No pattern sewing: Plaid Circle Skirt

This week at the Sew Weekly, they went patternless! As I'm just now back in the sewing room since my surgery, I thought I'd join back in with the Sew Weekly challenges, and finally complete the Circle Skirt tutorial provided by Casey at Elegant Musings.  Two birds, one stone.

Fabric: Plaid wool blend from JoAnn's.  It was on sale and I bought about 5 yards.  I still have some extra so I can possibly make another garment with the leftovers.

Pattern: None! Ha! I used the tutorial from Casey's Elegant Musings

Notions: 9" zipper and a button from my collection.

I had intended to participate in Casey's Circle Skirt Sewalong back when it was happening (September - October), but I was participating in Self-Stitched September and was honestly intimidated by the whole 'drafting-my-own-pattern-using-math' concept... even though the math was minimal.  So I just kept putting it off.  Every time I went to pick it back up, I would find some reason to work on another project instead.  Until I was 1. antsy from not being able to sew, and 2. saw that the Sew Weekly challenge was going to be drafting your own garment, without a pattern.  Ok, ok, no avoiding it now.

As usual, with something that I think is going to be a hassle, it turned out to be ridiculously easy.  My main problem is that I never want to use muslin to make a draft.  This time, I had to in order to not mess up my yards and yards of fabric.  So I actually drafted my 'pattern' onto Swedish tracing paper.  Once I saw that the instructions totally worked, I was full steam ahead.  I took the measurements that Casey requested, and decided to make the length of the initial skirt (pre-hemming) 28" from my waist.  I knew I was aiming long but I figured I could always cut away if it was too much.  I ended up keeping the length as is, though I may shorten it at a later date.  I really like the length so far, but just below the knee might be more enticing when the weather starts to heat up again.

Even better? I saved the small 'pattern' that I made, wrote out the extra measurements - including skirt length, waistband length - and saved it with my pattern collection so that I could make it again.  Now, I can make another circle skirt any time I want.

The only problem with full circle skirts? They require tons of fabric.  But the result? I love how flow-y it is and the way it hangs.  It makes it extra fun to twirl.