The birthday project

A couple of months ago, I purchased some lovely material on sale at The Fabric Store (and made this top with some of it). In addition to the green-and-white checked fabric, I also got this very lightweight striped cotton.

My intention was to use it for a skirt, but any skirt would need lining (which I've never tackled before). I'd forgotten all about it until today, when a lovely friend gave me some spare tulle she had in her garage. Now, my plan is to make myself a spectacular gathered skirt lined with a tulle underskirt in time for my birthday!

After trawling through my patterns, I've decided that the best design to use would be the tried-and-true gathered skirt that I've made a few times (including for my first ever sewing project).

I don't want the tulle lining to go all the way up to the waistband (because it will be bulky to sew into the band, and probably scratchy to wear), so I'm planning to sew some black cotton lining the same as the main skirt piece, but at half the length. I'll then sew gathered tulle to the bottom of the lining so that it will show around 10 to 15 centimetres below the main skirt.

I'll then tack the top of the cotton lining fabric to the outer skirt piece, gather both layers and sew them into the waistband together. The bottom of the skirt should, when hemmed, look something like this.

The question I now have for others now is: will this work? Or is there a better way I should go about adding a tulle underskirt? Maybe I should use a different skirt pattern altogether! If you have any thoughts, please leave a comment. I'm not planning to sew this skirt in a day like I normally do. I'm going to chip away at it a little bit at a time over the next couple of months in the hope of having a finished piece for my 30th birthday. 

Hurrah!