new-old skirt

Years ago, when I lived in Boston, I had this skirt. It was black with a black flowery organza overlay, and I bought it at a thrift store. I loved it, even though it had a tear and I had to pin up the waistband because it was too big. I had a grand plan to remake it, and found some fantastic back velvet burn-out for the top layer.

Then I moved to Vermont, and then Seattle. The fabric, and the dream, came with me. The old skirt fell to pieces and was thrown away. In Seattle, I laid out the fabric on my expansive hardwood floor (the cat always loves this) and cut it. I taught myself to do a French seam, masterfully attached the waistband, and put in the best invisible zipper I've ever done.

And only then did I bother to try it on. It was too big. WAY too big.

So it went into a box and got shipped across the Atlantic to me, where it sat for another three years until I got to feeling like if I screwed up resizing it, I'd at least be trying. And it worked! I even redid the French seam. The waistband has a seam in it now, and that's the only evidence that anything was done to it,



I did the hem using the rolled hemmer foot on my machine. It's not perfect, but you have to look pretty close to see that, so I count it as a win. And just look how it spins! Made of win.