Next on my to-make list...

From the book Dressmaking: the complete step-by-step guide, by Alison Smith (Dorling Kindersley, £25), I'll be making two skirts from two pieces of fabric I've had for too long. Click here to buy it for £8.99 from the Book People, saving £16.01.
The book has patterns you can scale up on dressmaker's paper, or you can do what I did, and download the patterns from the DK website. Print them out, and stick them together. Cleverly, the pieces are coded so you know what to stick where.
The first pattern, a classic fitted skirt, is for a beautiful silky green sari-style fabric bought from an offcuts bin in Berwick Street.
And the second, a classic A-line skirt, is for a piece of red velvet cut from the bottom of a curtain from Ikea - waste not, want not!
The curtain is made from cotton velvet and intended to be hung at a window, but ours is hanging across the doorway of our open-plan(ish) kitchen and living room. As it's hanging from a lower-level pole, there was a very big hem to be taken up. And a piece of scarlet velvet big enough to make me a skirt simply cannot be wasted...
I'll let you know how I get on!