Lace! Stripes!

Life can be a struggle. You're doing your best, trying not to add unnecessarily to your stash, and innocently pop into your local awesome fabric shop for a pink invisible zip. You try hard not to look at the bargain tables placed RIGHT AT THE FRONT DOOR, and try hard to dull the thud of your sudden elevated heart rate when you spot (for $2/m) navy and white striped stretch lace. The rational part of your brain says 'What on earth would you sew with that? Since when do you like lace? Since when have you sewn with lace?' and the addict part of your brain (the limbic system if you'd like to know) lights up like fireworks and says 'Oh! Stretch striped lace! Carrie Bradshaw! Paris! $2/m! A skirt! We have a pattern!'.

So....

In defence of the pose, this was approximately number 34 in my self portrait attempts.....

I resisted, but then caved. In about 30 seconds I could already see it as a skirt gathered on a waist band. I used one of the patterns out of Sew U Home Stretch - the dress pattern gathered onto a waistband, omitting the bodice of the dress. It's such a clever book - 4 basic patterns, endless variations. I made the waistband twice as wide as the pattern suggested, and used a medium for the skirt to make it nice and full, and a size x-small waistband (its not as tight as I'd like but the lace doesn't have enough stretch to get over my hips or bust - if I wanted it tighter I'd have to put some elastic in the waistband to cinch it in). I lined it in a very pale green linen-viscose stretch lining, from the same store Darn Cheap Fabrics - only because it was the lightest non-synthetic stretch lining they had at the time. The pattern suggests gathering the skirt in the traditional way with parallel lines of basting stitches, but I struggled to get it even, and ended up doing one round of shirring elastic which worked perfectly. The lace was surprisingly easy to work with - I suspect it is something synthetic, and just used a combination of the stretch stitches on my machine to make it all up and hem it. I didn't hem the lining - it's almost impossible to see that its green because the lace pattern is quite thick.

Did I need it? No. Do I care? No. Do I love it? Oh yes!