The search for a practical skirt

For the reasons Deb Rebel pointed out (drafts, bugs, thorns, etc) I personally don't find dresses or skirts so practical for working outdoors in, unless... I wear leggings under them and boots. I love boots. Boots just make everything better to me. So for me, it's either long pants or dress/skirt with leggings.

I also love aprons with lots of pockets.

A super easy skirt pattern if you're open to knit fabrics is something I came up with a while back because I had access to knit fabric that was in a tube rather than flat. Describing it is more complicated than doing it. Those tubes made things SO simple: I just got a fabric where the tube is large enough to pull over my hips (usually they were larger than that) and get a length of it about 2-3" longer than the length I wanted it from the waistband. Then all I needed was a piece of elastic band in the width I wanted (usually that was about 3/4"-1") that was about an inch longer than my waist measurement, and some thread.

I'd simply fold over one end of the tube once and sew it so there was a channel a bit larger than the width of the elastic, say 1/4" more (leaving a 2" gap in the sewing to get the elastic in of course). I only did one fold of the fabric for this because the knit fabric didn't unravel and my aim was for the elastic and fabric to sit flat. Then I'd put the elastic in using a safety pin to pull it through and then to pin the ends together for trying on. While wearing it I'd overlap the elastic and pin it together to sew later so that the elastic was not stretched at all but the waistband was sitting flat against my skin. (Doing this while wearing it helped account for the difference in the size based on the fabric and gathers).

This is where I would do some styling by pulling the gathers of the fabric to where I wanted them on the waistband. I liked to have no gathers at the sides or in the center front, but did like gathers in back as well as on either side of my feminine pooch. I'd re-adjust the elastic overlap as needed, and put other safety pins or regular pins or clips on the waistband at the transitions between gathers and flat (to contain the gathers to where I wanted them. Then I'd take the skirt off and sew the elastic overlap, sometimes sew the channel closed, sometimes I'd leave it. And then the key to the styling: sewing a straight stitch line vertically across the width of the elastic at the edge of each flat area so that it keeps the gathers always in the same place on the elastic without sewing on the gathers themselves. Since the knit fabric would hang nicely and didn't unravel at the cut I also didn't hem it either.

It was really practical and kind of chic because all the gathers at the waist meant more width for the legs, but since they were styled in that way it had the look of a tailored and fitted skirt (and didn't flounce around so much so didn't get in the way when working or hiking uphill so much either)... but was totally simple to make and wear as the elastic made getting in and out of it a breeze.

It wasn't so practical for pockets, etc., but aprons and shirts with pockets did the trick for that. An apron could keep the skirt from getting stained or messed up for going to town--just remove the apron if you want and the skirt is clean looking and good to go.

For those who want the extra strength a drawstring brings that elastic can fall short on when pockets holding heaving things are involved, but find the drawstring gets in the way too much: have you tried having the drawstring tie in back instead? Bows in back can be cute and functional, and they are my preference if having a draw string.

Love this thread by the way!