Not to be confused with a flamenco skirt by the way…

I picked up this fun flamingo fabric from Tissus Reine in Paris a couple of months ago. I ended up only buying a metre so I was a bit limited in what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted a skirt but I had no fixed idea about what I actually wanted it to look like!

In the end, I figured with a print as busy as this, a little pencil skirt would probably be the best idea. What came to mind was the mini Arielle skirt from Tilly and the Buttons. 

I’d used that pattern before to make this a while back and I liked the general fit of the skirt – the high waist hit me in the right place and it was quite generous around the hip which, let’s face it, is rather a necessity for me.

I just wasn’t sure if I would like the buttons of the wrap skirt on top on the flamingoes. It felt like there would be too much going on! 

So I decided to hack the pattern into a standard mini skirt – taking out the wrap front design detail. It felt like I was un-hacking the pattern as instead of adding design, I was taking it away!

It’s a easy thing to do though do though. If you want to try it do this:

– Add a 1.5 seam allowance to the centre back of the back skirt pattern piece. Cut out two of these.

– Fold the front skirt pattern piece so the waist darts are exactly on top of each other. This crease is now your centre front and you can cut it on the fold.

I put in a lapped zip in the centre back of the skirt to close it. I hadn’t done a lapped zip in years – not since figuring out how to put in an invisible zip – and I’d forgotten how nice they can be! I’m definitely going to be using that more often in future!

I have a feeling this skirt is going to be worn too much this summer. If such a thing is possible.

It’s just too much fun!