The skirt that almost wasn't

A few months ago I stumbled upon the Various Ankara/Kente Styles Facebook page.  I was instantly inspired by all the beautiful ensembles.  G Street is the only fabric store nearby that sells a decent selection of African prints and since last week G Street was selling $50 vouchers for $25 on Living Social, of course I had to buy one.  I put fabric on hold there two weeks ago during their coupon sale, but didn't go back for it (because they only let you use one coupon per customer per day and I already went 2 days in a row!).  Luckily, it was still on hold so I was able to get my fabric after all.  :)

Additionally, Joann had Simplicity patterns on sale for 5 for $5 and because Joann and G Street are in the same shopping center, I hit them up too (ok, even if Joann was not in the same shopping center, I still would've gone).

I made Simplicity 1690:

My version:

I used French seams and used the border to bind the edges of the zipper.  I like how it looks:

(inside out)

All in all, the skirt came out ok, but it was a pain to get it done.  First, as I was cutting out the pieces, it looked to me like the waistband was going to be way too small, but I ignored my alarm bell and sure enough, once I sewed it on, I realized it was not going to work.  There was a gap bigger than my hand!  I almost put the skirt aside right then, but then thought about how excited I was to get my fabric (it was the last piece) and how it would be such a waste.  I decided I could fix it without completely taking it apart.  I removed the stitches from the top half of the zipper and a couple of inches of the waistband and skirt.  I cut a piece of fabric about 10 inches long - yes 10 inches - which I cut in half and then added to both ends of the waistband, sewed the waistband back to the skirt and then sewed the zipper back in.  Then I tried it on to find that now it was too big!  I repeated the above process but this time to cut off about an inch from both sides.  Then I sewed it all back together again and it was still too big!  I repeated the process, but this time cutting off about 1/2 an inch from each side and it fits!  (Now that I'm thinking of it, I could've probably just added belt loops instead of taking it apart another time, but oh well...it's done now.)  

Additionally, because I like to make things harder for myself, I didn't fuse interfacing to the waistband because in the beginning I suspected it was going to be too small and thought the interfacing would make it worse.  Once I made it too big, I realized I really needed the interfacing so I actually fused it after the last fix, meaning after I sewed everything back in place.  I don't recommend doing this...it was not fun.

Anyway, after all my troubles I think I'm mostly happy with it though I'm not sure I like the fabric anymore...lol.  I will still wear it though once it warms up again.

I should've purchased more than one voucher...

UPDATE

I wore the skirt to work today!: