Semi-Homemade Skirt and Tank Top

Yesterday as I was rifling through the crafts section at a thrift shop, I came across a piece of pretty red fabric for 50 cents. When I got home I realized it was the beginning of a skirt that someone had never finished. Plus, it had pockets. The pockets were what made me want to finish the skirt. It was already hemmed, but hadn't been gathered at the top. Also, there was no waistband. So I took to the internets to find a suitable online pattern. I came across the Alice Dress. It seemed simple enough and I have an old H&M tank top with a hole in it, so why not put them together?
Here was my basic idea:

The skirt was too long for my liking, so sadly enough I had to trim the beautiful hand-hem job, but luckily it left me with enough fabric to create a waistband. First I hemmed up the skirt just by doing a basic stitch. It's visible on the outside, but I don't mind it. Then I basted the top of the skirt and created gathers like so:

When it was gathered to my liking (and I was still able to slip it over my hips), I secured the gather with one more stitch all the way around. After cutting a 3-inch waistband from the hem I sewed it to the top of the skirt, flipped it around, and sewed the band to the inside, creating a 3/4-inch waistband. I left part of the waistband open so I could push elastic through it. When the elastic was tight enough for my waist, I sewed it up and voila! A nearly perfect skirt -- with pockets!

I was going to sew the tank top to the skirt, but then I decided not to because I may want to wear the skirt with other tops. I did take inspiration from the Alice Dress and I made ruffles out of the bottom of the tank. It was a long tank so I trimmed off the bottom 3 inches and hemmed the raw edge of the tank. With the 3-inch strip I basted the raw edge, made two ruffles and secured them to the collar of the tank. The other edge of the ruffles were already hemmed since that edge was originally the bottom of the tank. It was really easy. I need to do this more often. I felt like the craftiest person.

Here's me out on the town with my new outfit: