DIY: Simplicity 2906 Half Circle Skirt

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The Simplicity 2906 Half Circle Skirt (View A) is the first garment I’ve ever sewn for myself using a pattern. I’ve altered t-shirts and sewed up colourful patchwork skirts for myself as a teenager, using only my doll clothes-making skills. This is indeed a simple pattern, as it only has two pattern pieces, a zipper, and a twill tape waist stay. I made it in a dotted even weave polyester that I got for $3/metre in Fabricland clearance, in a rich aubergine colour. I sewed a size 18 of Simplicity 2906 according to my measurements on the envelope, but I had to take it in quite a bit because it had so much ease! If I were to sew this again, I might try it in size 16 or even 14. I also ended up chopping off about 10 cm from the hem to shorten it to just above knee-length.

I was a bit wary of inserting the lapped zipper, as I’ve sewn zippers on bags and doll clothes before and remembered wrestling with the machine to get my zipper straight. However, this was before I started using the zipper foot! Luckily the old machine I use (which is a heavy metal Singer that my mom bought in the Riyadh souks back in the early 2000s) came with a variety of feet and I was lucky enough to find the zipper foot. Using a zipper foot makes it so easy. Even though I am by no means an expert, inserting a zipper is much easier than I remember!