Okay, I got a couple of pictures of my skirt - I hope they show what I was talking about.
You only need one lace per two columns of squares i.e. one lace goes down... then back up the set of leather squares. The loose ends of the lace are then left at the top of the skirt as you'll see on my skirt. When you are all finished with the lacing and it has time to hang loose and you re-tighten the lace you can attach to the belt as I have done and then cut off the excess lacing. I just haven't cut off the excess lacing yet.
On the end row you simply tie a knot on the end and lace up the side, leaving some at the end.
Here are the pics. If you need closeups or better pictures, I'll need to use my other camera...
The skirt back: Note that the lacing pieces hang off the end of the belt.. I will need to trim them off of course - but each piece is tied off at the top end of the skirt, not continuously laced on the skirt.
This is a partial view of the front of the skirt - only "x" can be seen on that side except at the sides.
Edit: I have an extra row of squares because I needed it to be the right length on me... (it might be 2 - I don't remember any more ?). When we came up with the measurements, I wanted those to be correct, but then the skirt wasn't the correct length on me... so I needed the extra row :facepalm