Imagine that said in an vehhy posh accent along the lines of “are you being served modom?”…
Little anecdote; many years ago I took part in a group craft project, and another lady in the group had clear and firm ideas about what we were to produce, and how. At our first meeting she approached one lady and as a first spoken utterance to her, enquired “do you appliqué?”
Hehe, that’s neither here nor there obviously, but it’s stuck with me for years and years and still gives me a laugh.
Man I need to get out more…
Anyway…
skirt!
We bought this novelty print cotton drill from Spotlight a few years ago, and Cassie was supposed to make the skirt herself, but you know.. time goes on, you get busy, life takes over, whatevs, and it eventually falls to your mother who is sick to blinking death of looking at this blasted fabric hanging around, gathering dust and generally taking up precious stash space that could be given over to her own fabrics … gathering dust ahem…
Anyway! time for some interventive action.
I used no pattern but just made it up to fit what she wanted. She wanted high-waisted, close-fitting at the waist and this length, and for the paintbrushes to be situated exactly so high and for not a single skerrick of print to be hidden or broken up in any darts or shaping. I cut two rectangles with no shaping, to maintain the print, put in an invisible zip at centre back, and pinned tapered box pleats to fit her waist, each one going straight at first then tapering narrower for the last third to accommodate her hips. There are four such pleats both front and back.
Pretty easy, once I got going on it! I added a shaped, interfaced facing, and hand-hemmed.
Done!
The one difficulty; inserting the zip centre back was a teeny bit angsty, because I discovered that the paintbrushes are printed just slightly slanty and off-grain… OF COURSE THEY ARE.
I chose that shortest pencil on the fold to be the “sacrificial” pencil through which to cut the centre back seam, and sewed the seam with as narrow seam allowances as practically possible and as close to the pencil/brush on either side as I could get. It passes right on each one, touching the very tippy top of the one at left and scraping the very bottom of the one at right. Phew!
Answer? Yaaas dahhling, we do most certainly Art.
Wow, that's fabulous! I want a skirt like that! It wouldn't look anywhere near as good on me as it does on Cassie though.
Excellent! (said with Bill & Ted intonation!) Crazy fabric, beautiful skirt, lucky Cassie!
Oh the things we do for our children!! 🙂 You are a terrific mom and Cassie is such a beautiful young lady. Love, love, love these photos and of course, not to mention….. the skirt!! So cool and perfect for your daughter. 🙂
This is wonderful!
Very cool print – glad you took it into your own hands to turn it into a skirt! Looks terrific. And like a super fun photo shoot.
Oh yes you really do Art! 😀 What a great fabric and pencil skirt (hahaha). You did a perfect job on matching the pencils at the back seam, I'm very impressed! 🙂
love the skirt.. and the poses 🙂
Hahaha! Love these photos. And the prop. They are so, ah, so ahty, dahling. One pencil to sacrifice, not bad. That shall be my new favourite line, "Excuse sir, do you applique?" inquired with eyes half-closed, a tilt of the head, trying to keep the boa feathers out of my mouth.
Gotta be the funniest of all your posts evah. Brava. And the skirt is great. 🙂
Funny story. Friend went to a sewing group and stepped outside to take a break. Approached by another attendee who said in a thick German accent – "Do you smock?" Well, yes, said my friend. At which point the other attendee offered her a cigarette. True story. From Perth too. I love the skirt. And if you are really concerned about using ancient stash items…. don't come to my place!
that's hilarious! 😀 I'm not so concerned about my own ancient stash items. I'm just hypocritical about other people's fabric and how long I'll tolerate it in there! 🙂
Indeed a good post, so glad I happened to read from top to bottom.. how could one stop, and where?
Lovely fabric, pens and brushes..AH-ARt love. Fancy writing too, and beautiful pictures, possibly even hilarious by choice of comments.. anyone?
Also impressed by the back solution. Thank you so much Carolyn!
thank you very much Oda! 🙂
Wow, what a fabulous and fun fabric! A funny story and a great skirt too 😀
Nice a usual. I can see the need to avoid cutting up the flow of the pencils. Great save and love the way your daughter does her posing.
Perfect "arty" skirt. Very clever the way you designed the skirt around the print without compromising it in any way. Your daughter is a great model.
I'm glad you made this fabric up – I have seen it and loved it for ages now – your (Cassie's) skirt looks wonderful in it.
Agh, I need this fabric! This is the perfect art teacher skirt. Well, except for the fact that it's white 🙂 I love it!!
A wonderful skirt and a wonderful solution to the brief! Art indeed.
I know that deal all too well! Daughter accompanies mother on one of her many fabric shopping trips and buys fabric saying "I will make this up on my Uni break". Said fabric than comes home and daughter then says…"Mum can you put this in your fabric cupboard". Mothers answer is "yeah right, have you seen my fabric cupboard? Store it in your wardrobe". Fabric then stays in said cupboard until Mother takes pity on said daughter and offers to make the fabric up. Yup, it happened in my house just recently!
Great skirt! You did very well with the print matching.
A 'brush' with fashion. Neat.
Wonderful daughter, wonderful skirt, wonderful post! I am impressed how you do Art 😉 Best print placement and zip insertion!
Great skirt. Lucky Cassie.
Epic. Work. This print is rad 😀 And very arty photos 😉
Best Pose and Prop of 2015!
That print is sensational and well done on perfect pattern matching.
Love the fun photos and the whimsical skirt.