skirt Archives - Page 10 of 34 - Handmade by Carolyn

little yellow skirt; 6 different ways

08/06/2016 1:11 pm \ 30 Comments \ Carolyn

I found this post in my drafts, and came thisclose to deleting it but then hesitated… see, I stopped writing these 6 different ways posts because I started to worry they were boring to anyone reading my blog. But then I just thought that was silly. Because you know what? I just kinda like them. I like looking back on my old daily outfits, seeing my old favourites, what worked and what didn’t… and this little yellow skirt was a goodie that I got a lot of wear out of before I dyed it a different colour. And I think I might even compile a second 6-different ways post in the future for its new caramel incarnation because it’s been equally fab as a caramel skirt too!
I made this skirt in yellow corduroy using Vogue 1247 and posted it here; and then proceeded to wear it A LOT, it seemed to work really well with a lot of stuff. These outfits are ranged from summeriest for the first picture through to winteriest for the last. It was better as a winter skirt, being corduroy, but was ok on cooler spring/autumn days too, when it made a nice sunshiny splash on a nice sunshiny day. I’m almost wondering why I dyed it!! but I just remember being a bit sick of it and since it turns out that I love it even more as a caramel skirt then I don’t regret dyeing it at all, of course! Although maybe, just maybe I need another yellow skirt in my life… *wink*

Most of these pictures are from a time before I was making my own shoes, however one outfit, the top right one with the orange top and blue denim shoes is an entirely 100% self-made outfit; since I did make those shoes! All items of clothing are made by me… I haven’t put in any links but any questions as to individual items seen in these pictures please ask in the comments and I will supply pattern information as required 🙂

Posted in: fashion, Uncategorized \ Tagged: 6 different ways, skirt, Vogue 1247

purple-y jade

23/05/2016 4:18 pm \ 21 Comments \ Carolyn

Remember my little charcoal Jade skirt? and how I mentioned I ~~needed~~ wanted it in a heap more colours? well, to cut to the chase, ta-da!

Pattern; the Jade skirt by Paprika Patterns. Now I’ve always said Vogue 1247 is my favourite pattern for a little winter skirt… well. It’s early days and I can’t say this pattern has usurped that princely position just yet, but it’s peeping over Vogue 1247’s shoulder, and sneaking its hand quietly up to the crown. It doesn’t have pockets, true; but it’s fun and cute and different from just about everything else out there, and for stretchy knits I reckon it comes pretty close to the perfect little winter skirt.

below; the lining perfectly matches my tights for some reason, oh yeah, because it’s cut from the leftovers
Fabric; a silk/cotton knit from KnitWit in a rich bordeaux purple, and lined with black stretch polyester, the same stuff I make all my tights from. It appears slightly browny-rusty coloured in these pictures but trust me, it’s really rich wine/purple. I initially honed in on this exact fabric in a very nice, mossy swampy green, then thought a bit more about the skirts I already have and the colour of tops I have… see, trying to plan a bit more, be more, what’s the buzzword of the moment? o yeah… intentional about this and not so spontaneous and frivolous and crazy impulsive. Sensible, even! So this is a very handy colour, new to my wardrobe but still toning in very nicely with tonnes of things in there quite beautifully, and I’m trying to push away naughty thoughts of zooming straight back over to KnitWit and snapping up some of that nice moss-green anyway. Still thinking about it, but trying not too. Semi successfully. I’m giving myself a month, and if I’m still dreaming about that mossy green, then I’m giving in; but in the meantime I’m going to be strong and RESIST.

Because there were faults in the fabric, the lady in KnitWit kindly gave me a little extra, so I still have enough left of this purply knit for a top of some kind, though probably with contrasting sleeves… so am giving some thought to black pleather, or even olive suedette or something like that.

In the meantime I have a zillion other things on my list too; gotta get cracking. Just too many ideas, and not enough time!

Details:

Skirt; Paprika Patterns Jade skirt, in reddish purple cotton/silk knit
Top; the twist top from Pattern Magic 1 by Tomoko Nakamichi, in bottle green ponte, details here
Bodysuit (under); Closet Case patterns Nettie; in paprika stretch polyester, details here
Tights; own design, black stretch polyester, details here, and my tutorial for making your own tights pattern here
Shoes; made by me, details here

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: daily outfit, Jade, Paprika Patterns, skirt

charcoal jade skirt

01/05/2016 12:22 am \ 23 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a new little mini skirt! It looks sorta plain at first but it has an interesting folded front that makes it a little bit more exciting. It’s comfy and easy, and I also think it’s pretty cute too:)

Remember that fun “pick three descriptors that define your style” thing that we were all doing a few years ago? The three I kept coming back to for myself was : Simple, slightly sporty, and with a twist. It’s hard to define the complexity of yourself in just three things, but I still think those ones pretty apt for my style, and they also describe the style of this new skirt, and actually this whole outfit pretty well I think!

