February 12, 2010

'New' skirt

Let me start this post with an apology. I know some of you like my 'weekly outfit' posts, but I won't do one now. I've been feeling a little under the weather all week and right now I neither look nor feel very stylish. I'll make up for it as soon as I feel better though.

Despite the annoyingly low energy level that comes with having a cold, I have managed to get some sewing done. And something that has been on my mental to-do-list for months, no less.
Way back in October, a friend of a friend paid me to make this dress fit her. She had bought it at a vintage shop, loving the colour.
No idea how old the dress was. I would guess at early 70's but if anyone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it.


Whatever the dress was, it was at least two sizes too big for her, and quite a lot longer than she wanted (that dress would have been ankle length for an average sized women, but this lady is definately on the short side). I altered the dress for her, and while doing that I noticed it had to have been homemade originally. It had wide, irregular seam allowances, trimmed with zigzag stitching and the thread colour of that changed halfway through. And those bust darts had been poorly stitched and pressed, resulting in too much of a pointy shape. I fixed that too.
The final result looked great on her and I hope she has enjoyed wearing it since.

Of course, I got to keep the bit of skirt I cut off. The outer fabric is certainly 100% synthetic, probably polyesther. I would never buy that from the bolt, but the colour is great and it has this interesting abstract textured pattern. I also had a piece of lining left, which was rather nice, as lining fabrics go (= it doesn't cling)



The dress's skirt had 7 gores, so I didn't have a great deal of options for the design of my skirt. I knew I wanted pockets though, and no bound ones this time. This is the end result (the actual length is about 10 cm above the knee, but my dummy misses a bit and is therefore stuck at its lowest setting). I'm really happy with it and looking forward to wearing it out.

3 comments:

  1. Cute skirt, and free, as well. Nice sewing!

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  2. That's a great skirt and I'm looking forward to seeing you wear it! I'm feeling in a green mood for our autumn myself, ever since I saw a bottle green mini in the Celine collection, I've found the perfect fabric and it's in my to-do pile now, so you and I will have matching skirts soon, makes me think of what you were saying about having the same idea at the same time...

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  3. Ouh, such an improvement! It looks great.
    Hehe, I wonder what it's look like with the orange drapey top, it might just work really, really well (would most definitely on a cat-walk), or just be oohver the top...

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