Birthday Skirt: Part 2

In part 1 I told you I had cut various widths of striped green and pink fabric. I had a cunning plan to sew them together in a simple 2 color bargello style pattern. I executed the cunning plan without thinking through all the math that I should have. Here is the result:

It was at about 11 last night when I got to this point. I was ready to jump into making a simple lining, sewing the ends together, hemming and putting elastic in the waist. I was thinking woohoo, I am going to get this done before bed.

Then LB woke up and needed me for a few minutes. As I sat with him I got to thinking about the actual dimensions of this great green and pink thing. It is 23 inches long and about 18 wide. Plenty long enough for a waist band and hem for a toddler skirt, but Monkey's waist is about 19 or 20 inches around. Sure if I sew the ends together it will fit around her, but it will fit like a straight jacket and she won't be able to walk (which may be very funny for a few minutes, but not a good long term idea). 

My first reaction included words that I shouldn't say or type. My second reaction was that I needed to find a quick and easy solution. Perhaps just adding a solid section that would make it wide enough for her to move in. Or perhaps I needed this piece to be a skirt front and I would just need to make a back panel. Quick and easy way would be a single piece either pink or green. Or I should just put in the time to make what I originally had planned and make more strips, sew them together, and cut them into various widths. 

Any sewers reading this your comments would be greatly helpful in finding a solution to my lack of planning.

GeoMama

Monkey's Birthday Skirt

A while back I ended up at a charity fabric sale at a local church. All fabric was $1/meter. I picked up way more than I probably needed to and GeoDad asked what I was going to do with all of it.

First I made a dress for my niece.

Monkey trying on her cousin's dress

Then I made a skirt that I hope would fit Monkey, but it was a bit too small so I gave it to a friend who has a daughter Monkey's age as well a newborn girl. It was a bit of trial and error, but it has given me the confidence to tackle something a little more complicated.

The skirt barely covers Monkey's bum, and I had to really fight to get in onto her.

After the last couple crazy weeks I thought I should ease myself back into sewing so I made a couple new soother clips for LB.

I am a big fan of the train ribbon that I used.

Then I got to work on the next project out of the almost free fabric is going to be a birthday skirt for Monkey. I picked the green and pink broadcloth and set to work cutting strips, and sewing them together to make a set of stripes. Then I cut all set of the stripes into 7 different widths. 3/4 inch to 2 1/4 inch.

The end of the set of the stripes, forgot to take a picture earlier.

Nice variety of widths. 

Next I am going to sew all those strips back into a useable length of fabric and it will be a skirt that fits Monkey (I hope). I probably could have made progress on that tonight, but instead I searched for fabric online and procrastinated. I probably could have got some stain on the Ugly Hutchling too... but I didn't. Oh well I have lots more weekend to work on both projects.

Enjoy May Long Weekend. Hopefully the weather stays nice for everyone. 

GeoMama

The Ugly Hutchling

Once there was an Ugly Hutchling. The lady that owned the Ugly Hutchling thought it was too ugly and tried to sell it in a garage sale. But no one would buy it. She tried to sell it online. But no one would buy it. She tried to give it away. But no one would take it. It was just too Ugly.

Then one day the lady's daughter came home after finding a new house to live in. The daughter saw the Ugly Hutchling, but instead of seeing how Ugly it was she saw that with a bit of work it could be a Beautiful China Cabinet for her new home.

The lady offered to help her daughter transform the Ugly Hutchling into a Beautiful China Cabinet. They set to work sanding the Ugly Hutchling. Removing layers of clear coat and the ugly grey-white finish.

After sanding the whole base of the Ugly Hutchling the daughter could see the inner beauty, a solid oak cabinet. All it would need is a bold and exciting stain color to help it look new. The daughter and her hubby thought about the colors in their new house and thought about the colors they liked the most. They chose to stain the cabinet as bright an orange as they could get. A stain would allow the Cabinet's inner beauty show through, while giving the daughter and her hubby a unique new piece of furniture to place in their new home.

The daughter tested the stain on drawer. She wiped it on. It was so bright.

Then she waited 15 minutes and wiped it off. 

The daughter was sad that it was getting late, she wanted to keep working on the cabinet. But it would to wait until the sun came back up.

GeoMama