a skirt by accident

This skirt was made using my still favorite skirt pattern from this Japanese sewing book.  This is the first spring/summer version of this pattern for me, and I love it just the same.  However, this fabric took a long and windy road to become a skirt for Sophie.  Originally, I bought the fabric to make a skirt for Sophie, but Emma saw it and wanted a skirt from it, and Sophie liked Emma's fabric so I said okay, ironed the fabric and cut out the pieces for a size 120 skirt (best part of the pattern, it goes to size 140).  However, I forgot to add on the seam allowances (an important step when using Japanese sewing patterns).  It still looked to be large enough as the girl is still rather petite.  At least, things looked good until I needed to fold the back top to make the casing for two rows of elastic - oops!  There wasn't a seam allowance added for that and I would have to cut more than an inch off the length to make it happen.  So, Emma and I had a talk about what happened, she dug through my stash to pick out her new favorite skirt fabric and I made the cuts and eventually finished a spring/summer skirt for Sophie (the original intended owner).  I suppose it was fate.

Now - why I love this pattern so much:  the front pleats and the elastic being restricted to the back only makes this skirt look so much more polished and finished and almost professional.  It doesn't take that much more time to make and the sizing really works for my kids (when I do it right).