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Saturday, October 6, 2012

Amanda vs The Chevron Ginger Skirt

Once upon a time there was a wee sewist who went to her local chain fabric store questing for some white batiste for lining. But the scary print section snaffled her up whole and she came home with fabric with tiny houses on it, scary cat wizz yellow polyester floral print fabric and a bizarre Christmas explosion of red and white stripes whilst forgetting to buy the batiste that had been the point of the journey. Upon reflection of said purchases at home, the poor sewist realised she had been sucked into a PRINT VORTEX and had made some hasty decisions. All of the fabrics were jammed up the back of the stash until recently unearthed. Upon the rediscovery of the super Santa fun time stripes our gentle sewist realised that there was only one way to try and redeem this fabric. One word. Two syllabals. CHEVRON!

That's right. I dared to dream. Is it possible to make a red and white striped skirt not look Christmassy? The short answer- not that I was able. But on the plus side, someone's going to be one sassy elf this festive season...

I used my ol' faithful Colette Pattern's Ginger skirt. I went down a size this time as the festive fun fabric (dang I love me some alliteration!) is a cotton sateen with quite a bit of stretch. I used the third option which provides matching points for stripes to create a chevron effect and I'm really quite impressed! So much so I made chevron arms to keep the style thematics of the photos going...


What I liked about making this version:
  • The waistband stripes. I think it makes the crazy candy cane feel even more so.
  • The freaking chevron. I matched this sucker like a bad thing and it is so neat and pretty.


What I will change for next time:
  • Getting the side stripes to match up well. I didn't have enough fabric to stress too much about it this time but I did the best I could.
  • Get proper zips! I have had two zips break in this skirt now. I've been buying the cheap ones and they're not holding up. I need to get my hands on some YKK ones or something. Grrr. These photos were taken with the skirt held together with a safety pin at the back because the zip broke again just before we went outside. I particularly love this shot where my left hand is desperately holding the skirt up.


Overall, I'm really happy with my first chevron adventure. Sure I may look like Santa's rad little helper but is that such a bad thing? I can almost guarantee I wear this somewhere and people will start passing me reindeer treats and giving me elf bribes. And quite frankly, I am cool with that. Candy cane me up, peeps!

26 comments:

  1. A very cool skirt. I say give it a bit of a sporty look with a fitted hoodie and some converse. Yey. Nice work

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  2. Adorable! And I love the red shoes with it

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  3. What a great skirt, I love it!

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  4. Awesome! Mad chevron matching, girl!! I love the chevron arms! lol

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  5. Great stripe matching! I love me a chevron Ginger. Yours is adorable.

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  6. Thanks, Pinky :) I'm thinking I shall fix the zip and get it ready for work wear!

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  7. Lucy, love the styling idea! Anything with Chucks is fine by me!

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  8. Thanks, DK! I'm a little obsessed with my ruby slippers :)

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  9. Thanks, Inge! This one is totes a keeper :)

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  10. Symon- thank you! You know I needed some kind of novelty photo in this post :P

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  11. Thanks, Lauren! Totes give it a go- super easy :)

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  12. Thanks, Mela! I'm super happy with how it turned out- I think i need more.,. Pink and white stripes for sure!

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  13. Success! And I love the chevron arms

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  14. Thank you!! My chevron arms added a certain sumthin' sumthin to the post ;P

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  15. Damn girl, you will definitely be one sassy elf this holiday season. I love Christmas, everything and anything about it!

    And the construction of the skirt is on point - to me, the stripes match perfectly at CF and CB

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  16. Thanks, Maddy! It's definitely time to get festive with a wardrobe, methinks!

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  17. Oh, this is absolutely adorable! And it actually makes me think of the circus instead of Christmas...but either way, you are rocking the red and white chevron!!

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  18. Thanks, Cindy! I love the circus idea... Note to self: make shirt with elephants on it!

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  19. wow, that is some chevron action right there! love it! I just got this skirt pattern and am super excited to make a chevron version eventually! yay for sassy elf fabric! :P

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  20. Thanks, Kim! I so can't wait to see your chevron version!

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  21. Wow, thats a bold skirt! Chevrons rock!

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  22. Thanks, Tamsin! I'm quite enamoured with the old chevron now :D

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