Christmas Skirts . . . at Long Last

For Christmas last year I planned on making skirts for two of my nieces.  Unfortunately my back went out and prevented me from following through on almost all of my crafty Christmas plans.  So I did the next best thing – I gave each of them a gift certificate for a day of sewing with Auntie My sometime in the spring (once the back had healed enough to allow sitting for hours at a sewing machine).  Well, about a week ago we finally all got together (with my wonderful sister at my side) and stitched together two custom-designed, handmade treasures of pure auntie love.

I drafted both skirts from scratch, with encouragement from my sweet sis and instructions from Sew What! Skirts.  The girls picked their fabric and trims and even helped with the construction.  My niece, Alyson, fell in love with this luscious fabric and dug through my stash for some shimmery chiffon to make a ruffle.

I added the flower and stem after she went home (I love a bit of a surprise).  I lined this skirt as the fabric was a little thin.  Originally I attached the ruffle to the lining and it wound up folding up the hem on the fashion fabric because the ruffle was too poofy.  Alas, I had to resort to stitching the ruffle directly onto the skirt hem.  It still turned out nice, although I am a little sad to not have that petticoat effect.

This skirt was for my niece, Alena.  I LOVE this fabric and cannot get enough of it.  I have loved everything I have made with it.  It is just so pretty and fresh.  And the black trims make it sparkle for me.  We wound up shortening her skirt quite a bit from what she originally wanted, but it looked like she was swimming in her mother’s clothes.  I think this length is much more flattering for the the cut and all the trims. 

 

We had a wonderful day together.  I did not get any pictures of all of us working in the studio together, but they are in my mind.  And it gives my heart a little thrill every time I think about it.  ;>