Kind of a Salt-and-Peppered Oatmeal, if you ask me

This is me, standing on top of the table formally known as my studio, in the apartment formally known as home. Sporting the 3rd skirt I've ever made for myself, loosely based on McCall's 5053. While it isn't exactly the look I was going for in my head when I'd originally imagined up the skirt, overall I'm relatively pleased with the result.

The positives:
-Linen is cool in hot weather ... as my test run in New Orleans proved.
-I tried to pick a color scheme and fabrics that would be versatile dressed up or down, and go with most colors in my wardrobe, and I think I succeeded on that front.
-The striped ribbon originally coordinated with a B&W shirt but I think it looks better here. Also, you can't tell but I put in a little bow on the side of the ribbon.
-I think it drapes pretty nicely and I was super paranoid about stretching so I stay-stitched everything.
-I know fashion magazines tell you that short women should wear skirts that stop an inch above their knee, but this is my favorite skirt length so there.

The negatives:
-Much as I like the ribbon, it 1) is sewn on rather wonkily, 2) manages to hit my hips at just about their widest point. Much as my friend likes to tease me about my "child bearing hips," they're not exactly an attribute I like to emphasize as such.
-On that note, the way the skirt is cut adds a lot of flair and emphasis from the widest point of the waistband which unfortunately, as mentioned above, sits at the widest point of my hips, making my hips look even larger than they normally look. If I was about 10 inches taller that might be a nice effect, but as I stand barely north of 5 feet, not so much.
-My dad called this skirt "hippie-ish" which sort of defeats the purpose of trying to get it to dress up for somewhat-formality, although I guess the crumpled linen look takes care of that anyways.

Random technical sewing construction notes:
-Although sewing the facing down nicely hides the raw edges of the waistband and the skirt itself, if it doesn't lie completely flat [as mine doesn't] then it gives it a bit of a homemade look.
-Since I mistakenly bought a pattern size too small, I trimmed 1/4" off the top of the waistband to get it to fit.
-Since I'm short I just took look B and forewent the contrast band and added my own double-fold bias strip to lengthen the skirt about 1/2", which turned out to be the perfect length.
-On that note, the bias strip is cut at 30 degrees not 45 like it normally is, otherwise all the polka dots would have been in very boring rows, yawn.
-This is a very loose weave cotton/linen blend and I need to find a better way to finish the seams if I ever use it again. Trying to figure out how to save this current skirt from more spins through the washing machine as it is ...


But overall I'm pleased with it. Like I said, I'm slowly learning to attend to the details.