Sewing for me!

I never sew for myself.

Let me take that back: the few times I have tried to sew for myself have been disastrous, so I just don't do it. Here are my problems:

1) I usually sew for kids, so when I cut things to be my size they look enormous (and I don't want to feel enormous)

2) Commercial pattern sizes are so bizarre. It bugs me that based on my measurements, I need to sew a size 12 or 14 for myself (everyone go check your patterns to see how small I am, LOL!). It just doesn't seem right. Then, inevitably, if I cut and sew the size that the pattern suggests I should wear, it ends up being too big!

3) I am too picky about how things fit and get frustrated if something I'm making for myself doesn't turn out the way I want it to. Then I get mad that I wasted all that time and fabric on something I am never going to wear...

See what I mean? It just doesn't go well.

But last week I ordered some gorgeous fabric from Above All Fabric, including this pretty print from Sandi Henderson's Farmer's Market line. In my mind, I was going to use it to make a little girls dress but the scale is much larger than I anticipated (the flowers are about 6" in diameter) so I had to scrap that plan. I love this fabric so much that I decided- not without a great deal of trepidation- to make something for myself. But what? I had just over a yard of fabric to work with. An apron seemed like a good option, but it's too pretty to just wear it in my kitchen. I decided I would squeeze a skirt out of this meager yardage.

I looked at just about every pattern out there and settled on this one. I chose option J which called for 1 7/8 yards of fabric, but I knew that I would be shortening it by a few inches and could use a coordinating fabric for the parts that don't show. I was determined to make it work (get it? make it work? and it's a Project Runway pattern? okay...)

Start to finish, it took me less than 4 hours (including a few interruptions from the kiddos). The pattern is very straightforward and would be easy for a novice seamstress. I wouldn't suggest it as the first pattern you ever try: it does require a zipper which can be kinda tricky, but it would be easy enough to try for your first zipper project.

And with no further ado, here it is! Maybe a tiny bit shorter than I would have liked, but pretty darn good for the limited fabric I had. My favorite part is the contrasting gingham-esqe fabric that I used for the yoke and pocket linings. And the fact that I found a zipper the EXACT color of the fabric.