Gabriola Skirt!

Y'all, I made Sewaholic's newest pattern, the maxi Gabriola skirt. 

After making my linen Hawthorn last year, I really wanted to make another linen dress, and I found this pink and white striped linen at Gorgeous Fabrics.  But it occurred to me, thankfully, that this fabric made into a shirtdress could make me look like a candy striper.  So I held onto it, waiting for the right pattern.

I love me a maxi skirt: I own five store bought maxi skirts and three me-made ones.  I was excited about this skirt because the interesting piecing of the hip area:

I didn't bother matching the stripes here, obviously.  I decided the loose weaved linen would be too much of a nightmare to do any matching, although now I wished I had tried - I think it would have looked awesome if I could have pulled it off.

I nearly pulled off the matching on the back, albeit unintentionally:

The skirt went together easily; quilters would have no problem getting the skirt yoke pieced together - it was kind of fun!  I did a lot of topstitching on this skirt - linen loves topstitching, and it helps control wrinkles.  I topstitched on both sides of each seam, and I topstitched all the edges of the waist band.  I went with a hook and eye closure on the waistband, and just put in a topstitched hem.  

The skirt is delightfully swishy, a lot of fun to wear.  

The only fly in the ointment?  It's too big.  The pattern, thankfully, gives finished garment measurements on the back of the envelope (I love that feature in the Big 4 patterns, and I'm happy that this independent pattern maker included it on hers).  But the measurements are incorrect.  Based on my body measurements, I wanted to make a skirt with a finished waist measurement of 30 inches.  According to the pattern, that meant I should make a size 8.  Which I did.  But the finished waist measurement was 31 1/2 inches.  Which is the size 10, not the 8.

This explains why so many people have mentioned that the waist on this pattern is really big - everyone has been making the wrong size.  To my credit, I did a flat pattern measure of the waistband, but I assumed the mistake was mine - maybe I wasn't measuring correctly.  

Nope, to make a skirt with a waist measurement of 30 inches, I should have made a 6, not an 8.

I'm a little disappointed because I really love this fabric, but I hope to make this again, just one size smaller and then it should be perfect!