Fast forward 24 years...my sister just gave the skirt back to me. I gave it to her once I started having kids, but she feels she'll won't be able to wear it. We both have to be at our skinniest to wear it. A couple weeks ago I previewed my retro Simplicity jacket and was wearing the skirt. I was really smiling in the pic because I felt like one of those pattern models. Everything looks good in the front, but don't look at the back LOL. My zipper wasn't zipped up ;) !
The skirt is such a nice length and is still such a nice wardrobe piece that I just can't part with it now, but it needed updating. I started deconstruction of the skirt so it could be reconstructed to my age 40-something size. It's great doing that and seeing what RTW manufacturers do in making their garments. The waistband was removed and I found a nice, stiff piece of hair canvas used for interfacing. Lots of glue too. Ribbon was used to secure the free-hanging lining to the side seams of the leather skirt. Last night I seam ripped the side seams and cut the waistband in half lengthwise. I'm using those waistband strips to create a narrow leather (about 1") insert strips down the side seam for some extra width. I really don't need the width at the bottom, just from the hipline up to the waist, but it seems like it will work out fine. There was a enough time last night to attach the side seam strips to the original back seamline. Today I will attach the other lengthwise strip to the front side seam. Tomorrow I'm hoping to work on adding some width to the lining. Here's a pic of the skirt in progress right now. On the left side you can see the waistband strip connected to the skirt back. The other side is the same. Just that little extra strip on both sides should help me get another 20 years out of this skirt :) .
Next Sunday's church outfit will be this black leather mini, my patterned lace hose with black heels and my new green wool short swing coat that I finished yesterday. The mini is actually long enough to look elegant and not sleazy so that should be okay for church.
I also plan on whipping up a matching skirt for my green wool swing coat. There seems to be enough fabric left and I have a great TNT pattern to use with it. Once I get that done, I've decided I'm going to need a black blazer. Slowly my dressy wardrobe for my go nowhere lifestyle is becoming more coordinated. And, of course, I need to make one more winter coat before focusing on spring dresses.
Oh...to many things to do, too little time. Focus! Must focus. So, my plans for the week are finishing the leather mini, cutting out and sewing up my green wool skirt, and cutting out my baby blue mini dress. These are my goals for the week.
Tomorrow I will write about a great book that I intend to review over at Patternreview. The inspiration for this book purchase was a comment/terrific idea in one of my garment reviews by Phyllis, one of the Sewing Divas.
4 comments:
I had a skirt almost exactly like that many, many years ago! I can't wait to see how it looks when you're done with the recon.
Very cool! I have a dress that my husband bought me when we first got together, that no longer fits me as it is a RTW 2 and I'm more like a 6-8 now. That was too thin for me then, so I don't regret not fitting into it anymore, but I would love the wear the dress again. I'm not sure what to do to redo it though and am afraid of messing it up! It would fit "front the front view" too but it has a million little buttons down the back that I'm sure I could not button anymore!
Geez on all the typos on that last post - sorry! I do have somewhat of a command of the English language!
Can't wait to see your skirt!
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