Close up image of a woman leaning against a wall with her hands on her hips, wearing a light green tank top, pink cardigan, and mauve floral skirt. Teal text overlay reads Making the Lindy Petal Skirt, Petite Font dot com

The Lindy Petal Skirt: for those who love to show off their legs!

Who doesn’t love a pencil skirt with a little something extra? A little va-va-voom, if you will. Some pizzaz. I’ve said it before: I’m all about showing off those legs!

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That’s where the Itch to Stitch Lindy Petal Skirt comes into play. It’s a quick and easy pull-on knit skirt with a cute little crossover front hem that’s still modest enough for the workplace. And it’s FREE!

And because I’m what my teenage niece would call “extra” (side note: what the hell does that even mean??? I’m not actually sure I’m using the term correctly…), I had to make a PETAL skirt in a FLORAL fabric. Because why not? When you design your own wardrobe, you can do whatever you damn well please.

And I like big bold florals. Hello, Lindy!

I don’t even remember buying the fabric, which is a large scale floral knit crepe called Liverpool, a poly-spandex blend. My memory is fuzzy but I’m guessing I picked it up at my go-to Liverpool shop in DTLA, JB Textiles, in preparation for February’s makes, since it’s in the purple family. It sat on the fabric pile week after week until I realized that it actually matched the green for my SWAP capsule dead on, so maybe that could be one of the two accent prints! I immediately cut out the Lindy Petal Skirt AND a Circle Cardigan…but then I hated how the cardigan looked on me so my mom received the gift instead.

Looks wonderful on her!

Image of a short haired Latina woman in a mauve floral Circle Cardi over a pink ruffled shirt and tan pants, standing in a grassy backyard

Back to the Lindy. I always have a challenge with deciding WHERE a skirt should go on my body because I:

have a super short waist (only 3” below my bust),
and a tummy roll (because food is more delicious than kickboxing), and
am short so my range for an appropriate length is rather limited somewhere between low quad and the edge of my patella (anything longer than that makes me look even squattier, higher and I’m “skirting” the edge of modesty. [Yes that pun was intended, and no I won’t apologize for it.]).

I usually have to shorten a skirt no matter what but first I have to figure out where along my torso it should start. Patterns can be helpful by stating a skirt should sit X from the natural waist. That’s a good starting point. Not so helpful patterns can complicate this issue by saying that the natural waist is NOT the smallest part of your torso. L’sigh.

Luckily the Lindy Petal Skirt pattern is not one of them! This particular one is drafted to be higher on the waist. So my natural waist, since it’s further north than most people’s (and especially the standard body for which patterns are drafted), right?

I used my natural waist measurement as a starting point either way, putting me at an XL graded to an L at the hips. Because of my shorter legs, I took out 1″ in length and then tested the paper pattern to make sure the crossover in front would still have sufficient coverage at that length to be work appropriate. Then I cut and basted the whole thing together to see what worked.

I wore a light cami so I could draw on it with washable marker and set about trying to decide how far up my “waist” this would go. Of course I also have a shorter hip curve because I’m just petite all over. But I really didn’t want to redraft the curve so I left it as is and drew lines on the cami to see where the Lindy was most comfortable and the hip curve hugged the curves the best. My tummy roll can fight with elasticated waists and usually forces them to slide down, so this step was super important.

You can see my lines for natural waist, the line where bottoms always fall after losing the battle to my tummy roll (basically my belly button), and two other lines in between:

Image of a pink lace accented camisole with faint purple lines marking the waist

Once I determined which line was right for me (the second one down), I measured a piece of elastic around that part of my torso and sewed the to the waist facing. And then I was done! Super quick and easy once I got through my personal challenges.

The construction of Lindy Petal Skirt is easy but clever and the instructions are very clear and well-written. Because it is made for knits, you don’t have to finish the hems but if you choose to (I did, with a twin needle), the instructions neaten this process by having the hem folded into the side seam for a clean finish.

The waistband is constructed in a new-to-me method. Instead of creating a casing, the elastic is sewn directly onto the facing and simply folded down to the inside so it is hidden from view. To keep it down the side seams are reinforced with vertical stitches in the ditch, but the instructions also suggest you can tack the waistband down if you like. I haven’t but I think I might, just to keep any accidental flippage from happening.

Image of a curly-haired Latina woman leaning against a wall with a US flag poster on it, her hands on her hips, wearing a light green tank top, pink cardigan, and mauve floral skirt

The end result is so cute! It could use a little more tweaking in that hip area (damn shortie hips!), but it’s workable. I love the print and think the meta floral petal skirt is very me. As cute as the Lindy Petal Skirt is though, I probably I only need the one in my wardrobe. That being said, it would make a sassy addition to a faux-wrap dress, so I might try that in the future.

I love a great base pattern that lends itself to a good hack! Get your free Lindy Petal Skirt at Itch to Stitch.