4.5.10

Denim + Lace

I have never before been inclined to wear a pencil skirt, not really being pencil-shaped, but I loved the Masculin et Feminin skirt in Twinkle Sews

I didn't use the actual Twinkle Sews pattern...why print off all those pages and sticky-tape them together when I can finally get some use from my personal skirt sloper?  It wasn't too much trouble to adapt my skirt sloper to make a skirt pattern with yoke.

The fabrics were all from stash.  The base is a lightweight black denim.  The shiny yoke is a synthetic something-or-other.  And the lace...oh, the lace...it almost broke my heart to cut the lace off a dress.  I bought the dress when I was 21, in my first job after graduating and unaccustomed to all the disposable cash I was earning after years as a skint student.  I was working in Perth and my Mum came to visit, so we went shopping.  I bought this blue, lace sheath dress with matching slip.  It is possibly the most expensive item of clothing that I have ever bought.  I loved it.  The shop had it made up into their postcards and I sent one of the postcards to my boyfriend with the message "Do you like my new dress?  It looks better on me!"  I wore it on New Years Eve and someone told me to be careful stepping out into the rain because my dress looked as if it would dissolve, bringing to mind images of spun sugar. 

But I am not 21 anymore and I am a wee bit bigger than I was then and somehow the dress seems indecently short these days!  The last few years I have only worn it as a tunic over pants and the lace is starting to rip in places, so I thought recycling it into this skirt was not such a bad outcome.

I think the Twinkle Sews pattern had a side zipper, but I used a CB zip.  I didn't want the lace to get caught in the zip, so I did not have the lace going all the way to the edges.  I cut around the motifs and then sewed some extra motifs in to fill in the gaps. (BTW  I have had a run of invisible zips break after not much wear lately.  Is anyone else having this problem?  I can only assume that the quality of zips at Spotlight has deteriorated??)

The skirt still needs a hook and eye but if I waited for hooks and eyes to sew my skirts, there would be an awful lot in my mending basket and a lot less hanging in the cupboard! 

Thank-you to eveyone who offered advice on fixing up the hem of the skirt in the previous post.  I haven't gone back to it yet, but I will make the hem not-so-deep and either re-blind-hem it or hand sew it.

10 comments:

Mary Nanna said...

very clever reuse of that lace! How special to be able to incorporate different aspects of your life into a new garment - I hope you get lots of enjoyment out of wearing it, and it looks great!

Bernice said...

Looks lovely. Such a nice blend of blue-tones. Such pretty, pretty lace.

Sue said...

Great recycling!

Sew-4-Fun said...

Beautiful skirt! I like how you recycled the lace. You should wear pencil skirts more often. This one is flattering.

gwensews said...

That is a great skirt. I like how you incorporated the lace from a previous garment. It's hard to let go of some things, but you made that dress of your youth into a very beautiful garment. Nice work!

kbenco said...

That is such an interesting use of the lace, and how lovely to get more occasions of use from such a special garment.
I think pencil skirts make most people look curvy, and unlike pencils. You look terrific in your skirt.

Lori said...

Very pretty skirt, the lace is so pretty.

EmilyKate said...

It's great! Lovely shape. I love that you were able to use the lace from a favourite dress!

mem said...

What a lovely story and it looks great . I made a dress recently with a guipure midriff piece and a centre back zip which I hand picked in place . I then cut out more of the daisies in the lace and sewed them over the zipper so that they sat over it when the zip was closed and haung over it when it was open . It worked really well and looks very couture !!

Unknown said...

It's a beautiful combination. The yellow top and the black skirt is perfect.

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