McCall's 5274 Godet skirt

So my latest project was this godet skirt by McCall's. I was intersted in doing a godet skirt because I originally wanted to play with pinning the godets in interesting arrangements to mimic a skirt I had seen on the street. Sadly, I didn't take a picture, so after fiddling with the godets for a day I had to admit defeat and just make the skirt as shown.

I used some blue handkerchief linen from my stash and the skirt went together without any problems. The only slight snag was the the waistband was not well drafted for the curve of my lower back. It either gapped in the back or sat unattractively low, giving me a Homer Simpson look:



My next sewing class is really going to be a skirt and pants sloper class, but until then...

I decided that I could fix the problem by just adding a drawstring in the waistband to pick up the 1.5" of slack and keep the waistband fairly smooth. A stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. :)

I made the drawstring by attaching two pieces of 1/4" ribbon to about 8" of 1/4" elastic and tying cute, small buttons to the ends so I wouldn't lose the drawstring in the casing (hopefully):



I then used a slightly smaller button as the guide for my machine buttonhole guide and added a buttonhole to ease edge of the waistband on the outside only:



I then sewed the waistband closed while making sure that I did not catch the drawstring in th stitching. Yes I know, I should have sewed this by hand, but it was getting late and I wanted to finish the project. Given my shape, it's unlikely that I will ever be highlighting the waistband on this skirt, so it should remain hidden most of the time.



"I love it when a plan come together."
This totally fixed my waistband gaps without distorting or adding much bulk to the waistband:





And here's the final shots with the seams finished and the skirt hemmed: