think I used 14" of elastic in the back and measured the front interfacing to fit the length of the waistband piece.  The front waistband does still want to wrinkle slightly in the middle, but I think that is a function of the rayon content in the fabric blend and not much to be done about it.

I attached the interfacing and elastic slightly differently than in the past, using the technique I learned on the Elemental skirt.  Doing it that way did make things slightly more fiddly, but I also got a slightly cleaner finish, so there's that.  I also did French seams throughout, and like the finish very much!  I did have to think about it a bit more as I was constructing the thing, as the pocket bags required a bit of a think, but the insides are so clean and pretty (and hopefully more durable)!

 

 

It could possibly stand to be 1/2" shorter, but I sort of don't care right now.  I've worn it twice already, and am glad to add a workhorse to my summer wardrobe!