a month of swatches - skirt and skort

So the month has come to an end, and as its march next, so making way for some green makes!

This week I finished a skirt and nearly finished the skort  I had to launder both skirt swatches before I used them and thankfully neither shrank, so it was off to a good start.

The skirt was made using the vogue pattern 7776, and a pair of black trousers, pretty straightforward as this pattern uses petersham instead of a waistband (big plus, easy and comfortable), and I reused the zipper from the trousers.  I joined black fabric to the swatch in straight edge strips and then cut out the skirt front.  Its a nice skirt and worn a bit (constantly) last week!  

The skirt put me in a very optimistic mood and this as well as some fine spring weather, had me making the skort.  I was cycling a few days ago and the weather was so sunny (not warm just sunny) which put me to thinking of making the skort in the same pattern.  I used a linen/viscose skirt for skort back and shorts front, and had to make the short backs from another piece of linen from a pair of trousers (same shade and weight and as they would not be seen I felt 'safe' enough)t , and the swatch made up the front flap.

I am a bit / lot / seriously unsure on the skort.  The heavier weight of the swatch by comparison to the linen may or may not work, I put some interfacing on the pieces around to work better with the panel  The instructions were a bit fiddly and I am unsure if I did the hems the correct way. so I have basted hems for now.  Its not summer for a long time yet so plenty of time to figure final details.  The front of shorts, back of skirt were made from a skirt, and the back of shorts were made from a similar shade and weight of linen (linen trousers).  

The closure will probably be a button at the waistband as I think putting buttons on the lighter fabric could pull on it.  I will wear it about the house when the weather warms up and figure it then.    I am still undecided on the front section, as I don't know if it looks too much like patchwork? However, as its a summer skort and a lot less revealing than my tennis skort - so perhaps a lot more practical. 



I have still plenty of swatch books! and and will probably be dipping in here and there for the next while - the black bag contains potential projects................. which means the mannequin will no longer be covered 24/7 in clothes and swatches trying to get colour matches