the seuss is loose

Welcome to winter in Galveston! Seriously, the weather in these parts has been so topsy turvy I can't even keep up. One day I'm wearing a sleeveless dress and dreamily meandering the streets on my bike on the way into work, the next day I'm bundled up in my handknitted woolies and bumping up the heat! But one thing is definitely for sure, this time of year always gets me thinking about planting things, growing things, digging my fingers into cool dirt, watching anxiously as seedlings start popping their little heads up... I guess in some parts of the continent it's still a bit early for that sort of thing, but round here we're just on that cusp before everything decides to burst into color again (color besides green, of course). 

Anyways! How's your winter going?? Hopefully if you're in the cooler climates you've managed to stay warm. As much as I love our relatively mild winters here, I do sometimes get a bit nostalgic when I see pictures of people all bundled up in their wooly layers and snow boots.  Or when I see people like Sonja making freaking fabulous faux fur coats!!! Seriously, I'm considering braving heat stroke and the proverbial sweating-of-bullets just so I can call such stunning, muppet-y outerwear mine...

Where was I...? Oh that's right, I have something new(ish) to show you. I say 'newish' because this was my January make for the Mood Sewing Network and chances are you may have already caught a glimpse of it, but I like to make sure my MSN makes make an appearance on my home turf as well. 

So for this go around I’ve got a fun new skirt to show you.  I’ve realized a bit of a pattern with my fabric purchases in the last year – if I don’t have a specific project in mind that I’m buying for I tend to just zero in on the wackiest fabric I can find at that moment.  This Marc Jacobs floral print, poly double-cloth-what-have-you was one of those purchases for me.  (It is now, of course, sadly sold out – but check out all these amazing Marc Jacobs fabrics from Mood’s online selection.  Marc Jacobs is seriously one of my favorite fabric designers, he just comes out with such fun stuff, like this vintage inspired floral silk, or this cuh-razy wool knit.) I know this fabric probably doesn’t look all that wacky at first glance, but trust me, its weirdness abounds…

First of all, you have the print. We start with a nice, sedate, oyster colored backdrop, all cool so far, right? Right. Then there’s a medium scaled floral print – also nothing amiss. But hold up! Now we take a major detour into Dr. Seuss-land because those flowers have stripes all over them. And all of a sudden a nice, normal, floral print turns a little trippy and weird. (And gives me inspiration for the title of this post - in case you were wondering. You probably weren't.)

Then there is the fabric itself.  The face of this fabric is a smooth, satin-like poly with a dull sheen, very soft to the touch.  This is fused to a heather gray poly knit on the backside, also smooth, but still… a knit.  Am I the only one that thinks this is weird? The fabric has no stretch and is a medium weight. I’m just so curious what this fabric was originally used for? Any ideas? One commenter on the MSN site remarked that it may have been used for a knit garment with the floral print satin used as a fun lining, which definitely would work, as this fabric could totally be reversible. It definitely made finishing my skirt really easy! I didn't worry about lining, but rather just serged all the raw edges. This step was actually almost just a formality because the raw edges didn't fray at all. 

Well, whatever the original use for this fabric was, I thought it would make an awesome pencil skirt, but I wanted a pattern with a little bit of a twist to match the fabric.  I eventually landed on the Zoe skirt from Style Arc.  I really liked the longer length and unusual style lines of this skirt – the angled side seam, and the long darts in the back most especially.  I added black faux leather piping (leftover from these pants) to the side seam to really highlight that line.

This was my first time making a Style Arc pattern.  I've always been a bit nervous about these patterns because the sizes aren't nested, so when you order the pattern you have to choose your size, and you only get that size. Doesn't leave a whole lot of wiggle room for fitting cock-ups (did I just type cock-ups??) In addition, the sewing directions are minimal. Like, the instructions for this skirt are not even 1/4 of a page. However the styles are always so intriguing, and just a little bit more fashion forward than what you normally see offered by the Big 4 pattern companies, and even many indie pattern designers, so I was just too tempted to not give it a go! 

Now, you'd think with all that trepidation I would have been careful to make a muslin, wouldn't you? Uh no.  I decided to throw caution to the wind and live dangerously! Jump on the back of that motorcycle and ride into the sunset... hair blowing in the breeze. Where will we stop? Who knows! Who cares! It's all about the ride, man, the riiidddeee.... Where was I? Oh yes. It probably would have been prudent for me to do a little basting test fit prior to stitching everything in place because I definitely am getting some fabric bubbling around my high hip area. This is a pretty standard issue with me and fitted skirts. I think it has something to do with the fact that I have a pretty narrow upper hip/pelvic area, but a full lower hip... I believe the conventional (and rather degrading) term for that would be saddlebags. It's an easy adjustment to make, and one that I'll make a note of if I make this pattern again. As is, I don't intend on this being an everyday type garment, so I'm not too fussed if the fit is not quite perfect.

I feel like no one is going to believe me when I say this – but I actually really agonized over print placement with this skirt.  Don't laugh! It's the truth! You see, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to attempt to print match those center front and back seams or not.  In the end I, obviously, decided not to, as I thought the visual jar of the mis-matched print along those seam lines actually fit the print better, and also helped to highlight those style lines without me putting the faux leather piping into all my seams, which I felt might be a bit much. Also... lazy.

All in all, this was a fun, quick, and painless make, and I think the results are equally fun. Will this skirt get a ton of wear? Probably not. But it will be great to pull out for the next gallery opening or fancy event I have lined up. And I love how well it pairs with my faux fur top. I actually bought this Marc Jacobs fabric at the same time that I snagged this Black and Blue Faux Fur that I used for this top thinking that they might make a cool outfit together. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that I actually saw my plan through! A rare thing, indeed!

And on a final end note - I wanted to thank you guys for all your kind, encouraging, and heartfelt comments on my last year in review post. It's such a pleasure to know that when I put something out into the world it's being received by the nicest group of people this thing we call the 'internet' has ever seen. You guys...

xx

Disclaimer: the fabric for this project was provided to me as part of my monthly fabric allowance from Mood Fabrics in exchange for my participation in the Mood Sewing Network. All other supplies, and obviously thoughts, are scrounged together using my own resources.