As a way of easing myself into sewing, I decided to follow Mimi G’s Sewing 101 series on her blog. I’ll be honest, when I saw the pattern that I’d be making I almost didn’t do it. It was the Butterick B3134 skirt, to which my initial reaction was, “Grandma skirt!” No offense to any grandmothers, but looking at the cover picture on the pattern made me think of church mother in her 70’s. Judge for yourself….

See what I mean? I couldn’t conceive how I was going to style it and, being as I already have enough unworn clothes, I didn’t want to add to it. After debating whether or not I’d do it, I caved in. If I was going to become proficient in sewing, I needed to start with the basics and this was it.

This was a simple pattern, though slightly different from the Simplicity pattern that’s used in Mimi G’s videos. I chose style B, which is comprised of a pair of front and back side panels and a pair of middle panels. The tutorial deviates from the pattern slightly, installing an invisible zipper with a hook and eye instead of the visible zipper called out in the pattern instructions. 

Though I was hesitant to try this pattern, I was able to learn a lot of basic/intermediate techniques from it. I attached lining and a waist band, installed an invisible zipper, hemmed, and hand stitched. I am very proud of the finished project. And, despite my initial thoughts, I was able to style it with a few items from my closet. No grandma skirt here!

Material – Polyester/Cotton Twill

Belt – New York & Co.

Bag – New York & Co.

Shoes – BCBG

Let me know what you think of this outfit in the comments.