Hot Patterns Artful Dodger Bustle Back Skirts

Man these HP pattern names are long! This one is now out of print I'm afraid, here is a picture of the pattern envelope.

This was another experimental piece, made from some denim that I bought a lot of with the intention of making the perfect pair of jeans. I'll get to attempting that one of these days. I definitely need to wash the fabric about 50 more times before then though, despite 2 prewashings the colour bleeds like crazy, my hands were bright blue and I had to paint my fingernails just to cover it up because while the colour comes off the fabric easily, getting it off your fingernails is another story.

Honestly, when I had assembled the back of this skirt I thought about binning the project. for someone with, ahem, generous hips, I wondered what on earth I was thinking making this skirt. However, almost all the work is in the back of the skirt (more on that later) so I figured I may as well at least baste it together and try it on. And you know what, it's not too bad! Of course I will get blue legs whenever I wear it and I will have to remember not to sit on any friend's white sofas, but with boots and a jacket this will be a nice addition to my fall wardrobe.

The only tricky part to this skirt is the back, the reviews on Pattern Review really helped me from tearing all my hair out. Basically in addition to the usual back waist facing, the upper back also has a facing, similar to a hem facing which is then attached to the lower part of the skirt. This is probably quite obvious from the pattern pieces if you make the a-line version with the zig zag facing. The back hem ( the real one) also has a facing so thats 3 altogether. Mark your pattern pieces carefully! Apart from this the skirt construction is very straightforward. Here's some photos to try and illustrate the tricky part;

Apply upper back facing to hem of upper back
Understitch, turn, press and topstitch if desired
Attach lower back to bottom of upper back facing
Fold upper back over lower back and topstitch in place, you end up with a lip as shown below