Pattern; the Jade skirt, by Paprika patterns. This first came out a year ago? I think? and pretty much every single version I’ve seen has made me sit up and pay attention like mmmm ooo, nice! must get that pattern! So finally I did. An early Mother’s Day present… from me, to me 😉 This skirt is version A, the short one, obvi.

the back is quite plain

Fabric; light but sturdy, charcoal grey cotton jersey, from KnitWit; stretchy but stable. I opted to make a version with no zip, since I thought my fabric was plenty stretchy enough to work without one. And, turns out that it’s not really. Ooops! The waistband doesn’t stretch enough to get over my “child-bearing hips”, as my grandmother used to call them! so I pull the skirt on over my head. I’ve got quite slight shoulders compared to my hips, so this is pretty easy. I’ve had a few things in my lifetime that I’ve had to put it on in this way!

Adjustments; the skirt seemed at first quick perusal to be reeeeeeally short, so even though I knew I would only be wearing it with tights I added about 2cm in length. Of course this then diddled about with the folding on the front bit but I managed to incorporate the extra length fairly seamlessly by slanting the lowest two folds each just a touch further downwards than they should be. I think you can hardly tell, which is good. However I probably wouldn’t bother with adding any extra length to any future versions , since I think it would be fine without it.

I fully lined my skirt with the same fabric, the design has a nice, neat and tidy construction whereby all the seams are hidden between the two layers, with the very last step hand-slipstitching the inner waistband facing down inside the skirt.
It’s a lovely tidy way of putting it all together

Final verdict: I LOVE it! Simple, slight sporty, and with a twist! It’s perfect for me! Ok, I don’t have much else to say, so if you’ll excuse I think I need about a hundred more in all different colours…. *plotting*

Details:

Skirt; Jade, by Paprika Patterns, in charcoal cotton jersey
Top; Burda style 111-04-2014, in white bobbly fabric, details here
Tights; self-drafted, black stretch, details here and my tutorial for drafting your own tights pattern is here
Shoes, my own design and made by me here

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: daily outfit, Jade, Paprika Patterns, skirt

Magdalena Dusk; an Alabama Chanin project

09/04/2016 9:22 pm \ 77 Comments \ Carolyn

Finally! my Alabama Chanin outfit! It’s finished, and now done and dusted! Yay! I may look all cool, calm and collected on the outside here but on the inside I’m cheering like a madman.

Phew. This project has been quite an undertaking… quite an undertaking, to say the least. I had received a length of beautiful Alabama Chanin cotton jersey in colour Dusk from the lovely Lisa, of Lisa’s Carolina, and I really wanted to do the fabric justice, to honour its Alabama origins and make something worthy and not to do things by halves. I decided I just had to go the whole nine yards and make another full-on ensemble. The Full Monty Alabama Chanin. Obviously!

There was enough of the blue to make one skirt and a few bindings, so I needed to make some more colours…. I bought some plain white cotton jersey from Spotlight, cut some scraps and played about with dyeing; experimenting with greys, greens, greeny-blues, blue-y greens, blue-y greys and greeny-greys, plus I’d also had some pink cotton that I dyed blue, to get some purple-y blue into the mix too.

candidates!

Ultimately I rejected my purple- and grey-toned experiments and settled upon greens; shades of teal and sea green, which I thought subtly highlighted and championed the dusky blue the absolute best, toning it without drowning it amongst other shades of blue. I think; if you’re trying to showcase a colour in an ensemble/design, then it’s best for that colour to be the only one of its shade, and for the contrasting colours to be all a different shade and variations of each other, not of the showcase colour. As clear as mud? Yep, I thought so! Sorry, maybe that’s not making much sense, but at least I know what I’m talking about.

