Burda 7741 in all its wonderful strangeness

I made a skirt using Burda 7741 -- twice -- last year, and then forgot all about them when Winter came.  It's actually a really awesome skirt, and I'll get to that, but first let's take a look at the pattern envelope illustration, shall we?   What exactly is going on here?  The world's most boring disco party?  An exorcism featuring identical cousins?   Whatever it may be, these are not outfits that most of us would covet.  Especially if we happen to be over the age of eight.   Am I out of touch, and this what passes for teen fashion these days?   Or hm, is it what the teen's sewist mom is supposed to want for her precious daughter.  That seems more plausible.

Honestly, I don't know what made me look at my vast pattern inventory and decide that this was the thing I needed to sew.  Maybe it was its minimal fabric requirement.  Actually, I'm almost certain that's what it was.   Most of my skirt patterns are for fuller designs, and I had a remnant I wanted to use.   I hate high-waisted anything so the view on the left was out.  The view on the right looks like overalls and lederhosen had a baby, but take away that weird bib thing, and the skirt part's not bad.  I added two inches to the length, since I left my teens behind half a lifetime ago.  (And I wanted to be able to wear this to work.  Or even out of the house.)

This is a very straightforward skirt to make -- it's got a yoke, a side-zip, and two patch pockets.  The skirt part's gathered into the yoke.  I made the first version out of a seersucker plaid remnant from the Jo Anns clearance section.  I painstakingly lined up the plaid on the pockets, only to sew one on with the wrong side facing out -- the front and back of the fabric are indistinguishable, at least when you're not trying to match plaids.   Easy to see once you know to look for it, but I'm thinking most people won't notice.

The second version was made from quilting cotton (also from Jo Anns) and lined with cotton batiste.  If I walk really fast (lengthening my stride) the lining wants to peek out a little in the front, but it's almost the same color as the skirt, so it's no big deal.  I don't know if I needed to make the lining a little shorter (it's an inch shorter than the fashion fabric -- that's what I typically do) or if it's just gonna happen with this shape of skirt.

I wore the second version on an outing to the Gap a few weeks ago, and amazingly, TWO employees complimented me on it.  I've never received compliments on something I've sewn from a stranger.  I've certainly gotten the standard "oh, did you sew that, how nice!" comments from co-workers, but it's hard to know how much of this sort of compliment stems from politeness.  Anyhow, I was psyched to receive praise for something I made -- it seems like some sort of sewing milestone.