item #38 - sew skirts from all the pretty cotton I’ve been collecting

 

My mother is an excellent sewer. It always seemed to me that there were people like her who could sew, and people like me who were all wonky seams and pins in fingers. It sounds obvious when said out loud but clearly it hadn’t occurred to me that no-one emerges from the womb with sewing skills in situ. My ineptness was, as Eliza Bennet would say, my fault because I never took the time to practice. It likely didn’t help matters that I first bought a dodgy machine and started with knit fabrics. Fast forward some years and slight progress has been made, as I found patterns I’d like to make (softies, and more softies), helpful online tutorials, and accumulated some nifty equipment. Mind you, Santa if you’re reading, I’d still fancy a good pair of pinking shears.

Last night I was ever so slightly grumpy with the final arrival of warm weather, and having spent last summer in maternity clothes but being all in-betweeny again, had the typical post-baby grouch about having no nice clothes that fit. Dave helpfully suggested I go shopping. Damn his sensibleness. I picked out a few things this morning, but generally the grouching continued as I surveyed the offerings. What is wrong with clothes designers? Even in the cheap chain stores there seems to be some kind of “let’s see how hideous we can make the clothes and still make the women buy them” competition underway. As though it’s not depressing enough to be a less-than-slim lady. Why are we not allowed to like the same colours or patterns as women who wear size 8, for gods sake? It’s like when you become pregnant and apparently all you want to wear is flouncy tents with flowers, and “perfect for work tops” that show off your cleavage. Ahem. Anyway, this reminded me that I should get on with my sewing and knock up a few more skirts for the summer.

Progress on the nice blue skirt I started last month has halted due to lack of time. In anticipation of Martha kicking off day 2 of her Scream Like a Banshee Festival (TM) I thought I’d have a go at a more rough and ready option - a yoga waisted skirt. I’d seen tutorials for these using knit fabrics online and fancied I could amend the idea for cotton by allowing more ease around the hips and fullness in the body. See, lookie at me using those terms like I know what they mean. I took out my trusty Planning Biro and sketched a pattern. Here is me mocking up a test sample using an old sheet:

This was most useful in allowing me to amend some figures while also momentarily making me feel like one of the Von Trapp children. (Please insert sew - a needle pulling thread joke here.) Progress halted again as I realised I had not pre-washed most of my cotton. Off to the laundry. Then I managed to whip up a poly-cotton inner skirt to use as lining before the Banshee the beautiful baby awoke. More anon, pending further Festival scheduling.