Into my sewing history - part 2

First of all: Carolyn, you are absolutely right, there was a definate gothic/romantic vibe to my early sewing efforts. Very much so. The skirts I have picked out to show you today were based, for their shape on a Vogue petticoat pattern (don't know the number, don't feel like digging for it) but for their style on the gothic goodness I found here and here. Both skirts are made in two parts and connected with two small sew-on snaps at each side seam. I meant for them to be interchangable, but have almost exclusively worn them as I'm showing them here.

First up: black lace with a ruffle at the bottom over red satin. The fact that this skirt is still in fairly good shape is a testament to the durability of plastic fabrics (polyesther, nylon etc. you know what I'm talking about) because I would have thought I had worn it to shreds. I've loved this skirt. I would wear it with a black tank top in summer and with a fitted black poloneck jumper in winter. I never made a concious decision to stop wearing it, but at some point it just slowly migrated to the back of the wardrobe. My boyfriend still loves this look.

Secondly: this black satin skirt was actually the first of this group to be made. And the first underskirt for the lace overskirt. I wanted to make a neo-victorian combo. What I did was make a straight black cotton overskirt with vertical drawstrings at the front. I sort of liked this look, but nowhere near as much as the other one. And it wasn't as comfortable (if kept a bit too long, it was a real knee-binder).

What annoys me now, of course, is all the poly-satin, plus the fact that, back than, I didn't iron and my idea of hemming was 'turn in the edge and stitch down by machine, just sort of make it fit if you have to'. That, and I just don't really wear this sort of stuff anymore.