When making the lattice print skirt, I got very sidetracked by the decision to line it—sidetracked because the fabric I thought I would use had been set aside to make a petticoat. I knew it wouldn't take all of it to make the petticoat, but I didn't want to use it in the skirt lining first, then discover there wasn't enough left to make the petticoat. So! Pause the lattice skirt to make the petticoat.
About two years ago, a visit to the craft thrift store found a length of very 1990s rayon, which I bought after being overwhelmed by nostalgia, but with no clear plans for it. I honestly thought I'd make it into a button up shirt, because I could very much imagine that's something I would have worn in high school.
And, after making the previous few simple shirts, I was ready to make this one! So I got out the fabric and...didn't want to make it into a shirt. I briefly considered a dress, but I'm not the right shape for anything that seemed suitable for that fabric in that quantity.
I've also wanted to make some simple dirndl type skirts, and I realized that the nice heavy swish of the rayon would be very good for that. The fact that it's predominantly white did make me pause, for various reasons, but...that swish was just so nice...
The thought process then went on to "Well, it definitely needs pockets," followed by "There's not enough of this fabric to make self pockets, so I'd need to use something else" and "Any pockets would be clearly visible through the white fabric, as well as any underwear," so that's how I ended up also lining it.
This means I still haven't made a simple dirndl style skirt, but I did make this one!
I am surprised by how much I like it.
The previous project was a more wearable shirt made from the remnants of a more ridiculous shirt, and this one is, too.
The ridiculous shirt project this time was the peter pan collar trapeze shirt I made at the end of last year; the more wearable shirt is once again the heavily hacked Burda 7831, the no darts version.
It is, predictably, a very loud shirt.
In fall of 2023, I made a ridiculously frilly shirt with some delicate swiss dot cotton I happened to find in the Walmart mill end precuts bins. There was a decent amount of the fabric left, and I figured I'd make a much more plain shirt from it (although I'm not sure if I'd say "more practical," because there's nothing practical about the idea of me trying to wear white without getting it stained and grungy.)
Then, last September, I made a vest and vaguely coordinating skirt and immediately knew I wanted to make the basic swiss dot shirt to go with them. Nine months later, I finally have!
Someone very kindly sent me a box of really good dolls, so I wanted to make something to send back as thanks. Of course, I wanted it to be die-cut patchwork, so I started digging through my scrap bin, looking for a relatively masculine assortment, with the idea being to make a jacket in Ken size.
And then I also found some other assortments of scraps to use for doll dresses, so I cut those into squares...and had so much fun cutting those squares that I decided to get into some of the bags of scraps I'd already sorted out, and cut those, too. And, as long as I was making scrap bag dresses, why not make a few more dresses from handkerchiefs? Ooh, and from some of the very distinctly vintage fabrics a different doll friend had sent...and some dresses made from the last bits of some cottons...and some dresses that just seemed like suitable ideas at the time...
And eventually ended up with these
and these!
I don't feel like there's much to say about this--it's the kind of basic piece that I tend to skip making, no matter how useful I know it will ultimately be, and that basic quality also means it feels like there's not much to stand out about its creation.
I had just enough of the thin black cotton??? left to squeeze out a heavily modified Burda7831, this time using the additional modification of omitting the darts, which I first tried last fall. Since I was doing pattern matching on that one, I did one more modification to omit the front band, but I made marks on my front pattern piece so I'd know where to cut for a band option, and that's what I did here.
It worked out pretty well.
A friend's birthday is approaching. Time for more patchwork! More Halloween patchwork!
This friend is just as much of a Halloween All year person as I am--more so, actually. That's one of the reasons we're friends.
All of these fabrics were from my stash. Most of the prints are actual Halloween prints, even those that don't have specific Halloween imagery, but I did end up calling in a few non-Halloween prints (two of which also showed up in the recent not-exactly-Halloween patchwork vest.) I only repeated one of the prints, and I took the graphics from markedly different parts of the design, so they don't appear to be the same print, and I still consider this to functionally not repeat any print.
There are eight of each of the solid colors, and 16 of the black. My plans for this project evolved as I started (die) cutting things, taking into account how many squares I had versus how many would make geometric sense.
I used the 60mm die, and the finished squares are about 50mm, or just under 2". The finished size is about 11" x 15", or about 28cm x 38cm.
Inside, between lining and outer layers, is more of the striped fabric used in the apple patchwork messenger bag and inside the camo foil bucket bag. I also interfaced the patchwork sides.
