I’ve had this lovely material from, you guessed it, The Resource Exchange (Have you noticed this is a theme with my sewing projects?) for a couple of months. It’s a lovely silk that looks olive green in some lights and beige-y in others. It has big flowers on it in brown, orange, gold and olive green, and it makes me think of fall.
I thought the big print might make it too much for a dress, so I decided to make a skirt from it. I had found this great Vogue pattern for a very full skirt with crinoline underneath (see picture at left), but when I measured the amount of material I had, I discovered that I really only had a little over 2 yards, which wasn’t enough to make a super full skirt. Bummer, but I’m sure I’ll find another reason to make that skirt in the future! With my yardage constraint, I went searching for a different option.
From the stash of my grandmother’s patterns at my mom’s house, I had taken an old pattern that my grandmother had used to make me a skirt in high school (see picture at right). I remembered really liking the skirt, but I didn’t have it anymore. It was bias cut, lined, and it had a good twirl factor (meaning I could twirl around in it, and it would flow gracefully around me–this was very important as a kid).