Scheming and Planning

Now that I am rid of the triad of evil, I am making plans for the remainder of my leave. And while I can't row, cycle, kayak, play soccer, do pilates, drive, lift more than 10 pounds, or do any of the other things that fritter away my time, I can sit. And in the shade I shall sit while I take apart a few items I have found in thrift stores.

First up, this cool wool* skirt. It is a lovely, incredibly full, skirt, very royal blue and, judging by the tag, from the late '80s or early '90s It is destined to to become another Hollyburn with perhaps enough left over to trim something else.

The second skirt is a linen/ rayon blend. Allegedly dry-clean only, but since I don't own anything I can't wash, I pre-washed it. You can tell how much shrinkage occurred by the amount of lining hanging clear of the bottom.

The colours did not photograph very well; it is brown and green striped - very autumnal. I'll try to better shot after it has been remade. I'm hoping to get another Vogue 1247 out of the yardage.

I have no firm ideas about the fate of this skirt. I think it is a wool/rayon blend but the tag has gone missing. Maybe it dissolved in the pre-wash. I would like to get a top of some sort but I'll see how it looks when I drape it around myself, post dissection. It may end up looking too dowdy for a blouse.

It's nice to be able to spend time in the yard keeping busy. I'm pretty twitchy and while I'm fortunate to have a long leave to recover, sitting around this past week has been pretty restricting. It will be good to feel productive again.

*That's the name of the fabric, not how I feel about it.

Queen Bee

 After reading so many good reviews for this skirt, Vogue 1247, I jumped on the band wagon.

 I am not comfortable wearing bright yellow. I like the colour but I can only wear pale yellow in the summer when I have a 'tan' (I am a strawberry blonde -I don't tan, I just change from clear to white). If I wear such a bright yellow so close to my face, I look jaundiced, as in seen-immediately-upon-presentation-at-the-Emergency-Department jaundiced, so I thought I would make a yellow skirt which sits a fair distance from my face.
I didn't have to make any alterations to the pattern except add about five inches to the length. This would have been one short skirt otherwise. Surprisingly enough, even tho' I cut the correct size waistband, it only fit around the entire waist with easing; there was no overlap at all. I have no idea if it supposed to be that way because I haven't looked at the instructions. I'll have to see if the same happens with the corduroy skirt I have waiting (for fall) to sew up.

 I like skirt. It fits well, was easly and quick to sew, and it has a good shape. Most important is its bikability (is that a word? It is now!) but if was even a centimeter narrower, I wouldn't be able to happily ride my bike in it.

Wow, wrinkled!

 I could not, for the life of me, get a total back view, so I gave up.

And I like all the extra picture people add to their posts, so I am not sure why I haven't been adding more. So here we go , in the event someone other than me is reading this.

Here I am checking out the grapevine.

Are there any grapes in there?

Construction details:
I didn't follow the patterns directions and bind the seams because I was in a hurry.  I didn't french the seams because I was in a hurry. They aren't serged because I have brown thread in the serger and a project requiring brown thread is next in the queue (and while I could have changed the thread back to brown again, my serger has an evil, nasty streak and senses when I am in a, you guessed it, hurry, and would have refused to work at all) and, well, I was in a hurry. So I pinked them using pinking shears I  picked up at a garage sale.

 The just-fits waistband, because there is no overlap, is fastened with two little daisy buttons I had in my stash and loops of narrow elastic I coloured with a fabric marker.

I used hem tape to make the narrowest non-rolled hem I have ever done and the length is just right. The tape was in a bag of notions I also picked up at a garage sale. The colour is such a close match it was only the seam gauge on my sewing machine that allowed me to stitch it in place. Thankfully it was the usual 5/8" mark that I followed and things turned out fine.

The pockets are lined with some polka-dotted fabric from the scrap bag and just adds to the over all summer happy vibe.

Would I make this again? Most definitely! This cotton version is great for summer and the corduroy one will be lovely for fall and spring. I'll try wool for the winter!

Variations on a Theme

I lamented not too long ago how hard it is to find a rayon knit;this top is a rayon knit circa 1989. I can't remember what pattern I used but it is not my usual fare.
The skirt is a linen/cotton blend and is that same pattern as these skirts, with some modifications.

I lowered the waistline by about three inches, then used the waistband from this Vogue pattern.