Finally, the Corduroy Skirt

I'm sure you've heard the joke about the guy who brings his film to a one-hour processing place. They tell him it'll be ready next week. "But your sign says one hour!" the man protests. "Yes," they tell him, "but your hour doesn't come up until next week."

That's kind of how it went with this skirt.

I originally made the muslin last August. August!! Seven whole months ago! It didn't take me much longer than that to brew the actual person who would be wearing said skirt. But I am so fortunate that she understood, and hounded me constantly waited patiently until the skirt rose to the top of the to-do list.
One of the reasons for the delay was that I hadn't found the right fabric for the final wool skirt. So she asked whether I could make a shorter version out of two yards of fine wale corduroy I picked up at Waechter's in Asheville last October. Okay, sure. So I redrafted the skirt shorter and with more flare. To get it out of the two yards without it being too short for her liking, I ended up making a contrasting facing. Hand-sewing that in place was quite a production, as the final hem sweep ended up being about eight feet. This is a very flippy skirt!
However, the work was well worth it, as Diana tried it on with glee and proceeded to do pirouettes in the yard.

The original idea was to add pockets to the skirt, but it's so full that they probably wouldn't lie right, so she agreed to omit them.

The faced hem really helps it stand out. The corduroy actually has a very soft drape. The facing was a black knit, stabilized with a lightweight fusible to help it hold its shape.

The facing was drafted by copying the bottom 2.5 inches of each skirt gore, stitching the pieces end to end, and sewing it onto the bottom edge of the skirt. It was then turned up and hand-stitched to the skirt, using itty-bitty stitches. Corduroy does NOT hide stitches well.

But yay, it's done, and now I can get started on the real skirt: a fully-lined camel. At my current production rate, it ought to be ready by Christmas.