Pattern; all patterns are from the book Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, by Natalie Chanin. I made a full-length skirt, a fully-embroidered mid-length skirt and a fitted tank. Every single component is sewn by hand, in the Alabama Chanin way 🙂

So: the mid-length skirt! Which is the biggie in my ensemble, taking a few months to embroider the pieces! The skirt itself is my precious Dusk Alabama Chanin cotton jersey, and the motifs I’d dyed some white cotton jersey from Spotlight to be a teal/sea-green and to purposely be a little variegated with strong tones paling to lighter tones appearing shaded in an ombre kind of a way across the piece. All the details of the stencilling and early preparations pre-embroidery, are fully described in this post here. This part actually took aaaaages, or it felt like it at the time. Obviously, once I got embroidering then that was the bit that REALLY took ages! I had decided upon blanket stitch embroidery to attach the motifs, using light tan Gutermann’s upholstery thread. I liked the colour and the look of the embroidery, but this particular stitch was probably not the ideal choice. It is an enormously time-consuming stitch and I found myself questioning my own sanity/stupidity in choosing it, many a time. I’m glad I did persevere now though, since I really do love how it looks. Although it did take a lot of time, it wasn’t too bad, since our trip to Japan involved several plane, train and bus rides with hours and hours and hours of enforced sitting, so I got plenty of embroidery done during those times… I had completed two whole skirt panels by the time we got home! YAY! I then would have finished pretty quickly if I had then not dropped the ball for the next few weeks… oops. But once I put my mind to it and got going again I finished the embroidery pretty soon; and with the embroidery done the whole ensemble felt practically home and hosed!

I joined the pieces, hand-felling the seams using the same light tan upholstery thread as the embroidery;and I found a light yellow/beige fold-over elastic at Spotlight that looked quite nice for the waistband binding.. not that you’re ever likely to see that bit! It’s actually button elastic, for waistbands, and has buttonholes in it along the fold, but that’s ok. The colour is great, and since fold over elastic is a rare beast in Perth, in any colour, I counted myself pretty lucky to have found it!

The full length underskirt: originally white cotton jersey from Spotlight, and I dyed it to be just slightly variegated, strong teal-y/sea-green. I wanted it to be a little bit uneven in its shade, so as to fit in with the whole handmade, rustic aesthetic of Alabama Chanin. The underskirt is entirely handsewn with emerald green upholstery thread, with felled seams, and a single strip of randomly hand-ruched/ruffled cotton jersey around the lower edge. I’d originally stitched on three evenly spaced strips of ruffled cotton, but removed the upper two, because three rows didn’t look as nice as I’d hoped. The upper edge of the petticoat is finished with teal elastic, handstitched on with herringbone embroidery stitch. This was the first piece to be finished in this ensemble, believe it or not!

btw, I’ve had some feedback already that some think the underskirt is too long… opinions?

Tank top; white cotton jersey from Spotlight, dyed in the lightest shade of eau-de-nil green, and with armhole and neckline binding in the Dusk blue Alabama Chanin cotton jersey. The tank top is handsewn with light tan upholstery cotton, the same as the skirt embroidery, with felled seams and herringbone embroidery to attach the neckline and armhole binding.

All the details, summed up succinctly in just one pic:

So that’s it re the outfit…

And now for a little story about that weird and bizarre, modern-day phenomenon, the blog photo shoot…

I’d delayed posting this because I wanted to take some really nice pictures with a pretty background, something better than just these ones taken in our boring old garage… so I pick an absolutely beautiful location at my parents’ house … and a hopefully beautiful time of day … dusk would be an appropriately poetic time of day, yes? because the colour of my Alabama Chanin fabric is named “dusk” Ok, perfect! However turns out dusk is actually a terrible time to take pictures, … all my first batch of pictures were a giant fail… everything very dark and you can hardly see a thing, ha! So I disconsolately packed up to go back to the house; to try again the next day.

And did I mention my chosen photo shoot location is a paddock quite a long walk from the house? Honestly, the things we do… I walked down in jeans, disrobed, re-robed, in the paddock, as you do…. TWICE, on two consecutive days… all under the bemused and intensely interested gaze of a mob of kangaroos. Well obviously, they must have been admiring my Alabama Chanin finery? hmmm?

hey guys!

The second day I timed my arrival to be just before sunset, with that lovely pre-dusk golden glow … and wasn’t til I’d got all set up and going with my pictures I realised I’d left my sunnies back at the house and so I’m squinting in Every Single Picture… (groan)

And in the end I felt like the “boring” garage photos weren’t really all that bad and actually the details show up pretty well against that quiet blank background, so I’m posting a few of those too. Sorry for the picture overload.

Moral of the story; blog photo shoots can verge on the ludicrous

Anyway!! it’s done… Thank you so much to my friend Lisa, of Lisa’s Carolina, for the gift of the Alabama Chanin cotton. It’s such a gorgeous colour and I hope I managed to make something that is worthy of the fabric 🙂

Details:

Tank top, skirt, underskirt; all patterns from the Alabama Studio Sewing + Design by Natalie Chanin. Blue cotton jersey is from Alabama Chanin, other fabrics from hand-dyed by me. Embroidery design, half of the Magdalena design by Alabama Chain, embroidered in blanket stitch.

