A grey, wintery Zinnia

I want you to know how much trouble I've had to go to in order to get this post up tonight as promised. I took some photos ages ago but looking through them I realised just how hideous they are so decided to grab the tripod. For this, I had to do my hair and make up (hassle!) and I even burnt my hand helping Chris cook dinner after he burnt his hand cooking it (dinner had better be good - it still stings pretty bad!) but I prevailed!! I WILL blog! But with some miracle I managed to get a few photos in the time it takes to play Michael Jackson's Thriller. Good stuff!

So, this is Zinnia number 3. It's basically just an awesome skirt - it's a modest length for both work and cycling, it's fairly flattering even after big dinners and it goes with practically everything. I imagine as my current Zinnia's wear out I will continue to make more for many years.

As part of my AW14 plans I decided a grey, heavier weight skirt would be a good addition to the wardrobe and as usual I had a lovely luxurious fabric in mind and then spotted a bargain on the market (story of my life) and grabbed that instead. It's still a pretty decent fabric though - from the brummy rag market - I did have to battle out with another lady for it though as though was only three meters left and she had her beady eye on it also. Luckily she decided it was too expensive at £2 and let me have it (I later found her at the 50p/meter stall snapping up a few meters of fabric!).

For the price I expected pure polyester but the burn test suggests a good cotton content as well. Happy days.

It's a medium weight fabric which works lovely for the skirt as it behaves and presses well but there's a slight stiffness to it that gives it a great shape too.

You may also notice another new make here in the form of a Tilly and the Buttons Coco - but we'll come back to that one another time.

Construction wise I don't have much to say - all you need to get right is the waist measurement and the rest falls into place. I do find the waistband is too small though, and have had to cut a new one each time I've made this skirt. I'll learn.

I did decide to add another length of grandma's lace to the inside of the hem, just 'cos it's pretty!

Once again, I've tried to do a nice neat job - which is pretty easy on a skirt to be honest (much less potential for things to go wrong!) but I've had a couple of twisted button bands in the past which I wanted to avoid this time. I don't normally faff around with basting, but I'm glad I did this time.

Finally, a bonus photo of a Zinnia outfit I particularly love. Colour matching is the best!