Of course I'm not actually an idiot so by "just do it" I mean that I popped into King's after work, bought some £1.50 per metre polycotton and made up what in the UK is known as a toile and in the US as a muslin. Although I'm a Brit I'm going to be calling it a muslin, not least because I have great difficulties pronouncing the work "toile" (it usually comes out somewhere between toil and twirl). I have no such issues with the word "muslin".
Given how inexpensive the fabric was I had more qualms about cutting into my pattern pieces than into the cloth but I managed to get them all pinned on and cut out correctly with no mess ups. It is really a very straightforward pattern in the main (although the bit about the zip looks rather scary) but it's my first attempt at sewing from a pattern so I'm a bit scissor shy.
Because it's a layered skirt there are an awful lot of pattern pieces to cut out, but because the layers end in raw edges there isn't a commensurate amount of hemming so I was able to sew up the muslin pretty quickly.
It fits extremely well, in fact almost a little too well, given that the real skirt is going to have a lining. I'll make a decision tomorrow, at an hour more conducive to rational thought, about whether my pieces should be cut a little larger or whether it just means that the skirt will sit a little higher.
