I made a skirt!

This summer I made a skirt. Yep, that’s right. A skirt. I made one. There’s apparently no better way to waste away a summer than to attempt to make an item of clothing. This idea actually came from my mum, who noticed me trying to make a new skirt out of an old one that wasn’t getting any wear, but instead told me to get my own fabric, and start from scratch. And that’s exactly what I did. So thanks mum, I guess this post (and skirt) is down to you!

I’m not going to lie to you and say this was super-duper easy, because it wasn’t. It took me weeks to finally complete, and required a lot of concentration, something I can lack at times. But with persistence I finally achieved it, and it resulted in something even I’d say doesn’t look too shabby at all, and I’m actually quite proud of the fruits of my labour.

When I started making this skirt the weather was so lovely and sunny, but as I’m sure all Brits can agree, British summers are pretty short lived. So in the spirit of the weather at the time, I picked out a lovely pink patterned fabric, thinking it would look perfect on a summers walk down the beach. This makes me kind of sad because by the time I’d finished the skirt, any remnants of British summer had disappeared, and opportunity to wear it had gone in front of my eyes. Luckily our weather can be pretty unpredictable, so fingers crossed for an autumn heatwave eh?! Otherwise, this shall have to wait patiently until next spring/summer to get some wear.

But to make this skirt, I went old school and bought a skirt pattern. The pattern I used was by a brand called Simplicity, and I used number 1369 to make it. Clothes patterns are basically huge pieces of tissue paper with the pieces you’ll need to make the skirt drawn onto them, so you just have to work out your size, stick them on the fabric, cut around them, and go from there. Although this turned out to be a little harder than it sounds, I think it creates a nice sturdy skirt, and you can use the patterns over and over again so you can have the skirt in every colour of the rainbow!

So here’s the final product (apologies for the bad quality photo, my camera didn’t want to behave today!). It’s turned out to be a nice high waisted skater style skirt, and I’m actually really happy with how this turned out. I think it’ll look pretty cute with a floaty vest tucked into it, and I look forward to getting some wear out of it when the weather allows for it!

Anyone else ever had a go at making their own clothes?

xoxo

The Skater Skirt

It’s very rare that a week goes by where I don’t wear a skater skirt of some sort. I find them so so flattering, and work really well as both a daytime and evening item. I’d always been one to shy away from skirts in the past, sticking to dresses when keeping those trousers firmly tucked away in my wardrobe. But since I purchased my first skater style skirt a couple of years ago, I think it’s fair to say that I just cannot get enough of them.

Black appears to have been very much my go-to colour when purchasing skater skirts. I actually hadn’t realised this until I got my small collection of them out just now, but apparently I really like a black skirt. I guess you could say this is true though, black goes with everything, and I think a good black skirt can create a really simple yet classy look.

So here’s my collection. The first skater style skirt I ever bought was from H&M. This originally came with chunky gold buttons but after a while of wearing it I decided I wanted to put a simpler black button onto it, so as you can see, that’s what I did! The next one is my absolute all-time favourite skirt. I absolutely love this one and wear it wayyy too much, but it just fits so well and is so flattering that it’d be rude not to, right? My final plain black one I got on sale in River Island, and is a slightly different material, giving a more leathery look, without actually being made out of leather, so is still nice and soft. My next one I actually received from a friend who wasn’t getting any wear out of it, so passed it on to me. This is from Urban Outfitters and has a lovely floral pattern across it, perfect for daytime wear. And finally, my black and white stripey one I actually made from a dress that was too small for me up top, so I just chopped the bottom off it, brought it in around my waist and simply sewed it up and off I went with it.

I just find something so lovely and girly about this kind of skirt, and with the synching in at the waist, I find they look very slimming and really flatter my frame. I’m pretty sure I’ll be making more purchases of this style of skirt in the very near future!

xoxo