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: alabama chanin, alabama studio sewing + design, dyeing, embroidery, handicrafts, skirt, top

Lucy Heartfilia

02/04/2016 4:21 pm \ 20 Comments \ Carolyn

Who is this?? I barely recognise my daughter in her fabulous cosplay outfit! For ComicCon this year, Cassie decided she wanted to go as Lucy Heartfilia, from Fairy Tail; the anime/manga conceived by Hiro Mashima. And she has been busy busy busy, working solidly on her costume… isn’t it gorgeous?!! I think she looks absolutely amazing!

Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail; artwork and character by Hiro Mashima

And yes, Cassie’s costume is all made by herself, with just a few pattern adjustment and sewing suggestions by me.

Patterns; adapted Burda 8175 for the skirt, and adapted Burda 8548 for the vest. The corset top and the sleeves are self-drafted. Actually, the “corset” top is more like an abbreviated bodice than a corset; with princess seams and unseen skinny gold shoulder straps, that are hidden underneath her vest, and closure is at the centre back by white hook and eye tape. The sleeves are two pieced and double layered, with the white layer longer so it comes out at the bottom, and with elastic in a channel at the top so they stay up on her arms. The long gold straps on the sleeves are purely decorative. You want to see what the pattern piece for the sleeves looks like? No? well I shall show you anyway 😉

You cut two of each per sleeve, so the bottom flared bit of the sleeve is almost a full circle. A circle skirt for your arms! haha And yes, she hemmed the lot too, I think she stayed up until the wee small hours doing that job! The white and blue layers are joined together at the top with a casing for elastic, so they stay up on her arms. The gold straps were sewn on afterwards, they’re pretty much decorative. But don’t they look great!

Fabric; quilting cotton from Spotlight. Mainly chosen for the just-right colours, of course!

I’m so proud of her, because the whole costume is properly and beautifully made, and she did not take the easy way out in any part.

The dark navy blue, pleated skirt has an invisible zip closure and an interfaced facing. I suggested she make it a little longer, so she could at least wear it as a normal skirt too; but no; the costume had to be as faithfully executed as possible!

Those keys are an integral part of Lucy’s costume, and a part of her character’s story. Cassie was so thrilled when she spotted the key set in a store; and pounced… perfect for her costume!! Belt; surreptitiously extracted from her brother’s wardrobe mwahaha.

The camisole/corset top was self-drafted to fit her perfectly, and it fits like a glove! and then she drew the lines for the blue heart and gold edging on her muslin and cut it up to get the individual pieces. Meaning; they are not just appliquéd on but are all separate joined pieces; and the top is completely lined in white cotton.

She used a blouse pattern for the vest, mainly because the collar was right for the costume; it had no collar stand and was the right shape and lay in the right spot. The front and back pieces were easily modified to be a vest shape, and she individually drew out the gold edging pieces to fit, and with self-fabric facing throughout.

Really, I am so proud that she put so much care, thought and diligence into making it and finishing it all off perfectly and beautifully.

This is a character driven pose; it means “I’m watching and I’ve got your back”… and that symbol on her hand is also a key component to her character too. I freehand drew it on for her this morning, because you know; right handed, and it had to be on her right hand! It’s in pink ballpoint pen. I can’t wait to hear how her day was…. I’m sure she will be one of the best dressed at the convention!! As we drove in to drop her off, we saw stormtroopers and a Joker strolling down the esplanade on their way to the convention, laugh! It’s fantastic how everyone who goes makes a real effort to dress up in amazing costumes and really look the part… oooo I so wish I could be there to see all the costumes!!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Burda 8175, Burda 8548, Cassie, fancy dress, own design, skirt, sleeve, top

a palace skirt

16/01/2016 3:37 pm \ 50 Comments \ Carolyn

The latest instalment in my quest to “fun up” Cassie’s work wardrobe…

I dub thee the Palace skirt. Fabric a soft, heavy, slightly stretch sateen from Fabulous Fabrics. Of course. Pattern; Vogue 8363, my other favourite skirt pattern. Those discreet, yet deep, slanted pockets; so chic and so useful!

I had to buy quite a bit of the fabric in order to get the full printed panel and so as to have it centred on the skirt both front and back, and I only just managed to get the pieces out! Meaning, there was more wastage than I can normally tolerate… oh well, them’s the breaks when you choose an obvious large-scale print like this! The only downside.. notoriously fabric-hungry. 🙁 I only have the most awkwardly shaped scraps left. Oh well, it was worth it. I absolutely adore the print and am so damn happy with this skirt, I think it looks just gorgeous on her. I want one too!!

