The Ashley Skort

Are you looking for a summer staple?  Look no further than Ashley Skort by 5outof4patterns (affiliate link).  So many choices: mini, knee, tea, maxi lengths, contour, fold over, elastic waistband, maternity, low, mid, or high rise and the shorts can have pockets, or not. The shorts can have no gusset, half a gusset or a full gusset. Oh and the skirt can be woven or knit.

Any idea which one you’ll choose yet?  (affiliate link)

For me, a skort is about a functional skirt that can be worn to do lots of active things: sports, chasing toddlers around the park- that sounds creepy-  I mean chasing your own toddlers or those within your care- gardening, activities with lots of bend or getting up and down.  All things that having shorts underneath would make much easier.

I once had a love affair with running skirts which always had shorts but the affair ended because the shorts never fit right.  They usually would slide up my athletic thighs and make me crazy and ruin the joy of looking cute.  For me, a skort should be short.  The shorts are there in the event I accidentally flash someone because my hemline is questionable but the shorts also have to stay in place and serve a purpose.  Ashley skort from 5outof4patterns (affiliate link) does just that,

For this pattern, the front hem is higher than the back, especially at the maxi length.  One person said she loved the idea of a cape flying behind her as she ran after her kids, with the freedom to move her legs because of the shorter front 😂. For me, maxi length is not an option.  I feel like I’m wrapping myself in fabric all day once it goes below my knees.  

I chose the mini length for all of mine.  Given my 5’2” frame, it doesn’t look too mini.  It’s almost knee length in the back.  

As with all 5outof4patterns (affiliate link) , this one comes with “shorten/lengthen here” lines so for this one, I shortened it 2 inches and also just did a lettuce hem.  It’s still longer than I’d expect for mini but it’s a very thin knit that grows as the day wears on😂. You know those knits?  They feel so nice because they are soft and flowy but have you ever tried to sew them?  I equate it to trying to sew water.  I used thin fabrics for the shorts, the skirt and the waistband on two of mine and almost lost my mind trying to sewing all and make sure nothing slipped out.

For all of mine, I chose to make shorts.  This skirt could be made as just a skirt but check the cross in the front if you’re worried about modesty.  Two of my shorts don’t have pockets but these do.  Excuse the ridiculous shorts fabric given the fabric for the skirt.  In my head, no one will ever see the shorts so who cares if they match?  Well, if you’re going to show them in the initial release for the pattern, then really, they should match.  Lesson learned.  

The shorts have lines for 2, 5 and 7 inch inseams.  I chose 5 inch for two of them and  did a one inch hem.  For the red pair, I went for a 4 inch inseam and one inch hem because they are for the shortened mini.  

Let’s talk about the waistband.  I did the contour for all of them.  There’s the suggestion to use elastic around the top and I highly suggest it.  This particular one is a cotton Lycra that grew all day and I chased that waistband everywhere around my abdomen. Even with the elastic, it rode up and down as moved,   The other two didn’t do that at all, so I’m blaming the fabric, for sure.  

Here’s why I ended up with the cotton Lycra.  This skirt is a woven and I’m not a fan of the waistband on a woven being a knit.  I can’t explain myself, but it’s a look I really don’t like, for myself.   I got this wild idea that somehow, I was going to make a woven waistband work.  I even went so far as to cut the woven waistband to fit my hips and then I expected the elastic to pull it all in at my waist.

It fanstasticly did not work.  Even though I tried it two different ways and had to remove the waistband both times.   At that point, I needed a black knit to be the least conspicuous- white would have really made me upset because it’s a different color AND a different fabric from the skirt- and I grabbed the first thing I found.  Not a fan of the waistband on this one so something will have to be done.

For this one, the waistband is the same as the skirt and that’s my favorite option.  The shorts on this one are  see through purple and therefore not for pictures, but I can tell you I didn’t pay attention to what I was doing and made a gusset out of the red and white polka dots.  Right in the crotch of my pale purple shorts.  This is one of those things that make me think if I’m in any kind of accident while wearing these, they’re going to be so confused if they have to cut my clothes off in the ER😂

Don’t tell me you’ve never had this thought when you’re wearing something you made that has something that the public would never normally see.  There’s always something, isn’t there?

This one ties as my favorite with the one above.  Look at that different waistband from the skirt!  Again, I can’t explain my rationale but this is fine with me.  Something about the red shorts and the red waistband and the red polka dots on the skirt just go together.   This red fabric is a French terry that I loved but when I first washed it, the whole piece was ruined because something else in the load ran all over it.  I didn’t throw it away and I’ve been slowly using pieces of it that aren’t tainted.  This was perfect for the shorts since no one really looks and there is some dark color on the waistband but most likely, no one will see it.  

Contrary to most of my pictures here, I will not be wearing any of these with a bare midriff😂.   I’m so short in the torso that nothing I own for a top works well to show off the waistband of this skort .  If you happened to drive by last week around lunch time 3 days in a row while I was standing in my yard, my shirt tucked up into my bra and smiling, now you know why.   I wasn’t just flashing the neighbors, the flora and the fauna- I was completing a pattern test for 5outof4patterns (affiliate link)