The Tara skirt with and without pinafore

Earlier I pattern tested the Seatoun skirt from Scroop patterns, but to be honest I was even more excited about the modern skirts, the Tara skirt, and especially the Tara skirt with pinafore. I loved my corduroy pinafore skirt that has now become way too large, so it was time for a new one.

I started with the Tara skirt without the pinafore though, since I figured that would be the easiest pattern and I could learn how to make it before making the more complicated version.

For the fabric I used a silk noil from Gårda textil in a pink check pattern. I made it in size 42, which worked both for the Seatoun and my Summit dress, so I guess for Scroop patterns I am a straight 42. The pattern gives an option for flatfelled and french seams, and for this one I used the flatfelled seams. I think they are a bit tricky, and I wasn't able to totally catch the folded fabric in the second seam, especially on the curved seams. 

I made two alterations to the pattern. One was that instead of the narrow turned hem in the pattern I used a hemfacing, following the instructions from the Seatoun skirt. I also raised the pockets. I did that by copying the pocket placement lines from the skirt pattern piece and making a pattern template from it that I then pinned to the skirts and drew new pocket placement lines from. This is also when I realised that I am lopsided, no matter how much I measured the pockets didn't end up level, so in the end I had to use my eye measurement to get them level. 

The pockets are bagging out, which is a feature, and sometimes when sitting down there is a bit of risk of things falling out of them. I also realized that my hips are a bigger size, so it's a bit of a squeeze to get the size 42 waist over them when I get dressed, and in fact I could probably take the waist in a bit but then I wouldn't get the skirt up.

Then it was time to to the Tara with pinafore option, At first I had planned to make the other version of pockets, but I read that one of the pattern testers couldn't fit a phone in them, and I want nice big pockets at work. This fabric was also a silk noil from Gårda textil, but this was stiffer and heavier, it also frayed like crazy. I love how the stiffer fabric holds out the skirt, but it was problematic to work the waistband with this fabric compared to the pink fabric in the other skirt. I cut out the B length instead of the fuller length version and when it was time for the pockets I moved them more to the front and sewed them on flat against the fabric instead of having them bag out like in the pattern, and what I did with the pink skirt. 

For this skirt I used french seams, also a chance to get a bit of variation, and I think the french seams worked the best. Since this fabric was fraying so badly it would not have worked with any other seam. The only thing I changed there was to use a 2 cm seam allowance rather than the 1,5 in the pattern.

If I make another version of this skirt there are some things I would change with the pinafore. I would have liked to have the straps a tiny bit wider, which shouldn't be hard to do by just increasing the width of them. I would also make the pleats on the bottom a bit deeper and add two pleats at the top, to make the pinafore sit more smoothly. This isn't a criticism of the pattern, but simply a fact that we are shaped differently and I could get the fit even more snug with some small changes.. Also when it was time to fasten the straps there are no real directions on how long they should be. I tried them on and sewed them on, but now after having used the skirt for a couple of days I think that I could have made them a few cm shorter. I might take them in a bit, on the other hand it's easy to get in and out of the pinafore when they are bit on the loose side.

Here is my triple of Scroop skirts with the Seatoun, Tara, and Tara with pinafore. This is a straight forward and fairly fast pattern. After I had cut out the Tara pattern pieces it took me two evenings to make the skirt without the pinafore and three evenings to make the pinafore version. I could probably have done both of them in one evening less, but I didn't feel the need to push and stay up late when I didn't have a deadline. Also it didn't help that I did some stupid mistakes and had to unpick the waistband twice on the blue version, and the pockets on the pink skirt also had to be unpicked and resewn on.