Skirts

I am itching to make skirts at the moment. Yesterday I saw this post by Soule Mama, and thought, if she can make a skirt before dinner, then I'm sure I can make one for O in an afternoon. I underestimated myself! In the last hour before I had to go and pick up C and O from school, I made the whole thing, from digging out the fabric to finishing the hem.

The pattern is the free Lazy Days Skirt from Oliver + S - look for the link to the pdf on the right hand side of the blog. I love this pattern because there is just one line to cut at the beginning, and no hand hemming at the end. Super quick and super easy.

Oh, and it looks good too! Most of the Oliver + S patterns are sized for toddlers and I wondered if this skirt would work as well on my very tall, nearly-6 year old, but it suits her well.

Fired with enthusiasm after this small burst of creativity, I decided to make up this funky chicken skirt from Clothkits, which I had ordered a couple of months ago and left languishing in my 'to do' pile.
.

I cut out the fabric and then read through the instructions and noticed that I had to sew two buttonholes. I'm glad I was daft enough to cut out the fabric first, as I may not have embarked upon this otherwise. Buttonholes are very scary!
.

But I didn't have much choice, so I started practising.

After half an hour or so I felt confident enough to do it for real on the skirt. I held my breath, kept my nerve and it worked; I ran around the house whooping with relief. After that the elastic held no fear and the skirt was completed nearly as quickly as the Oliver + S one. It has a nice, straight shape, and in the 7-8 year old size comes just above the knee for O. I am now on a mission to find some tights as bright as the skirt.

And next on the list? A skirt for me, made at the A-line skirt course at The Make Lounge next week. My instructions said to bring along fabric, matching thread and a matching zip. So I bought fabric (a lovely dark denim), contrasting thread and a contrasting zip. Hmmmm....making up my own rules before the course even starts is a bit cheeky. But I'm going to claim its creative!

And the whole reason I went with the vivid, orange contrasting thread and zip is that I fell in love with this vintage orange ribbon in The Cloth House and fancied it sewn around the hem of my denim skirt. I am trying to forget that this much ribbon cost almost half as much as the denim cost, because I will just be so proud of myself when its made.

.