Skirt Fixation – Week 1 – Nature Inspired

Well, hey there!

Here we are kicking off Skirt Fixation’s Adult Create Week 1.  The theme this week is nature inspired, so I finally, finally am sewing up this piece of fabric I got from a world traveler friend.  She and her family are in the foreign services and were stationed in Mozambique at the time.  This was years and years and years ago.  I can hoard fabric like you wouldn’t believe!

It has some nature inspired motifs on it, but it also reminds me of the Red Rock Canyon right outside Vegas:

The fabric is a border print, so I wanted to make a full skirt with it.  Full skirts that start out at my waist make me look about 20 lbs heavier than I am, so I did a drop waist on it.  The fabric on the drop waist was super stretchy in one direction, so I interfaced it.  The skirt is fully-lined, and has a side zip and pockets, as well.  This is mostly self-drafted.  The only thing that is not self-drafted is the top outside of the skirt that I stole from a pencil skirt pattern.

To decorate the top, I cut out some leather appliqués of my drawings on my Silhouette Cameo machine.  I am still working on the kinks of learning how to trace and get cut lines, but I am slowly getting better at converting the files.

I think I have figured out the best process for cutting leather appliqués. First, fuse Heat n’ Bond to the piece to be cut, and then put it on the cutting mat.  Cut it once for things like this, which is lambskin and a rather soft, thin leather (Speed at 2, Knife at 10 and Thickness at 25).  The cutting mat doesn’t get too messy from the leather that way, and then you don’t have to cut out the backing separately.

I tend to like to make outfits, so I also made a top to go along with my skirt.  This is a rather busy outfit, but as it is a bit drab outside I think we need a bit of color right now. 🙂

The top is another self-drafted fiasco.  I drafted and cut out the pieces, sewed it up, and they were several inches to big on the front.  I had to cut and chop and resize…and I really need to get a dressform!  Fitting would be so much easier if I had something close to my size.  I like how it turned out, though I would rather have the neckline a bit higher.  Next draft, perhaps.

Here I am…sacrificing my body heat for the photos. 😉  This is my backyard, and as you can see winter still has a hold on us here.  The snow had a major melt on Sunday, though, so it is getting better.  I will be able to wear this eventually…maybe in a few months.

* Hair note:  I had just dyed it, so it is not usually this “burgundy”, though it does match the outfit quite nicely. 😉

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you liked my creation. 😀  Voting opens up on Friday at Skirt Fixation to vote for your favorite look.

Next week…Refashion!