Howdy! Have you ever sewn something with bird-themed fabric? Because oh-my-GAWD there are a lot of word-plays possible! Birds of a feather, fly away home, bird-brained, high-flying… How to choose just one? I can’t actually remember why I chose “feather-light meringue”, but heck, I’m sticking to it!
(What? It’s my bird pose!)
This skirt is a complete hack of the Colette Meringue pattern, mostly because it’s the only skirt pattern I own. I made the original version (sans scallops) back in the winter, and I have to say I never wear it. It sits too low on me, and if I take it in, it will become to short for school! This time, I wanted to make it sit at my natural waist.
Fans of So Zo’ (and who isn’t?) will probably recognise her favourite skirt pattern as my inspiration: Simplicity 2451, which was the pattern she chose for One Week, One Pattern earlier this year. I liked the shaped waistband, and the bit of pleating under the yoke… but being cheap, I decided to draft something similar myself!
This was my first time drafting so many changes to a paper pattern, but after reading oodles of posts about it over the last couple of years, it was fun to dive right in and see what I could do! I’d bought the last metre on the bolt, so I had to make it work. With my wide hips, it’s hard to get either a top OR skirt out of just 1m… plus this fabric was just directional enough to make things tricky.
The contrasting yoke and pockets were a big help though - I was able to just squeeze the pieces I needed out of the feather print! For the contrast parts, I used a scrap of Japanese double gauze that I got for $1/m. It’s a perfect colour - I just hope the drapey gauze stands up to life as a waistband!
Because of all the bulk of the pockets at the side seam, I decided to try a lapped zipper. It’s not the prettiest, but I’m happy to have tried something new!
I also dug into my collection of vintage notions.. which sounds romantic until you see how randomly I applied them inside!
The yellow bias tape helped me make a tiny-as-possible hem to stop this becoming a miniskirt… the pink bias trim with a crocheted scallop was intended to make the lining cute a-la-Scruffy Badger, but I accidentally sewed it on backwards! The grey lining is pieced together with black serging, and the inner waistband is a very babyish pink cotton. Not exactly elegant, but no one ever needs to know… except you, and me, and the internet!
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Now, I have to apologize for the photos. Everything got waaay over-exposed on a birght afternoon, and I felt too guilty asking my dear photog to take more pics so I just edited the bejeezuz out of these ones. More filters! More frames! More contrast/ambiance/vingettes! MOAR!
Isn’t it amazing how a good pic needs so little editing, and a bad one just can’t be fixed by all the photo-editing in the world? New goal: Take more care with my original shots!
What do you do when you get mediocre pics? Take more, edit like mad, or post them as-is?
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