Recently, I've given myself the task of creating a "Miss Fisher" wardrobe, inspired by the Australian TV series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.  If you haven't seen the show, I highly recommend to head over to Netflix and watch immediately.  The main character, Miss Phryne Fisher - Lady Detective,  has a fairly AMAZING wardrobe, circa 1928,  filled with a variety of wardrobe staples - wide leg trousers, skirts, matching camisoles etc., and some downright outrageous statement pieces - embroidered coats, custom cloches and coordinating accessories.   All of which I've been sketching and analyzing as much as I can with repeated viewing of all the episodes.

The first stop on this journey is the staple pieces.  These are garments I can coordinate with many things.  With Summer approaching, a light weight skirt is was in order.  After struggling to find a skirt pattern I liked, I found a dress that had a great skirt -  Vintage Pattern Lending Library Pattern #T3221.

The pattern is quite sweet - a column shape through the body, with 6 small darts that gently shape the waist, and a skirt that has arched seams along the hip line and fluted panels that give it a nice little fare at the hem.  The pattern comes in one size - created for a 36" bust.  I measured the pattern and found that it was a good fit for my hips at 42" but that I would need to shape the waist to fit my own.   It was a fairly easy process:

1. The pattern was cut at the natural waist line which is indicated at the center of the darts on the pattern. I squared a line at the CF, folded out the darts and shaped a nice waist. 
2. The darts were re-distributed into two darts (each side) at front and back and positioned somewhat centrally on each half of the skirt at front and back as well.  I new I wanted a 32" waist finished, so my dart depth was determined by measuring the pattern at the waistline, subtracting the different and dividing the darts up accordingly.
3. Then a waistband pattern was made - 4" high x 34" long.  This accounts for 3/8" seam allowance and a 1 1/4" tab for the button on the waistband.

The fabric used was a beige colored textured rayon jacquard.  The skirt sewed together beautifully, as per the pattern instructions.  I did serge the edges before assembling, to prevent fraying.  The bottom edge is a simple turn and turn 1/4" clean finish hem.  And the standard zipper was inserted using a hand picked method.  

I'm really happy with the results, however, my 13 year old daughter thinks it should be several inches shorter.  What do you think?