The skirt alteration turned out great! Here are the steps I took:

1.  I tried the skirt on and put a tight piece of elastic around my waist. I pulled the top of the skirt above the elastic and adjusted it until it looked right and was the right length. I marked the new waistline with pins:

2.  I added a seam allowance and cut off the top of the skirt. I couldn’t leave the zipper in place as I had hoped–after I cut off the skirt there was only an inch or two left, so I removed the rest of the zipper:

3. I inserted a new invisible zipper. As usual, I ended up with a bubble at the end of the zipper. I found a great tutorial that I’ll try next time, it’s a little fussy for me, but at least I’ll baste the zipper in first and I think that will avoid the bubble. http://sewiknit.blogspot.com/2006/03/invisible-zipper-tutorial.html I never use an invisible zipper foot, just a regular zipper foot and I smooth the coil open as I sew.

 4.  I tried on the skirt and fitted it to my waist using the 6 seams–two side front seams, two side back seams and two side seams.

5.  I cut a facing from the upper skirt that I had cut off and finished the new top with the facing. The skirt is lined, so I re-inserted the lining before I sewed on the new facing.

6.  Voila! A new skirt that is shorter and perfectly fitted to my waist–it’s gorgeous! The back is still longer than the front. The only way to change that is to re-hem the back. I don’t want to do that and it looks good as is.

Here is a picture of the back, the bubble at the end of the zipper doesn’t bother me too much. (Check out my entry in Tutorials to find my fool-proof way of fixing little sewing problems.)

Ta-ta for now.