Lazy Days Skirt, Day 5

I decided to take a break from the triceps/biceps workout that is the Biscuit Quilt and spend about five minutes on the Lazy Days Skirt.  Even though I had four fabrics to choose from, I couldn't make up my mind on which two I wanted to make the skirt.

Originally I wanted to go with the green fabric, but I didn't like the way it looked with two of the other designs, and the remaining fabric had the exact same design as the green, but in orange.  Then I paired up the two dark orange designs, but I didn't like the way that looked either.  I stared at the fabric for a little while longer, then decided that I should try another fabric collection.  I picked out some sheer, floral fabric and had gone as far as pressing it out when I changed my mind again, and went back to the Sweet & Sour fabric.  Can you believe all this indecisiveness from just working with four fabric designs?  It's no wonder I've got bins upon bins of fabric just collecting dust!  I finally decided on the light orange fabric with the Japanese writing and the darker orange fabric with the swirly pattern.

The skirt pattern uses the entire width of the fabric, in this case, 44", and then you decide how long you'd like the skirt to be.  This gives you a lot of flexibility, but if you're new to infant sizes, like I am, there's a little bit of research involved.  For one, I had to look up the average measurements for baby clothes.  Then I had to figure out what age range I wanted to make this for, taking into account that little Darcy is taller than other babies her age, and the season she would be wearing this in (don't wanna make a cotton skirt for the middle of winter!).

Between a chart at Simplicity.com and one at The Children's Place, I determined that the waist measurement will be 19.5", and the length 7.5".  Keep in mind that I'm still not use to these small measurements, so even after adding the two inches for the seam allowances, it didn't look like enough fabric to cover my baby girl's bum.  Since she was asleep at the time, I couldn't double check the measurement, and I was too impatient to wait, so I changed the length and cut the fabric at 11".  I figured I'd rather have it too long than too short.

I cut the trim fabric 2", so that way I could use the bias tape maker.  Then I stitched up the edges of the main fabric together.  I probably could have serged it, and I most likely will if I make this skirt again, but the idea didn't occur to me until after I finished stitching.

After that I marked the top edge of the skirt to make the casing for the elastic.  The elastic I'm using is woven non-roll elastic.  To be honest, I have no idea what the difference is between non-roll and regular? non-non-roll? plain? elastic.  But it sounded like a good feature to have so I picked that up.  I also have no idea what it being woven will do.  I picked up a knit non-roll elastic of the same width and will test it out in a future project.

Had I remembered to read ahead, I would have marked the measurements before sewing up the selvedges.  But I didn't, so I had to go around the circle and mark it that way instead.  Gah!  Why do I always forgot to follow my own suggestions?  I should really get my process down on paper so that I don't keep repeating the same mistakes.

After I stitched up the casing, the next step is to run the elastic into the waistband.  But my five minutes are up, so back to the Biscuit Quilt!