Pattern Emporium Tiered maxiskirt in Liberty

 I first encountered this skirt when I saw my friend Tessa's version.  I've never been very into skirts.  Like, I own the same few and wear them occasionally but they aren't that comfortable and rarely have pockets so why bother?  The few I have are really great and that's sort of it, right?  

Hm.  Well, I realised a big problem was that my legs rub together.  So this summer I decided to solve the problem with long leg boyshorts with lace hems, so I could wear my skirts.  (More on those later).  And it made skirts suddenly seem like a more viable option (especially if they have pockets.)  

This does not have pockets, but that is easily fixed.  And after thinking for quite awhile I decided I was ready to cut into my number 2 longest stashed fabric: a Liberty Tana Lawn in my Favourite Print Ever Made.  In order to do that I had to do a practice version, because I have never shirred and I was not sure how the shirring would go.  

Spoiler alert: the shirring went Very. Poorly.  

Sorry it was very windy when I took these photos, plus midwinter so rather cold. 

I cut a size 10 and used some very fancy Liberty silk twill that has been sitting around - this is for my friend R and I knew she would love the colours and would not care too much about the shirring.  What is discovered is that although in one spot I read to NOT pull tension when you wind the shirring elastic onto the bobbin, actually you DO need to pull a moderate amount of tension.  All the shirring does not really suck together and just looks like weird loops on the inside of the skirt.  Luckily there's a piece of elastic in the waistband as well so this first version is wearable and the silk twill is delightfully swishy.  I was on a time crunch so I forgot to take notes on things I would change the second time around...

So after waiting far too long and not remembering anything I learned from the first version, I made my Liberty Special.  I think I wanted to shorten the middle tier 1" but I didn't do that.  I did add very large pockets. 

 

I obviously practiced shirring in the meantime and got better at it.  I didn't have any issues making this skirt, it's an easy make.  I like my huge pockets and I like the way it drapes.