Two for one

What everyone needs in their life is a skirt with sharks on it… After being unsuccessful at finding that Lobster fabric everyone has been blogging about, I gave up and resorted to this Boden Sharks and Divers fabric that I found on eBay.  It’s cotton, but quite a heavy weight and a bit stiff – and it also resists pins (or they leave marks).  I've had the Deer and Doe Chardon skirt pattern for ages so I decided to give it a go with this fabric.

  

I traced between two sizes (38 and 40) to give me more room at the waist, and went with the standard length.  I decided that this was to be a winter skirt so I lined it with some leftover lightweight cotton (from my Tova top), by just cutting out the front and back pieces again.  I joined the outer, lining and waist band together at the top but in hindsight I think this was a bit of a faux pas as there ended up being a lot of fabric at the waist.  What I should have done (and will do next time!) is join the lining to the bottom of the waistband and then the  top of waistband to the outer (as per the design).

The zip went in without problems, except I stitched too close to the teeth and then couldn't get it undone!  After redoing that it went fine, and I hand stitched the lining to the zip on the inside.  It’s not my finest work but who’s going to see the inside anyway?!

I’m not great at predicting what items will look like, and if they'll suit me but I have to say I love this skirt! It actually makes me look like I have a waist and hips J  But then I realised that with such a high waist (nothing like all the other items in my wardrobe), I had absolutely nothing to wear with it…. So I had to make another Sewaholic Renfrew top!

This is my second Renfrew – unlike the first it has full length sleeves, and I shortened it significantly (about 4’’) so that it just sits on my waist.  The front/back pieces I shortened to the line on the pattern that’s marked for where you add/remove length, then worked out the difference between this width and the original width to subtract that from the waistband piece.  All worked out well I think.  The fabric is some ponte roma that I picked up on eBay (hmmm, bit of a trend with this post).  Question is, how long can I manage to keep it white?!