The Peppermint X Paper Theory Pocket Skirt

When I first started sewing I would look for free patterns. The hard part with free patterns back then was that they simply weren’t great. It wasn’t like they were all bad, it was just the little things: instructions were slightly off, didn’t have a great variation of sizes, they were just sacks labelled as clothes or they just weren’t in fashion (really not in fashion, take my word for it please). So after a while I just stopped looking.

Fast forward to today. I had been seeing for some time around the socials everyone trying out various Peppermint magazine patterns. I’m very familiar with Peppermint magazine. One of my favs before I became a Mum. I’d look at each page carefully. So many wonderful things were contained in those pages and I didn’t want to miss a thing. So finally I decided to venture on over and check out the hype. EVERYONE, THERE’S SO MANY FREE PATTERNS AND THEY LOOK AMAZING! However, I went there for one pattern in particular, the Paper Theory pocket skirt. Found here.

Now I’ve never tried Paper Theory patterns before but I have seen how well loved their patterns are, specifically the Zadie Jumpsuit. Fun fact: I own that pattern, I just haven’t made one yet! Anyway, off topic, back onto this pocket skirt. It looked so effortlessly cool and I just loved the pockets, so I just had to try. So I printed it out, taped it together in under 10 minutes using my PDF pattern cutting technique and cut out my pieces ready to sew for the next day. Let me tell you, it’s been a while since I sewed something that fast.

Let me set the scene. It’s Saturday and the kids and hubby have gone down for naps. I head down to my sewing room mildly distracted as my girl Emily is texting me sewing talk so my sewjo is somewhat lacking. I pick up the pattern pieces I cut the day before and slowly start sewing. I usually am quite the fast sewer but I was just slow that day and I kid you not, I finished that skirt in an hour flat. Completely done. It was GLORIOUS. This is where it’s at people. Minimal effort, maximum reward. I mean, look at this thing I created.

It had been some time since I had worn a skirt, let alone made one. Funny, because when I first started sewing I used to only make and wear skirts . Let me tell you though, this is an absolute dream after teaming it up with this deadstock stripe corduroy I picked up at Harmony Provo. It’s just everything. I also need to give a little shoutout to Janell who works are Harmony. We were having a chat about this and I was really torn with what to make with it, and then she said how great it would look in a skirt. It’s like all the gears in my head aligned when she said that. I had this pattern on my mind, and then she said skirt and I was like YES! The hallelujah bells rang clear in my mind.

So without further ado here she is. Oh and about those free patterns. They’re way better now and I am a believer. Get on it people! Also included are pictures of my little family in their matching bottoms! It was our first time being all matchy and I gotta say I love it! We all modelled at the Harmony Provo fashion show and now my kids are convinced they’re models! I’ll let you be the judge.