A Rachel Maksy/Vintage-Inspired Skirt

What?  I actually finished a sewing project for myself?  

Yes, yes I did.

Once upon a time, I sewed quite a few things for myself and had time to play around with fabric.  But over the past few years, besides making minor alterations to clothes I already own, I haven't had the time (or attention span) to sew a completed item for myself.

With fall changing into winter (and then into summer, and now back towards winter again) I realized I don't fit many of my winter-appropriate church clothes.  My dress pants, skirts, and tights are all too small and uncomfortable to wear.  When I first realized what was going on, I went to the thrift store to try to find dressy clothing that would be appropriate for the cold weather ahead.  I did not find anything worth buying and so browsed online a bit to see if there was something suitable enough to entice me to spend more than I would on something second-hand.  Even when Noah isn't unemployed I'm still pretty thrifty when it comes to clothes and I have a very hard time paying full price for anything.

With both the thrift store and Amazon failing me, I turned to my fabric stash.  More specifically, I pulled out a tablecloth that I had used a handful of times.  I knew it was the right color and texture to be turned into a winter skirt I would actually enjoy wearing.  A few years ago I made a couple dresses out of tablecloths and bedsheets so I am no stranger to repurposing odd materials.  Binging Rachel Maksy YouTube videos while editing photos for clients also helped push me in this direction.  

When I made dresses before I used a full circle skirt but I didn't want this skirt to be quite that voluminous so I decided to make it into a half-circle skirt.  I looked up how to make such a skirt (I have to look it up every time because I can never remember the equations) and got to work.

Full disclosure: It took me an entire week to make this skirt.

Part of that is from making mistakes and having to rip out and re-do things, the other part is because I can't sew when the kids are awake because they swarm the sewing machine and their curious little fingers find all sorts of things to mess with.  There were also some things that needed to be stitched by hand, which I totally don't mind doing, but it is slower than using the machine.

But really, it is a very simple skirt.  One piece for the front, two pieces for the back, a waistband, everything is lined with white fabric, and I took some buttons from an old dress shirt of Noah's for the back closure of the skirt.

I really like wearing this skirt!  It is swishy, comfortable, and pretty.  I worked really hard to make it look nice and to do things properly because I knew if I got lazy and tried to cut corners I would not be happy with the end result and I wouldn't want to wear it as much.  If I was going to go through the hard work of making a skirt for myself then I was going to do it properly.

There have already been plans forming in the back of my mind to make at least one more skirt I can wear over winter because truly this is the only winter skirt I have right now and it would be helpful to have at least one more.  I just need to check my fabric stash and see if I have anything appropriate.  

Also, I really need to buy some new tights because I certainly can't make those myself.  And boots, because those don't fit anymore either.