Back again

Hello, lovely people in my computer! I've been neglecting you. In my defence, I've also been neglecting the sewing. No sewing, nothing to talk about. It's the time of year, you know? Plus I needed fabric before I could do anything.

However, I went to the giant Fabricland members sale, and now I have PLANS. Meanwhile, a couple of pics of skirts in the real world.

I got a couple of compliments on the skirt - mostly on how cute the rickrack on the bottom is. Heh. The rickrack made all the difference.

I don't know about this look. I am finding this skirt incredibly hard to style. I blame the pink. In any case, I just wanted to wear it, so I pulled out the black, but I don't love black except with other black, so it wasn't my favourite.

Number 3

I finished this skirt today. It's the same pattern as this skirt, although it looks pretty different to me. I liked the pocket so much I made two, as you can see. I also cut the skirt to be a bit narrower. And I made my own waist tie, out of the same material as the pockets (a pink and green check, if you can't see it).

I'm also wearing the same shirt in both pictures. I think this is a sign I need to stop making skirts with green in them.

This skirt feels much more homemade - the fabric is a pretty light (and cheap) cotton, but it also has a certain amount of stretch, which caused the hem to pucker a bit. Up close it's not the cleanest looking thing. But I love the pattern mixing. I'm not totally sure what I have to wear with it, though.

Update

I haven't had much time to sew the past few days - life is busy! But I did manage to sew the trim on my skirt! I found some more lime green rickrack during my last fabric store trip, much to my delight. I mean, I think the skirt looks fine without it, but it feels more *finished* with it.

Lulu agrees.

Ta-da: it's a skirt

Look, I made a skirt! My sewing destiny has been fulfilled.

Here's the story of the skirt: What I didn't mention in the story of why I started sewing is that I bought the sewing machine 3 1/2 years ago. I bought the machine, and this excellent book Sew What Skirts, that shows you how to make skirts without official patterns. And I started making a drawstring skirt.

When I was about halfway done I moved into a new place with a roommate, and there was no place for a kitchen-type table, and definitely no space in my room for a sewing table. So the sewing machine sat in its box for 2 years. Eventually, after my various roommates left, I bought a table and chairs, and entertained thoughts of sewing again, but I was scared that I wouldn't remember how. So I decided to sign up for a beginning sewing class, to push me into sewing again. Once I'd been to the first class and had figured out once again how to thread a machine, I pulled this skirt out and attempted to finish it off.

So, the skirt didn't turn out like the picture - it's much more volumnous. I don't even remotely remember when I first cut the fabric, but my theory is that I used a 60" when it was designed for 45" fabric, or something like that. Supporting this theory is the fact that the bottom is supposed to have the green rickrack as well, but I didn't have enough, so clearly it's not supposed to be so wide and gathered. But it's done, and I wore it to work and it didn't fall apart, so I'm thrilled.