Fitting the Charlotte Skirt

I enjoyed working with the Elisalex pattern from By Hand London so much that I decided to give the Charlotte skirt a go. During the recent Goldhawk road meet-up, I had spoken about my straight skirt problems with Charlotte of By Hand London, and she said I should try the Charlotte skirt because it had a really generous amount of ease at the hips. So here I am, giving it a go.

I have never been successful with straight skirts. I know it might be easy to draft one myself, but like I mentioned before, I am not very good with drafting. Claire even came over to help me draft one, using the draping method. She fitted the skirt on my body, and transferred the pattern to paper. I never used it, and then I put on some extra kilos, and now, I really can't use it.  I did take on board what she did though, so with the Charlotte skirt, I decided not to choose a particular size, but cut the biggest size, and sew the skirt up, without sewing the darts.

I used a 1/4 inch seam allowance,and what do you know? My hips are the biggest size, size 20. That fit just fine on the hips. I think I need to run more, and diet more. I then sewed the size 14 darts, and it fit a bit better at the waist. The area between my waist and my hips though, is another matter. The way my body is, the fullest part of my hips is down at the top of my thighs, so I have that indentation at the hips. 8 inches below my waist is where it is deepest, and then from 10" down, it starts filling out again. So I do not have that curve that many people have, which of course, results in excess fabric in that area. I pinned some of it away, but there's still some work to be done.

The front is not too bad at the waist, probably because my tummy is not exactly small. The back has alot of excess fabric.I pinned out the excess as well, and decided to add two extra darts at the back.

The back does not look too bad ( after massive pinning of course)

This is after I basted the bits I had pinned before. The kangaroo pouch seems to have gone. Yay!

I sewed the extra darts at the back, but there is still some excess fabric. I was hitting my head, trying to understand why there was still so much fabric at the back. Then I remembered I had sew size 14 darts in a size 20 waist. So I need to do another muslin, using a size 14 waist, and then grade up to size 20 about 10" below the waist.

I am really pleased with myself for taking the time to get a proper fit. I think I have reached the point in my sewing where I just don't want to sew clothes for the sake of sewing. I want to make things that fit me properly, so I need to actually take the time to face the fitting challenges my body presents.

The sun seems to be out today in London. Unfortunately I am not going to be around this weekend. Mr.Dibs is running the Edinburgh marathon tomorrow, so we are going up to Edinburgh this afternoon.
What about you? Anything fun planned?