New skirt.
The above picture is showing what I actually wore out and about today… please note the far less glamorous shoes than featured in the remainder of this post!
Pattern; Vogue 1521, a Perry Ellis design from 1985.
Fabric; taupe and white silk/linen mix from Fabulous Fabrics, with a crisp and rather dry and paper-y texture to it. The taupe was purchased as a remnant, and I added the panel of ivory onto the bottom edge. I added it underneath the hem, leaving a little overhang of the brown, so it looks more like an underskirt than a pieced addition. Pockets are cut from some nondescript cream-coloured cottony stuff, from a bundle of scraps Mum gave to me.
So; this is another thing to fit in with my vintage pattern pledge; only my version is terribly unfaithful to the original design. It is supposed to have an absolute truckload of pleats up the top there. I got halfway through making it, pinned the pleats and all and I and suddenly just hated it, and veered whimsically off and away for a random new look.
But, I’m still counting this as part of my vintage pattern pledge 🙂 … not because it’s almost the end of the year and I’m running out of time to fulfil it … 😉 well, okaaaay, there is totally that! 😉 Anyway technically these are all the pattern pieces cut out right and they’re all joined up in the ordinary way and all; just that instead of multiple pleats there is just one giant pleat both front and back. I wrapped the extra width back upon itself, folding the same way on both the front and the back. And bought it into my waist more with some discreet darts along the top, both front and back, and overlapped the R side pocket with the front pleat a little bit too. This worked out quite well, I think.
Moral of the story; if you’re hating where something is going but you really do want it to work, because you really love the fabric and don’t want to waste it, or can see some potential in there somewhere … DON’T GIVE UP! There will ALWAYS be a way to make it work out!
Being that it is so unfaithful to the original look, is this a cheat on my vintage pattern pledge? Meh, I’m not angsting over whether I’m sticking to the letter of the law all that much. Generally speaking I prefer an avant garde skirt over a safe one.
I maintained the L side pocket closure, which I’ve always though was a brilliant closure/pocket combination deal. I should do these more often! And instead of button/buttonhole I sewed on some long tweed straps, made from sewing up a scrap of bias cut piping tweed that was wrapped around a bundle of fabric I bought at the Morrison remnants sale a few years ago. It’s very nice tobacco-brown tweed and I always knew I’d like to use it featured somewhere in a thing. I really like how it its rough matte texture looks against the smooth dull sheen of the silk.
Wanna see something funny? here is my 20 year old self wearing the top I made for myself using this same pattern, thirty years ago. I know I made both the top and skirt when the pattern was first released, but strangely I can’t remember any of the details of that first skirt! A bit sad too; I know there are loads of things from my younger years that I’ve forgotten, simply because I have no photos of them.. Here, I’m visiting a rose garden in Pinjarra with my mother and grandmother. I totally would not remember that outing without the photo. It’s sad how much of our memories are only cemented in later years by the existence of a picture, to jog them.
Project happiness factor; given my rising hate for it halfway through (bad) followed by serendipitous ad-libbing and eventual satisfaction (good) I’m awarding this one 8/10.
Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1521, a Perry Ellis design from 1985, taupe and ivory silk/linen
Top; my own design; blue jersey dyed black, details here
Shoes; low sandals are 2 baia vista from Zomp shoes… high black are Diavolina from Zomp shoes