So I’m sending my daughter out into the world with naked men printed on her clothing… It’s art, ok?

And also, don’t you just hate it when people boast smugly about their perfect pattern matching?
*proceeds to boast smugly about my perfect pattern matching*

Actually, the print placement at the back gave me serious pause, and I’m talking specifically about that door there, ahem. I didn’t want to have the print off, I really wanted all of that magnificent palace room to be there on the skirt as beautifully as it appears on the fabric and just could’t see any way around the door, or any way of eliminating it either, but it just had to be there, right boom in the centre back of the skirt. The best way I could think of doing it was just to have it there, no apologies,and to make sure the print matched up as well as I could.

Pale silver-grey invisible zip from Fabulous Fabrics as well, all raw edges inside are overlocked inside to finish, and I finished all the edges before sewing the seams, so as to get maximum lee-way in matching up the print on the side seams as well. I managed to cut the pockets from the self fabric, only one had to be pieced at the bottom due to the difficulty in cutting out around that print satisfactorily. The pocket lining, pictured above, is silver-grey polyacetate lining fabric, scraps from le Stash.

The final verdict from the recipient…? “I can’t wait to wear it to work on Monday!”

Details:

Skirt; Vogue 8363, stretch sateen, my original review of this pattern here
Tshirt; Cotton on

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Cassie, skirt, Vogue 8363

zebra crossing

12/01/2016 6:24 pm \ 48 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a little black-and-white striped skirt… another Vogue 1247. How many is this by now? Okaaaay, just counted and this is version number seven, and that’s not even counting the ones that I made leaving the pockets off. Counting those ones too, this is version number fourteen. Wowza! what a great pattern this has been!

yes to the pockets this time

I bought the striped fabric from Fabulous Fabrics during their end of year sale. It was brand new in the store when I first spotted it and bought this bit, and it must have been popular because on my next visit a couple of weeks later, it had all gone! Don’t remember its composition… often when I buy something spontaneously like this I don’t pay much attention to “what” it actually is… whoops! bad me 🙂 However, the fabric is almost like a light upholstery; loosely woven, with slightly coarse, silk-like cords of fibre-dyed threads. Quite stiff and unpliable, and doesn’t hold a crease well.
I’ve been ironing it on the silk setting, and that seems to be about as much heat as it can take.

As usual I added length about 10cm or so to the bottom edge. I didn’t measure exactly, just made it so as finish off with a black stripe at the bottom of the front hem. Since I’d measured so as to have black at the top merging in to the black waistband, it felt balanced to have the black at the bottom too. And this turned out to be a nice length for me too. There’s a little bit of the next white stripe graduating out the bottom of the back but I’m ok with this, it felt a little short when I trialled taking it up so as to eliminate that.

The black waistband is just cut so as to have exactly one full black stripe showing… the seam allowances are both in the white stripe on either side.

The camouflaged waitress pockets on the front of the skirt was the result of some very obsessive measuring during the cutting stage… followed by obsessive pinning, basting, slow sewing, and then some obsessive unpicking and re-sewing. #muchobsessiveness

I used a pale yellow poplin to line the waistband and to bind the seam allowances inside with HongKong seaming…. and I absolutely LOVE how this looks! I don’t always bind my seam allowances, but it always feels so good when I do! aaaaaah, there’s nothing quite so nice and deeply deeply satisfying for the home seamster than to gaze contentedly upon some HongKong bound seaming, yes?

Hmmm, that came out sounding a bit more navel-gazing and pathetic than intended. Clearly I need a life. Or at least to get out a bit more…

Whatever; new skirt, in too-cool-for-school black and white stripe, love it, ultra happy. I think this is going to be a very useful little thing to have in the wardrobe. I’ve already tried it on with a few of my current rotation of tops and it just goes with almost everything… yay! I LOVE it with my warm floral shirtdress, worn underneath here, so much so that I’m seriously considering re-hemming the dress a little shorter, so I can wear this combo more often.

Detail:

Skirt, Vogue 1247; striped silk-like woven, my original review of this pattern here
Shirt; Burdastyle 05/2010;111, silk georgette, details here and my review of this pattern here
Slip (under); the Ruby slip, a free pattern by pattern scissors cloth available here; mine made in ivory crepe, details here
Shoes; bensimon, from seed boutique

horizontal seam? what horizontal seam? *self back pat*

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: skirt, Vogue 1247

Perry Ellis skirt, sort of

16/10/2015 9:36 am \ 42 Comments \ Carolyn

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