Another UFO brought home to roost

I am trying to keep my pledge to myself to finish one UFO for every new garment made, so here is the latest UFO to leave the cupboard of limbo and make it into the wardrobe of wear.....

This is a wool skirt with a wide yoke waist band made from Simplicity 4599, which I have used quite a few times (including, true to my form, another UFO!) so it is practically a TNT pattern. Because the skirt is cut partly on the bias due to the curve in the skirt, and the fabric is quite heavy, I let it hang so that the bias could drop before I hemmed it. And well, it hung for a good 12 months - I had to be sure the bias had fully dropped you see!

No, the real problem was that it looked a bit blah. I love the cornflower blue colour, and the wool is soft and not itchy at all, but it was lacking a certain something that would have otherwise compelled me to finish it. And then when I was cleaning out some papers (ahem, crap) in the study I came across this picture I had ripped out of a magazine who knows when:

The skirt is by a label called Ashui, which retailed for $169. With that for inspiration I finished the hem, sewed on an 8cm wide band made from red polka dot cotton, randomly sewed on some white buttons I had picked up in a op shop somewhere and the skirt was fit for wear.

The hem looks a little crooked in the photo above, but it is because I pulled it taut whilst sewing so it gets a rippled effect when I'm wearing it, but wouldn't sit very flat for this photo.

So anyway, this weekend just past was another long weekend here in Australia, celebrating the Queen's birthday. Yes, that would be the Queen of England, and no, it's not even her birthday but what can I say, we're Australians and if the government tried to cancel a public holiday there would probably be a civil war. I didn't get any sewing done however, since I went up to Brisbane to visit the inlaws, but in true government employee fashion I have taken today (Tuesday) off work as a flex day, and so I hope to keep another of my pledges today: to improve my Burda WoF cost per make ratio!