Knipmode - The $2.50 Op Shop Michael Kors Skirt

Michael Kors would be rolling around in his  NY penthouse suite or Monaco Yacht or where-ever he hangs out to think us sewists could make up one of his skirts for only $2.50 but isn`t that one of the reasons we sew ? 

Sewing this skirt ticks lots of boxes for me .

1.  I finally got to use of of my Knipmode magazines. This skirt pattern comes from the supplement to May 2012 `s edition. The supplement was only for skirt designs. 

2. I used an old stash fabric - this has been maturing for at least 6 years . It is a turquoise light weight linen . It was so easy to sew with and the colour alone made me feel good . And it was only $2.50 .  Luckily I still have a remnant leftover  .

3.I finally got to try out bound buttonholes and mitred hem corners . 

The skirt is unusual but simple in design - It has a slanted side on the left to  which is attached a long rectangle . Then buttons are added to this same side to create the unstructed pleats. 

    

My first bound buttonholes . The buttons are sewn on the inside of the skirt.

Knipmodes are dutch sewing magazines . For any Australian readers who are interested I bought mine from Crafty Mamas and as a bonus there is free postage .  I  started to use google translate but it is quite a slow process. I did a little research to find that like other pattern magazines there are no seam or hem allowances. 

After that I sewed the skirt by instinct because it really is a simple skirt. 

The steps I followed are -

1. stitch darts in the front and back. 

2. sewed up the back skirt pieces . 

3. added the zip. 

4. sewed the front and back skirt pieces together. 

5. sewed the front and back waist facing pieces together ( after interfacing them ) 

5. sewed this to the skirt then trimmed , snipped and understitched  the facing. 

6. added a bias binding trim to the waist facing and handstitched this to the zip area. 

7. measured out my rectangle piece needed and attached this to the skirt front and back. 

8. sewed the hems (  by hand except the mitred corners ) 

8. made bound buttonholes and attached the buttons.

  

Now why was this skirt only $2.50 ? 

Well the fabric was only $2.50 from the opshop and I only used about three quarters of it so say $1.70. 

The buttons were also from the op-shop - $0.50 and finally the zip  came from the op-shop as well  - they were three for one dollar so about $0.30 . ( I did try to buy a zip new but there were no zips that even came close to the colour of my skirt . I walked a few doors down to the oppie  and found a really close match and it was Australian made !) 

Finally channelling my inner Angelina Jolie ( and by inner I  mean really really inner. ) 

Cheers Janine. 

PS Jane I tried to find another photo of this skirt but all I have is  the photo from the magazine.