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I am almost certain that I was born without a fashion gene. Nowadays my daughter is on hand to make sure that I do not make any huge fashion mistakes, but back in the late 1960's, it was a different story.

As I began my college course straight after leaving school, the mini-skirt was almost dead. It had been a fashion revelation but something new was needed to keep us all on our toes enter the midi'. The midi skirt reached mid-calf and was worn with boots. There was also the maxi' which was as long as you could possibly wear it without it dragging along the floor.

Travelling to college each day, I would have to change buses right in the middle of the city centre, therefore all the fashionable girls could be seen walking around, going into all the trendy shops, always wearing the latest fads. With boots underneath it, the midi had an equestrian quality to it, and looked very smart and elegant. I desperately wanted one.

However, money was short. My Father was the only wage-earner in the house, and though I was given pocket money each week, I would have had to save for weeks to buy the skirt I really wanted and I was impatient. Fashion trends had always passed me by and I was determined to be in on this one! It was Winter and midi skirts were ideal for the cold days.

I was given some money for Christmas and decided to go midi skirt shopping but though I went to the cheapest shops and all of the January sales, I could not find a midi skirt in my price range, they were all far too expensive.
So I hit on the idea of making one why not? How hard could it be? Surely a skirt was just two bits of material with a waistband wasn't it?
You will have gathered by now that needlework was not my strong point either and I didn't consider things like darts or seams, I really had no idea of the concept of making a garment. My Mother didn't even own a sewing machine so I decided I would have to do it all by hand.

Feeling optimistic and hopeful, I went off in search of material. However, the places I went to seemed to stock only the most expensive kind . The only material I could afford was black and white polka dotted cotton hardly the thing for a cold January, but I was determined, I had to have a midi skirt and I was tired of looking at things I could not afford.

Armed with my polka dotted cotton material and a reel of black cotton I hurried home to begin my dressmaking. I decided that I didn't need a pattern, all I needed to do was to get one of my skirts and draw around it, making

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