The perfect skirt - without a pattern!

I have a skirt I love very much, not only is it pretty but most importantly it fits me like a glove. I bought it in Belgium about 5 years ago. I've been looking since then for another similar skirt but haven't managed to find one that fits me quite so well.

Since I've improved on my sewing skills, I figured I could just buy a pattern and make my own but yet again, I was unable to find the exact pattern I wanted.

So I challenged myself to reproduce the pattern of the skirt I love so much. The obvious way would have been to unpick my skirt, lay all the pieces out on a piece of paper, trace it and hey presto, there you have a pattern! But I haven't got enough faith in my sewing skills to trust that once I'd unpicked the skirt I'd be able to stitch it back together and it would still look like my favourite skirt. So I had to scrap that idea and find another way.

This is the skirt I wanted to reproduce (I know it could use a spot of ironing in that shot!):

I spent an afternoon on all fours in my living trying to sketch a first pattern. 

Once that was done, I did a mock up skirt in a bit of polycotton I have lying around: 

The mock up allowed me to correct a few issues. As you can see from the picture above, the curve at the bottom of the skirt was too pronounced and needed straightening a bit. So I made a second paper pattern:

Satisfied that I now had the right pattern, I decided to use a fabric from my stash - a fabric I bought in Sweden last year. I cut my fabric, overlocked the edges, stitched the concealed zip and then abandoned the project for the best of three months... I finally got back to it earlier this month when someone asked me about it. 

The skirt is now finished and fits me to a T. I'm super happy with the result, it really doesn't look amateurish at all! The fabric gives it a lovely folksy look too. And now I have the pattern, I can make as many as I want :-)