so dirn(dl) easy

As I suspected I would, I lost energy after making some pattern alterations and haven't quite gotten around to making a muslin for the shorts pattern in the last post. I am the queen of UFOs after all! At least this time I remade the fabric into something else before it entered my big box of shame awaiting further work where there is at least 20 other projects already needing attention.

After that sewing mishap (aka monumental stuff up) I decided instead to make something easy to get back into the groove. Plus we had a weekend away last weekend to a golf resort on the coast and I needed something quick to finish so I could wear a new summery skirt because boy was it hot! What could be easier than sewing a dirndl skirt? Two big rectangles for the skirt and a long narrow rectangle for the waistband - no pattern required, no fitting just gathering the skirt to the waistband, sew in a quick zip at the side and all done. Gertie over at her New Blog for Better Sewing has a great tutorial if you want to make your own.

Except I did manage to sort of mess it up - I sewed my label on the inside waistband at the front and not the back (no big deal though 'cos no one can see it), and it seems that I've been wearing low rise pants and skirts for so long that I've forgotten where my actual waist is, because I made this skirt a little too loose and it sits too low I think for this style. But it looks pretty good for less than an hours work:

The fabric itself is rather funny, I can't quite decide whether it's fugly or fabulously quirky! It's a very crisp cotton fabric that I bought from a little old Italian lady many years ago at a garage sale. This lady had sooo much fabric that it was spread all up and down her hallway, lounge room and dining room and she was shoving fabric into my hands saying 'you take this, you take this'. And this is one of the pieces I ended up with:

Shall we take a closer look at those patterns and you'll see what I mean:

The print itself is rather crazy, and the dark green with bright pink and beige colours shouldn't work at all, but somehow made up in the skirt I think it looks pretty. I still have about 3 metres of this fabric left, so it remains in the stash still even after sewing such a voluminous skirt.

Good news too - apart from hemming I have nearly finished a dress and it fits! And I didn't make any mistakes while making it either! Phew, I haven't lost my skill set completely then....

And since you all seem to love photos of Anna, here she is demonstrating her latest developmental milestone:

I'm pretty sure in some child rearing handbook somewhere there's a milestone for being able to walk in your mummy's shoes? She actually does quite well too - she didn't fall over and her walking style is no more clumpy or stompy than some women I see out in public. I just hope her feet are bigger than mine when she's grown up otherwise I will have some serious competition on my hands for my shoes!