New patterns and fabrics, Inspiration and potential projects

I've been wanting to make a buttoned down skirt for a while, and View C of McCall 5912, which I found on a recent trip to Value Village, would be a good pattern to use.

I like the idea of a high and wide waistband like this:

AlicegoHome skirt

and I'm thinking the waistband from these Burda pants (116B from August 2008) could probably work, I would omit the zipper and replace with buttons:

Ideally my skirt would also have pockets, which I could easily add if I do side seams. Or I could find a pocket yoke pattern to adapt....

I actually found a very nice piece of brown wool/silk blend fabric, but it was an end of roll and it's only 1'30m long, and the McCall pattern requires 1'70m, not to mention the extra fabric if I were to add the BWOF waistband.
So I was actually wondering if it would be a bad idea to cut the pattern on the crosswise grain rather than on the lengthwise grain. I did this for my recent vest, as I wanted the stripes to be vertical and not horizontal. I haven't noticed any problem in the way the garment falls, but I am wondering if for a skirt it would be a bad idea. I'll take any advice and suggestions on that !

The fabric on the right is the potential skirt fabric (in reality the color is a much richer brown than this). I purchased it from Designer Fabrics in Vancouver. The plaid fabric on the left also comes from there. It's also a wool/silk blend and I got 2,5 meters of it, maybe for a coat...

This is my latest purchase from Dressew. A ribbed knit fabric in grey with a slight purple undertone (sorry for the poorly lit photo and inacurate color).
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I ended up buying it on an impulse after remembering this inspiration from B.Jones Style ( I loooooove her style by the way):

The skirt looks really comfortable and easy to wear. I thought I would use the fabric for a dress though, with the shape and length below in mind, though I would probably not do all the curved seamlines, but rather a one-piece front and back and I would do long sleeves rather than the "structured" ones:

This is still under reflection and one of these projects that you doubt the outcome would be any good but oh well...

While at Value Village, I also picked up a couple other vintage patterns:
Simplicity 6580; I really like the jacket and I might try to make it soon. It doesn't have a collar or lapels, which will make it easier as my potentially first jacket project. I found a heavy, stretchy cotton in a dark grey that would work great and I'm thinking of using a contrasting fabric (like black satin) for example, for the neckline piece, which could also be used for the sleeves lining, so that it would show when rolled up.

Butterick 3731 looks like a perfect spring/summer dress, but for now I'll just put it in my "summer projects" pile for later...

These next pieces of fabric I've actually had for a while and haven't decided what to make with them yet...

This piece is wool. It's dark blue (the photo makes it darker and greyer than it is) with stripes. Again I only have 1,30 meters of it and I'm not sure what to do with it, maybe this vest from the October 2010 issue of Burda. It would be easy to wear with jeans...

And finally this is a piece of silk I've also had for a few years. It is actually 3 meters long, so I have enough to make a couple different pieces. One of them would probably be a blouse of sort, and I could use the rest for a coat/jacket lining...

So there you have it for a little round up of my potential upcoming projects. I realize this post is kind of all over the place, but strangely I don't have a clear definite idea of my next project yet so this is me musing at the 'sewing projects that may or may not be" in the near future...