Yellow Arielle

My little sister turned 28 two days after my husband's stroke, so her celebration got lost in the shuffle.  Once things calmed down a little, I offered to sew her a skirt for her birthday.  I've knit for her before, but have never sewed her anything.  She requested a high-waisted skirt, so I showed her Arielle, which I had been eyeing ever since it came out.

I had to alter the button placement after she tried on the finished skirt, and then she went on a business trip, and by the time I got the skirt back to her it was fall.  I didn't manage any modeled pictures as a result.

Her waist and hip measurements put her in two different sizes, so I cut a 3 at the waist and graded to a 4 at the hip.  She chose a Lisette cotton twill from my stash.

This is my first time using one of Tilly's patterns.  I had previously been intrigued by Mathilde (but wasn't sure it would really work on my body) and Coco but hadn't pulled the trigger until now.  I bought a PDF pattern because a) I didn't want to wait weeks for the printed pattern to arrive and b) when you factor in shipping to the U.S., the printed pattern is nearly twice the cost of the PDF pattern.  At about $30, I just couldn't do it.

In any case, the pattern is well drafted and the instructions are good.  I liked that Tilly suggested using bias tape to finish the facing on the unlined version of the skirt.  I don't think that would have occurred to me on my own.  I took the suggestion and made some bias tape out of a deep aqua cotton from my stash.

Having taken the time to do that, it seemed only right to blind-stitch the hem by hand.

My pattern matching on the closure isn't perfect despite careful measuring, but I'm still pretty pleased with it.

At some point I will make one for myself.