Skirting the issue

My niece Zoe was in the shop on Friday and went doolally over a fabric in my bunting stash. Because I had a decent sized piece of it, I decided to make her a skirt for Christmas. As you do.
I cut three gored panels using my pinking rotary blade, as I really like pinked edges on this kind of cotton. The idea is that the skirt has a centre back seam and two seams that land slightly forward of the sides. I know she likes a 14 inch length from what she was wearing on the day, and has a 24 inch waist. I've gone for a gore rather than a straight gathered on look as at 11, her tastes are not so much for the poofy and frilly. SO sad... ;-)

 Three panels stacked up. Next stop, a bottom flounce cut on a gentle curve. I used a big craft ring as a template.

 After joining two ends of the two flounce pieces into an infinity strip (grrr) I resewed and narrow hemmed the whole thing. I french seamed because I am mad, having been happy to pink the rest, and of course narrow hemming over a french seam is, well, mad. 12 layers of fabric? Mad.

 When I laid the flounce down against the skirt, I realised I was going to have to gather it up a lot, turning it into a frill. Bad. So, I lined it up and cut a big piece off the end. One french seam eliminated. Replaced with a pinked one.

 Finally sewn on, I rather like it. It's not quite as fluoro as in this photo. But she does love lime green so she will be happy!

 To cover up the seam joining the flounce to the skirt, I sewed a bias binding to the seam allowance, then flat to the skirt.

 Then I added a wide elastic waistband.  I decided to sew it facing upwards, then bring it down over the raw edges and sew again, like a one sided flat felled seam. A great plan except I sewed the skirt to it the wrong way first time and had to unpick it.

At last, all seams face the right way, have been sewn down and here is the inside showing a nice, neat inner.
What I learned - sewing in the shop when tired and being interrupted is not a good time to try and invent new ways of finishing garments! And making some attempt to measure things before cutting them saves time and fabric. Amazing!
But we got there in the end!
Hopefully the Zoemeister will like it and not think it too young for her.  Although she chose the fabric even if she doesn't know that I've made her something out of it. I wouldn't have picked this for her if left to my own devices, and my sister thinks she will like it so that's good :) She is in that teetering stage between childhood and teenager, which is utterly delightful. I hope she is in no huge hurry to grow up too fast.