I know. My third "I did it myself" in a row. I'm obviously bored. LOL. But I wanted to share my most recent project because I'm pleasantly surprised as to how it turned out. My inspiration was a photo I found online. I loved this outfit on Zoe Saldana the moment I saw it:
I can't pull off a skirt that length, but heck, I was going to try and come close to finding a skirt just like that. Wouldn't you know it, I came across a wool skirt in one of my second-hand store jaunts:
LOL. Yes, I really did think I could somehow fix this. What can I say? I'm ambitious. It was huge around the butt and hips, but the waist came pretty close. It was obviously altered to fit someone who was extremely curvy (the tag said size 12). I wasn't sure if I could make it work, but the wool was of excellent quality, and as long as the waist almost fit, I thought I would give it a try.
A few days ago, I thought I would try and see what I could do with it. This skirt also has lining, which make the alterations more complex. I got about half way done and I became really frustrated with it and tossed it back in the bin I took it from. It was just too big, and I was getting puckers around the hips that I didn't think I could get rid of. But I tried again today, figuring, even if I can't get it to be perfect, at least it was a learning experience. So I went ahead and finished it and it turned out pretty good! I always accidentally cut off too much off the bottom of skirts, I have no idea why, but skirt ended up just below my knees, which I think is fine given my height:
I managed to eliminate the puckers around the hips where I started to narrow the skirt upon realizing I could take advantage of the fact that I have very straight hips. I straightened out any curves starting from the waist that I had initially put in. The skirt had a side slit, but I essentially had to make my own slit given how big it was to begin with. I also had to alter the lining underneath. Overall, the skirt was quite a bit of work. It probably would have been easier if I had just started from scratch, but given how much I learned trying to fix this thing up, it was all worth it.
Next post, isn't a DIM, I promise.
