Schoolgirl charm with sophistication

It's back to school with the Anna Maria Horner's Study Hall Skirt!

I have wanted to make this skirt since we opened in 2010. And finally did it last week. Not bad! 

This skirt is a classic: clean lines and a great fit. It's also versatile and it makes you look S-K-I-N-N-Y! No wonder people have been gleefully making this pattern since it debuted in 2009! 

Fashion forward seven years, this skirt would look amazing with a pair of boots or even a pair of Adidas pool slides. And what would it look like as a maxi? Hmmm...

Proud of myself that I actually traced this pattern (using our red dot tracing "paper"), so now the pieces have retained their integrity in case I do not. And there are lots to trace. Nine to be exact. At first I was put off, but told myself to quit whining and get on with it. So glad I did.

The first thing you are asked to do is insert the invisible zipper, so you get that out of the way right off the bat.

Next, interestingly, the instructions have you fully assemble the front section and then the back section - complete with waistband facing and bottom banding. I'm not sure why, or if it matters really. I have just always done waistbands, and other elements that tie the front to the back, as a separate thing once the body of the skirt has been sewn together. But, in a new valiant effort to actually follow pattern instructions instead of create my own, I deferred.

The trickiest part of the skirt is creating the inverted box pleat. It's not difficult, it just takes a few extra minutes to pin through the layers to be sure you are sewing "invisibly" in the seam line on the inside and outside. I thought about hand basting for a minute, but then decided to just do an exceptional job of pinning and sewing very slowly.

 Voila! It worked! Here is the outside of the pleat that was stitched in the ditch.

Here is a picture of the "boxed" pleats from the inside. You can see my zipper basting stitches, as well as the fact that I incorporated the selvedge into the pattern piece so I would't have to finish the seams. I dislike finishing seams. 

The rest of the pattern is pretty easy, so I won't go over that. But here are a few finished pictures. In case you are wondering...I used our Theory cotton poplin. It is a very cool black and green stripe that isn't showing up very well in my pictures. Oh well. 

The Study Hall Skirt was THE perfect thing to wear TO school this morning for my daughter's 10th grade parent coffee. In fact, SHE even said it was cute! What a compliment! : )