My Kim skirt

Say hello to my Kim skirt, so called because this lovely soft wool fabric was one of the fabrics that Kim from Reves Mechanique brought along to the fabric exchange as part of January's sewing blogger meetup in Antwerp, and I was the lucky one to go home with it at the end of the day.

Thanks, Kim! I only hope that whoever got some of the fabric remnants I brought has enjoyed them as much as I've enjoyed making this skirt. Fabric exchanges are great because it's a chance to give a good piece of fabric a new home if you are not going to use it, and it's a chance to receive some one-of- a-kind fabrics, the likes of which you might not find again.

I used the By Hand London circle skirt app which I think is just amazing! They've done the maths for us! I still think it is useful to understand the calculation behind the app though: just think, one day you could be stranded on a desert island and you'd have to make a circle skirt with no app...

Maybe when I was doing my Higher Maths back in the midst of time the mysteries of Pi would have been more exciting if we'd combined the lesson with a jaunt downstairs to the Home Economics department to make a circle skirt. I am also prepared to eat my words as I specifically remember ranting as a teenager about how I would 'never use maths in the real world'. How wrong I was!

The best thing about this skirt though was that it was my first attempt at a lapped zipper. Stupidly (or daringly) I didn't do a practice zipper first. I just followed some instructions and went ahead directly onto the skirt; much unpicking and one very improvised rescue method involving bias binding later and I have what I hope can be described as a lapped zipper!