My last project before we went on vacation. This one probably took twenty minutes from the idea to the finished item. This is one of my favourite skirts; it's a cotton linen blend twirly skirt and it had gotten a little too small. Not so small that it actually didn't fit - that's one of the nice things about twirly skirts - it just sat a little high. On other old skirts I find this fine but this one had a really wide waistband and I didn't like the way it was always running into my ribs.

I put on my skirt and marked where I would like the waistband to be, cut off the extra fabric (cutting right through the zipper), cut a long 2 1/4" binding strip from some cute fabric, folded it in half and sewed it along the cut edge of my skirt. I pressed my seam, folded the binding around to the back and sewed again in the ditch to secure it.


Voila, a much more comfortable skirt. The zipper is still kind of short (this skirt goes on over my head) and I might get around to replacing it sometime but it doesn't really bother me much.

Sadly the whole time we were on vacation it was very windy so this didn't get worn but I know it will see use this summer.

This was another quick sewing project - once I had the pattern traced out. The design is from a Japanese craft book. I don't know exactly what the title is but it was called Camisole and Dress in the Etsy listing (I think this one came from here). It's full of cute little tops and summer dresses.


Copying the pattern out wasn't too bad. It did take me a little while to figure out which pieces I was supposed to be tracing (and I kept forgetting what my bust measurement was in centimetres and had to remeasure it) but the pieces and sizes are very clearly marked. I used some cheap cotton-poly fabric as my tracing paper - the light colours are easy to see through, it doesn't fray badly and it means my pattern pieces kind of stick to my fabric for easier cutting - and traced several designs I liked at once so I wont have to get everything out again next time I want a new top.

The sewing went really quickly. It's such a simple top. My favourite detail is the facing and dip in the centre front. It looks nice with the ties loose or in a bow. My fabric (I think it came from Goodness) is a little crisp for this design but I think it will soften up nicely with a bit of washing and wearing; right now the straps have a tendency to slide off my shoulders.


As promised, here is an 'action shot' - look at my hands, I'm getting ready to knit. Photo creadits go to Rob who was patient enough to keep taking pictures until I managed to keep my eyes open for the shot (it's a special gift).