70s Scooter Skirt — Victoria Martinez

This project was borne out of none of my instincts for quality and all of my ability to sew for speed. Four hours of work from conception to finish, which is insaaaane for me.

I lent my friend my favourite comfy shorts, and I had beach times ahead that I wanted comfy shorts for. So I went through my patterns and pulled out some shorts that looked a) doable and b) wouldn’t require grading. Simplicity 8698 won out, as we’ve been calling this the summer of the skort and I don’t have any skorts. Plus a waist of 29 is pretty close to my 30/31. View 2 and 3 were beckoning! And then I opened the pattern to find - yay, the efficiency - that this had already been cut out! Except there were only two pattern pieces, the front and back for view 1/2.

So view 1 it was - I wasn’t going to be drafting that front panel nor adjusting the pleats to redraft a version of view 3. I also was not going to grade - instead I sewed the back, front, and right side with 3/8” seams and the left with a 5/8” (to make adding the zipper more straightforward). Interestingly, I think I could have sewn these with the seams as drafted and it would have fit more how I’d prefer as these fall rather lower than I’d like but again - no time for adjustments just going forwards.

The fabric is leftover from my first Philippa jeans, again just something I had on hand and I thought I could probably use it up (I was correct!). It has some discoloration and stains but I wasn’t careful about cutting.

I omitted the front faux fly stitching and buttons. I did a lapped zipper at the side and a hook and eye closure. I did not feel like pressing the hem up (partly because I knew if I did I would feel like I had to get the lay of the length so perfect around the four pleats) so pulled out some bias tape that I thought would work and attached it in one pass. And guess what? That worked just dandy!

So now I have new shorts and they’re cutesie and it was a lovely reset after the Rachel Comey dress for Meagan’s wedding.

Pattern: Simplicity 8698
Size made: 12, graded up 2”
My measurements: Waist 30ish, hips 39
Next time: I recycled & repurposed what little of this pattern was left, but I keep expecting pockets where there are none, so I’d put pockets in in some way.