I have had this skirt for about six years and I’m ashamed to say that I have only worn it once! I bought it from eBay back when I was working a 9-5 job. I thought you couldn’t go wrong with a grey pleated skirt. But then I left my job and it always seemed so drab. It’s one of only a handful of RTW clothes that have survived my various wardrobe culls. I was into the pleats and buttons and so it stayed, even if it’s not the most flattering.
A few months back I decided it was ripe for the refashioning. I only worked on it at my ASG sewing meetings where I am mostly chatting (If you are near Marion/Edwardstown in SA, please come and say Hi) which means that this got finished just as we hit spring! Never mind, it’s still very cute in a novelty kind of way. Speaking of novelty, I very enamoured with novelty prints and want a wardrobe with a thousand ridiculous skirts in every colour and design! I mean, I could die for all of these skirts that are pinned to my Skirt Inspo Board.
The skirt itself is a stable knit, probably a ponte or double knit. It fits fine but the pleats were tacked down at the hem (in a way that was very intentional and not meant to be cut or anything) and it just ruined the flow of the skirt entirely. So removing them was step one, a definite improvement there! Before I could sew I would never have done that but it made the skirt far more wearable. Which make me think I should make a garment improvement guide for people who don’t sew…yet.
I did really love the button detail on the original skirt but I knew I wanted to spice things up. A good hunt around the sewing room turned up some self-cover buttons and the tool to make them. Excellent! The plan was coming together. I wanted to use that teal drop fabric I used on the kitty cushions for the couch, so I continued hunting for that. On the way, I found the pale blue/teal Asian inspired fabric I used for Mums arm knitting bag. I still wasn’t sure about the plan, so I grabbed some pom pom trim (left over from this planner project) that seemed to match.
I toyed around with everything and came up with a plan. Well plan that got adjusted as I went. I wanted some clouds going across the skirt, some self-cover buttons and some of that sweet pom pom trim. I started with the clouds. I used some cloud images from google, printed them out and traced them onto the paper side of vliseofix (a double sided fabric adhesive sheet that irons on), ironed that onto the fabric I wanted to use for the clouds. I cut around my traced shapes, peeled the paper off and ironed them onto the skirt. For a more in depth run down, see here. I was careful to place the clouds where they would not interfere with the pleats. I hand stitched around some clouds and machine stitched around others. I love a sketchy, sort of hand drawn quality to these things. I used a straight stitch, about a 3-4 mm inside the shape. I wasn’t feeling a satin stitch or zig zag.
I made a bunch of buttons so I could play with them. Yay for buttons! Actually, if I knew how easy self-cover buttons actually were, I would have been onto that ages ago. In the end I decided to put 7 buttons on each side, where the buttons were. Sewing them on was the perfect task for sewing group! It was time for trim! I knew that I had to be careful about where I added the pom pom trim because the trim doesn’t stretch but the skirt does. I thought it looked cool along these hip seams so that’s where I put it. I stitched it gown just like I did on this apron.
And voila, rainy day skirt! Even though I spaced this out over a few meetings, you could totally get this done in a few hours. Sometimes I save my hand sewing up for my sewing group so that I’ll have a project to work on, without bringing my machine. But I often get distracted by all the beautiful fabrics and buttons and trims (we meet in a wonderful fabric store). Not to mention that my sewing gals are some of the coolest women on the planet. We talk about everything. No joke. Psychology, politics, religion, gender, vegan or vegetarianism, history, culture and of course we talk sewing and projects and the cuteness of buttons. See? I’m off topic again! I am so glad that I saved this skirts when I was cleaning out. It is now a cute as button (see what I did there?) novelty piece that I can wear year round, despite its cloudy disposition! Let this be the inspiration you need to transform something in your wardrobe….I’m thinking a donut skirt next time xxxx
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