Spotty Gypsy Skirt

Another one of my goals when I started sewing was to make a gypsy skirt for The Bendy Knitter. We decided a new skirt for 2015’s Faery Fest would be ideal, one of the themes was polka dots so we went shopping to for suitably spotty fabrics. She ended up choosing these bold Makower 100% cottons from one of our local fabric shops (Haberdashery Fabrics & More).

We decided that I would lengthen the skirt from the pattern also, as although she isn’t tall she spends a lot of time sitting in her wheelchair which means a longer length can be more comfortable. Each layer is full of gathers and it moves wonderfully.

 

Unfortunately I don’t seem to have many pictures but she still wears it regularly so I will try to get a few more to add.

Apart from the last picture all the pictures above were taken today, hopefully they show how well it has kept it’s colour, and if it’s not too bold how well it was made.

Starting off with my Machine

I’m going to keep the writing on my blog to a minimum, mostly because I often don’t have the time.

But I think the my first new post needs some intro: So I’ve now been properly sewing for about 2 years I think. I could already do the basics before that but never really sat down to do it. I pinched the sewing machine off my lovely wife The Bendy Knitter (TBK) and got stuck in. I started out on a few costumes for the kids, but quickly decided I’d be moving on to some comfy trousers for me and gypsy skirts for TBK. After a year or ever more difficult work I knew that her little machine wasn’t going to be up to the job, and even though a good service would have helped I was quickly moving past it’s limits.

So I started shopping around I’d settled myself on a quite fancy but reasonably priced Janome that I could get a heap of accessories for one of which I had fallen in love with! The miracle ruffler foot! And I set of to Franklins in Salisbury to check it out. Though after a good chat with one of their technicians it became clear I hadn’t picked the best machine for what I wanted, so a new dream machine was picked out – though it was a bit more money – I can assure you I wasn’t just being fleeced to be sold a more expensive machine, he first suggested a cheaper one in fact, but it didn’t have as many features as this, some of which I now use daily.

And after some saving by me and TBK and some very generous family, my winter solstice present was:

Of course that was nearly 5 months ago but I felt it was a good place to start my posts, after all I would get much done with out it!

I look forward to sharing some of the items that I make with it.