This is another project that I just had to squeeze in for the end of the summer.  This fabric is left over from making linen pants, and I had just enough left to eke out this skirt.  The pattern is one of the included free patterns in the 2014/2015 Marfy catalog.  So, in my mind, stash fabric + “free” pattern = free skirt!

A quick note about Marfy patterns: basically, I love them!  I feel like they have great design and details, and the drafting is top notch.  The only thing not to love is the price and that they have to be shipped from Italy (although they are starting to offer some as PDF’s).  See examples of Marfy patterns I have used: here and here.  When I first started using Marfy patterns I was really intimidated. For those who don’t know, Marfy assumes that you know how to sew their patterns (no seam allowances, instructions, or construction diagrams are included). The first Marfy pattern that I made up was the free blouse pattern (available on their website), and I relied on the sewalong from A Challenging Sew.  This is actually the top I am wearing with the skirt.  After getting my feet wet that first time, though, I pretty much jumped in and haven’t looked back.  The pattern pieces are labeled with things like grainline, zipper, gathering, etc, along with letters labeling certain points.  To construct the garment, you have to match the letters together.  Sometimes it takes a bit of puzzling to figure out what goes where; this is not helped by the sometimes inaccurate English translations.  There aren’t even any technical drawings– the only picture you get is the fashion illustration.  But, once you do figure it out, you feel really clever!  And, I think that having to figure things out for myself rather than just blindly following the instructions has really improved my sewing abilities.  For anyone out there who has been afraid to try Marfy, I highly encourage you to give one of the free patterns a go– after all, all you have to lose is a little time and fabric.

Now back to the skirt.  The construction was pretty basic.  I did a quick try on before putting on the waistband and let the side seam out a bit over the hip.  In the pants that I made from the same fabric, my waistband tends to get wrinkly, so I used a heavier interfacing for the skirt waistband.  The insides are serged; the waistband facing is slip-stitched to the inside.  To hem the pleats, I followed the advice in this blog post.  This skirt is exactly what I wanted– a nice basic skirt that works well for lab and goes with lots of my tops.