Pattern drafting - the skirt block

I took a pattern drafting course at a local education college last year-ish and despite a promising start, it ended up being a huge disappointment. With my hunger for knowledge left unsatisfied, I decided to sign up to four 'intensive' lessons at the School of Sewing, the first of which I attended last Saturday. It was six hours long, we worked really hard and I now have high hopes for the next three lessons.
Working with Winifred Aldrich's Metric pattern cutting for women's wear - which is available for just £9.99 at The Works by the way - we plotted our skirt blocks, sewed them up in muslin, made any necessary adjustments, copied them onto cardboard for longevity and then repeated for the facing.

We also spent a good portion of the afternoon practising drafting different skirt designs, using quarter scale versions of our block. This involved a lot of tracing, cutting out and glueing...just like being back at school!

The sessions are spread across four months to give us the opportunity to practice what we learn. So our homework is to draft and make a skirt to wear to the next lesson. In theory this sounds brilliant, but my big problem is that I don't really get on well with skirts. I hardly ever wear them and with the exception of my Tilly picnic skirt, I can honestly say I've not made a single one that I'm truly happy with.
The honest reason for this is my body shape. I'm not being self-deprecating here, the simple fact is this:
Although I have a relatively small waist, I also have muffin tops.
Why is this a problem? The muffin tops make it impossible to wear skirts on my high hip, because they simply ride up to my smaller waist and gape. So I have to make high-waisted skirts, which would be fine if I didn't have a short-ish waist and a big bust. I genuinely don't know how to get around this issue, so I just stay clear of skirts, but I'm quite happy living in dresses and jeans.
I didn't want to be a spoilsport in terms of the lessons though, so I turned to Pinterest for inspiration. Although these are the kind of skirts I'd love to a) be able to carry off and b) have the occasion to wear...

(Image sources: 1 / 2 / 3)
...I think I'd feel more comfortable in these more casual styles.

(Image sources: 4 / 5 / 6)
But nothing's set in stone, I'm still pondering and hoping that I'll actually end up with a skirt that I love wearing!
What about you, are you a skirt person? Are there any designs or patterns that you'd recommend?