Float On...

Have you ever heard that Modest Mouse song? It's a good one ;) I don't know; that line just comes to mind when I look at this skirt...

...because it's a floaty hi-low skirt! It also reminds me of tropical islands and sipping fruity drinks out of coconuts, but that's not really Modest Mouse-like :P

But I went with the whole island thing anyway with this multistrand necklace a friend gave me for my birthday a couple years ago. And all that vine-y awesomeness going on in the background. They're wild morning glorys, and I like the overgrown effect. Maybe it's not the cleanest look, but I like it, and I don't think anyone in my family feels like going through the trouble to hack it all away.
     I actually made this skirt in May...looking at my post from the other day made me remember I actually got more sewing done than that one dress, I've just been unphotogenic and tripodless and feel weird asking my family to take a bunch of pictures of me. I built a bridge and got over it though and got my little bro to take these :)

So I used to think I couldn't wear island-ey things, being the small whitegirl that I am. But lately I haven't been caring so much about what I can and can't "pull off" and more on what I like...and I like hi-low!

 I bought this remnant of fabric from Hancock Fabrics. It was one of those, "I love this fabric, it's so cool!" *buys fabric. gets home* "Awh crud, what the hell am I going to make with this?!" It's this sheer, guazey stuff with what looks vaguely like globes and abstract islandey designs...I really don't know how to describe it. Point is, I had no idea what to do with it. So it chilled out hung up on one of my dorm walls for a year as an improvised wall hanging. Until I had my lightbulb, ISLAND SKIRT! moment.
     I didn't use a pattern for it, because I don't have a hi-low skirt pattern and the project was too much of a whim to seek out and buy one :P I'm kind of surprised it turned out halfway decent. At my level, I feel like if I don't follow a pattern/exact instructions, I'm going to end up with the most homemade looking piece of crap eva. I did, however, use this tutorial, especially for the diagram on how to cut the taper.
    

Pretty much, I laid my fabric out and cut it into two pieces, one a wee bit longer than the other, because with floaty island skirts made from sheer fabrics, layering is always acceptable. Well to me anyway ;) I sewed up the sides so I had two tubes of fabric, put the shorter one on top of the longer one, and cut my taper. I also have a third layer of green broadcloth I found hanging around the house. It's literally just barely long enough to cover my butt, but I wanted it just in case the other two layers gave a little too much of a view :P I basted the three layers together, then sewed the "waist" to a waistband width piece of elastic. I kept the elastic stretched out as I sewed it so when I was done it all scruncehd back together and I can get into it without popping all the stitches.

    That being said, the gathering is pretty bulky. It didn't look very obvious to me with the top over it until I looked at the pictures and was all, "Well that looks awful" Ohs wells; I'll find some way to make it work out.
     The picture of the waistband shows how ridiculously frayed the fabric gets, so I  made sure to zigzag all my seams. And the hem? It's A ROLLED HEM I'M SO PROUD THANKS FOR ASKING! But forreal, this is the first rolled hem I've ever attempted, I had to do it for two layers of the fashion fabric, and I sewed it by hand, which took forrrrrever. I definitely spent more time on it than I did on all the other parts of the project put together. This post on the Coletterie gave excellent instructions. But even though I couldn't get a good picture of it on my wimpy little Nikon, trust me, it looks damn fine ;)
     I'm kind of disappointed I didn't wear this out this summer, but I worked at a sleepaway camp from the beginning of June to the end of July, and my outfits there consisted of T-shirts I didn't care about getting muddy, tie-dyed, or mauled, and sport shorts. It wasn't the sort of work environment that appreciates floaty island attire, but hey, maybe I'll get invited to a tiki themed party and be able to give this skirt the night out it deserves.