Christmas outfit in January?

This week has been a bit of a meeting week. But I have been able to get on with some sewing.

This fabric was passed on to me - almost as a challenge. What would you do with it? Normally I would pass this by altogether. In the first place, it is a bit (well more than a bit) of a shout "Look at me!" and secondly, I have managed to avoid doing much sewing of stretch fabrics.
But, if you think Christmas...maybe.

So, anyway, here is a fabric story.

...at the beginning of December I usually go to a Ladies Christmas Lunch. Believe me, this is about the only place where this fabric would go down well. I thought it would be fun to do a circle skirt. However, if you recall, I did the refashion contest in November and was finishing off in the wee hours the morning of 1 Dec. So, I didn't have enough brain left to make it for that weekend. especially enough brain to get my head around a circle skirt! Easy to sew and hard to do the maths and workout the layout.

Now that I am trying to use up some fabric, I figured I would get ahead of the game and make up this Christmas skirt now. During the time I was trying to get my head round the layout, I chopped the fabric at what I thought was the right place to make it. Well, it wasn't quite.

Eventually, I gave up trying to work it out and just did it by instinct. This usually is the best plan for me. If I over think it, it doesn't get done. The circle skirt came together well, but because of the chop thing, it was only going to be just the right length.

I was totally chuffed though that I worked out how to set the overlocker to the right settings for sewing this stretch velvet. Know I know why so many ladies love knits! (I still prefer wovens and more traditional methods of sewing.)

The other piece of the fabric was going to be plenty for a shrug I saw on the internet. I never did a shrug before and wasn't even sure one would look good on me, so here was this fabric - let's go for it! That turned out great! Although, in reality, if I sew it again, I will rework the pattern a bit to make it go round the bosum a bit more, but it works.

and that left about 1 yard. SO, I dug out the circle pattern I used for ruffles on Midnight Dance By Moonlight. I worked out that the bottom of the skirt was about 180 inches and somehow the maths seemed to tell me I needed 12 circles where the centre circumference was 12 inches. I can't remember how I worked that out. I managed to cut 14 circles - 2 for just in case. I split each circle to the centre, opened them up and stitched them together to make a ruffle, overlocked the outside edge and then overlocked the ruffle to the bottom of the skirt. Voila!

front

Not too shabby and used 4 yards of a questionable fabric! :-) and suitable for a Christmas ladies do.

back

Please excuse M'Lady's prop. She has a broken leg.