I seem to have reached a crossing point in my sewing. I have crossed from going to a store to find myself a skirt first to going to the fabric store to see if there is any fabric on sale that I can make a skirt from first.

That’s a big step.

That’s the step into the land of crazy.

But that’s also the step I found myself taking a couple of weekends ago when I needed to give my wardrobe a little bit of a business-style refresh. See, I have been making comfy, cute skirts and sundresses for myself over the past two years, but when it comes to something I feel comfortable wearing into an office…let’s just say my retro mushroom skirt with leggings probably isn’t going to do the trick.

So, needing at least one office-worthy skirt that would also be comfy, wouldn’t make me feel horrible when I looked at the size, and would be flattering, I decided to head to my local Joann’s Fabric to check out what they had in jersey knits that was on super clearance (i.e., they had a 50% off clearance fabric sale happening right when I needed to make a skirt for office-wear).

Thankfully, I found two knits that I loved! The first was a simple black jersey; the second was a charcoal and green striped jersey. Both were supple and soft. I decided to go for a maxi-style for the stripe and a mid-length for the black. I also had tons of yardage of a mauve-toned jersey that someone from church gave away as she was moving away. I decided to try out a fold-down yoga skirt tutorial I had pinned long time ago.

The first skirt was done using the mauve print; the photos were taken with my phone, so I apologize for the fuzziness. The first skirt took the longest, as well. I failed to read and realize that, when gathering fabric, you need to hold BOTH the top AND the bobbin threads. I kept gathering fabric, only holding the top thread, only to find I was just pulling the top thread out! It took me awhile to get the hang of gathering fabric — I kept waiting for the threads to break! Thankfully, they didn’t break, and I was able to get my gathers done and serged into place with the waistband.

With that experience under my belt, I tackled the black and striped knits. For the black knit, I decided to cut the body of the skirt to have an a-line that would minimize the gathering. I did this mainly because after trying on the mauve skirt, I wasn’t too keen on how the gathered look…looked. The odd thing with the black skirt is that after sewing and serging, it ended up with the angled look. That was entirely accidental, but I rather like it now! The maxi skirt was done as a simple a-line, but I used the tutorial for the yoga skirt to help me with the waistband. I just made sure the top of the skirt was as wide was my waistband when cutting.

What I love most about these three skirts is they took me a weekend, they are flattering, comfy, simple, and cost a total of $19 in fabric. Hurray for sewing!!!