Flirt item #2.

Pattern: Burda 01-2009-105

With the creation of this item, my wardrobe is now committed. By this I mean that now the proportions and the colour of the skirt have been set, everything now must follow. The 4 tops must all go with this skirt, and they must all go with the other 3 bottoms. By choosing a patterned bottom, I will probably have to make all plain tops, by choosing knee length I am committed to tops that suit that proportion.

Not that I should really let this bother me. Am I the only one who looks at the wardrobe contest entries and thinks, "yes it goes really nicely with that skirt you've put it with for the photo, but there's no way it would go with those pants?" In other words, people do whatever suits them and their needs and I say all power to them.

This skirt was a true test of the "flirt" concept. Just in case you think I contorted a whole lot of initials to come up with something cute, let me assure you this was not the case. With this skirt, I needed every single one of these principles (faith, luck, intuition, risk, trust).

The vintage fabric was from Salvage, the second hand fabric shop in siren's hearing of my house. I often get sucked in their for a purchase. I have loved this fabric for so long, but each time put it back because it is pure polyester. Humid climate + polyester = sweaty mess. Last time we were in there my son trashed the store so quickly and so thoroughly that I had no time to think, I just grabbed it and said, "this time you're mine."

When I got home I remembered why I had always resisted. The challenge was to turn polyester into something comfortable, and for that I turned to Nick's for some linen. This is where the luck came in.

If you don't know Nick's, it's a clearance store on Dominion rd, which gets most of its fabric from things that don't shift at its upmarket parent store, Global fabrics (Australians will know this as "the fabric store'). It is home to what Nick himself calls " some real dogs." Personally, I'd call them mongrels. However, amongst a lot of trash there is pure treasure. If you know what you are looking at, you can pick up some real bargains.

This striped linen is one of them, and it came to the store via a clean out at Global. As they were loading up the truck, the guys said, "put something nice in there for our customers. Give them a treat." So this pure linen, which was too summery for winter sewing, got loaded up.

Before I went to bed that night, I thought to myself, "how can I put these two fabrics together."

And this skirt is what I literally dreamed up. The pattern, how to put the fabrics together, even the construction, it all came to me in a dream. In the morning I awoke and thought, "noooooooooo, not quilting."



But then I remembered the promise to follow my intuition and so I did it, and it does a good job of keeping the overskirt and underskirt together.

If I had sat down to plan a wardrobe, I would never have planned this.

And I wouldn't have planned this either: what tight-wad wardrobe is complete without a refashion? Let's see what I can do with this pleated mid calf length pure wool challis skirt from the Red Cross.