Basic A-line skirt drafting

Because fashion sewing imho is totally underrepresented over at , I decided to take the chance of this month´s challenge to provide you with a small tutorial on how to draft a basic A-line-skirt. *g*

As usual the pictures are clickable for larger versions.
The drafting lines are hard to photograph, so please take the time to see the bigger versions.

Here we go:
Drafting requires taking your measurements first, best taken over the underwear you will most likely wear under your finished garment.
Of course I didn´t want to show up almost naked or violate any copyrights by using images from a sewing book, but a nice lady who's my friend for more than 25 years now isn't afraid to show, so I asked her over. She may turn 48 this year, but still she's a role model to many.
Please let me introduce you to Betty...

*gg*

	You will need the following measurements: waist (pink ribbon) hips (the widest part of your body; green ribbon) hip depth (distance between those lines; see red arrow in left picture)
	Decide how long you want your skirt to be. (In my case: 60 cm)
	Get your tools ready: A long ruler (a patchwork ruler works well!), scissors for paper or a rotary cutter (don't use the one you use for fabric, the paper will dull the blades!), french curves or - even better - tailor's curves and a pencil. This time I used thick feltpens, but you should use a pencil with a fine point. Thick lines are not what you want, I just used them because otherwise you would see NOTHING instead of "not much"... ;)
	Take a piece of paper about 100 x 100 cm (or a size to match your pattern). You may also glue several sheets together. Mark a line in the upper third - this will be your hipline.
	Mark the center of this line. This will be the point where sideseams meet at your hip, I'll refer to it as "point X" *g*
	Draw a second line parallel to your hip line. The distance is your measured hip depth. This will be your waistline (or waist-helping-line). The pictured third line in a 90° angle to both other lines is just for further guidance.
	Draw another line marking the length of your finished skirt (measured from waist to hem). All lines you drew until now are just helping lines and don't belong to the actual pattern, though they are neccessary.
	Based on your taken measurement mark center front and center back of skirt: hip measurement + wanted ease / 4 = distance between point X and black lines In my case: 94 cm + 6 cm / 4 = 25 cm for each side.
	From center front/center back, mark sidepoints for waistline: BACK: waist / 4 - ease + dart width (in my case: 72 / 4 - 2 + 2.5) FRONT: waist / 4 + ease + dart width (in my case: 72 / 4 + 2 + 2.5) (In case you have a "stomach", like me, this will make the sideseam look straight in spite of being lightly curved in real.)
	From those points go 2 cm upwards and 1 cm downwards on the line of center back to draft a slightly curved waistline. Don't worry if it isn't all that perfect round - you can adjust everything when you trace and cut the paper pattern.
	At the half of both waistlines draw a helping line for the darts in a 90° angle to the "waist-helping-line" (pictured in red). To both sides of this new (blue) lines, mark 1/2 of dart width.
	Draw darts. The back darts should be slightly longer than the front darts. In my case the front dart is 8 cm, the back dart 10 cm long because in fact I DO HAVE a butt. Note that the points of the darts aren't placed on the blue lines but slightly beneath them - The measurements of this "misplacement" equals the distance of the curved waistline to the "waist-helping-line" (marked in picture).
	Draft sideseams from waistline down to point X - these lines should be slightly curved, because your hip is also slightly curved.
	The skirt's hem will be wider than it is around the hip, so the lines for the side seams will cross in point X - the shapes for front and back will overlap now. Mark points 5 cm above your marked skirt length and 5 cm away from center line. The wider your skirt, the bigger these measurements.
	Draft the beginning of your skirtlength in a 90° angle to the sideseams, otherwise your seamline will look crooked and wavy.
	Draw a slightly rounded line from those points towards the center back and center front.
	To make the skirt look "neat", draft a facing for the waistline (a second line parallel to waistline). My facing is 6 cm wide. DRAFTING IS FINISHED HERE - Wasn't all that hard, was it?! :)
	Because drafted pieces overlap in your drafting, trace front and cut from tissue paper. Cut back from drafting paper. With cutting you can adjust curves. Trace both front- and backside facing, fold darts closed on facings (shown).

Congratulations! You can now happily use your pattern!

My tutorial is over, but here is a short summary of sewing:

From fabric cut front, back (center front and center back will also mark grainline and will be laid on the fold) and facings, adding seam allowances, marks for darts and hem allowance.
If you're not completely sure if your pattern really works out, make a muslin or use wider hem- and seam allowances so you have some "ellbowroom" to adjust seamlines and hemline.
From lining fabric cut front and back MINUS facings.
From fusible interfacing cut facings. Iron to fabric facings like indicated.

Sew darts on fashion fabric as well as on lining fabric, iron towards center.
Sew side seams on outer fabric and lining,leaving open about 20 cm from waist down in the left seam (right seam in lining) for the zipper. Press seams open.
Set in zipper to skirt. You may prefer an invisible zipper if you have one handy - this would be the perfect solution. I used a normal zipper, but used the invisible zipper foot of my machine. Works well! ;)

Close right side seam of facing. Sew lining to lower side of facing. Iron seam allowances towards facing. Topstitch, fixing seam allowances in place.
With right sides facing, sew facing to skirt. Press seam allowances towards facing. Topstitch facing to hold seam allowances in place.
Fold facing and lining inside skirt, press.
If wanted, hold facing in place with some stitches by hand.
Handstitch facing and lining to zipper.
Try on skirt and mark final hemline. If you don't have one of those fancy tools for marking, try using this tip (via whipup).
Hem skirt and lining.
I would have preferred a blind stitched hem, but my serger ran out of thread right after I did the rolled hem on the lining, and my cotton/silk fabric is so very delicate and frays like hell, so I finally decided for a "normal" hem.

Skirt, finished... all sides, unfortunately shown on me, not on pretty Betty:

I hope this tute is plain - sometimes I run out of words, so if you have questions or suggestions how to improve this, please let me know. I appreciate your feedback!

Have fun drafting - or leave it ;)