I tell you, once the sewing machine, fabric, and notions came out, they really came out. I have about five projects on the back burner, a cool log cabin seat cushion that is only lacking binding and ties, the pillowcases of yesternight and this morning... and a skirt that I embellished yesterday!

I have this skirt in two colors, khaki and olive drab. The shape of it has always been very, VERY drab as well. Tea length, with an A-line shape, and fairly stiff fabric so it doesn't look like much, even with cool boots. I've been brutal lately with getting rid of clothes I'm not going to wear anymore — moving will do that to you — and these skirts had been tossed into my pile of Clothes That Can Be Cut Up For Useful Sewing Projects. Then yesterday, I was looking at the olive skirt, and I thought, "You know, this thing still fits me. I just hate the length. But I can change the length and make it into something cute."

My eyes and fingers wandered over my fabrics for a few minutes until I came to rest on possibly my favorite fabric in my whole stash: these strawberries. I made a sandwich wrap out of them; you can see it wedged in the middle of my stack of sandwich wraps toward the bottom of the post. If I ever had a little girl, I was going to make her something that was cuter-than-cute with these strawberries and some kelly green dotted Swiss that looks absolutely perfect with it. But I can't keep fabric around forever for a Someday Child Who May Never Exist. And making something great for myself, in part saying, "My life is enough the way it is," is one way to find peace with this whole "will I ever have a daughter? Maybe not" thing. (Yes, it's a thing.)

Okay, enough about my uterus. Back to the skirt.

It took me about an hour from start to finish. I put the skirt on, placed pins at the length I wanted it to be, then cut it very carefully with the rotary cutter. It amounted to cutting exactly 11" off the bottom, which was easier than trying to measure down from the top and cut it that way. I then cut a 3-inch strip of fabric slightly longer than the entire hem length of the skirt, which meant cutting two strips and sewing them together on the bias. I pressed each long edge in 1/4", then pressed the whole thing in half lengthwise so that it would have a natural straight edge to fit around the raw edge of the skirt where I had cut it. I sewed the strawberry fabric onto my skirt, and since it already had a little vent at the back, it was easy to turn the edges around those flaps and secure them while I was sewing. Incidentally, whenever I sew a binding onto something, I inevitably miss a tiny (or not-so-tiny) part at the back where it's just hanging loose, so I always have to double-check both sides and make sure I caught every inch of the fabric while I was sewing.

Then came the ribbon. And I have a secret: I didn't measure it. I just sewed it straight from the roll, then cut it when I was done. I had come a little too close on the length of the strawberry fabric strip, so I didn't want to cut it too close with the length of the ribbon, and I think it actually worked really well. The vent gave me a fun opportunity to add a little more ribbon in an inverted V, and I just folded it at 90 degrees and went over the corners a few times anytime I got to a place where I needed to change direction with the ribbon.


I tried taking pictures of it on me so you could see the fit. Really, I have about 15 photos that look ridiculous. I should just reread the camera's manual on using the self-timer.

Anyway, I loved this skirt so much when I was finished that I had to wear it for the rest of the day, even though I was going to a park and was going to be wandering along a creek with a friend and our five little boys. We still did it, but I definitely need to be in more rugged clothing for this sort of outing next time. I think I would be smarter to save my awesome skirt for a leisurely shopping trip or lunch date next time. I wish I could wear it strawberry picking. Maybe if I ever went strawberry picking in a magazine ad... yep, it would work then.

Labels: craftiness, photography

• posted by erica 5/17/2012 01:24:00 PM
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