In order to have a straight waistband, I had to make a side closure, so I left the two half gores as they were, instead of sewing them together to make a full gore.

Making a new waistband was fairly easy. I took my waist measurement and added three inches for underlap. After figuring out how wide I wanted it to be (1 ½"), I doubled that number and added ¾" for seam allowance twice to the length and once to the width. (This makes sense in a minute.) I then measured the strip of fabric off along the selvedge edge of my fabric. I also measured a strip of fusible interfacing the exact length and width of the finished belt.

At the ironing board, I folded the belt material almost in half, leaving the ¾" cut edge exposed past the selvedge, and ironed the folded edge. Then, I unfolded the material and fused the interfacing in place on the side with the seam allowance. Next, I folded in the seam allowances on each end, ironing them in place, followed by the top edge.

To sew it to the rest of the skirt, I measured out my three inches underlap, and marked it with a pin. I then marked the quarter- and half-way points using that pinpoint as one end of the waistband. I also marked the eighths around the edge. I did the same thing for the skirt, measuring out a section for underlap—so nothing shows if the side gaps open—and then marking all the points around the top edge. When I started pinning them together, I lined up the pinpoints, gathering in material where need be, and pinned the two parts together, the selvedge edge of the waistband on the inside. Then I just sewed close to the bottom fold, making sure I was sewing through the selvedge, and then sewed the ends shut.

To hold it shut, I'm using three hooks-and-eyes, two parallel on the back half of the underlap, and one in front of them, making a triangle.

I'm going to need to figure out a better way to sew up the last seam; I'll probably have to do it after the waistband is in place. My first attempt, I misjudged where the underlap would occur at the top, and it poofed out at that point. So I ripped out the seam and sewed one in about where it should be. But because I had already turned over the side edge for the opening, the new side seam runs crooked and it still poofs out a little. Next time, I think, I'm going to hem the outer side of the closure, but save the side seam for last, until after the waistband is in place. However, it's not that noticable because of the way the skirt drapes so it's not really that big of a deal.