Skirt and top

And here's the skirt from yesterday's last picture:

I made this to kind of get away from all the trouble with that 1930's dress. I bought three meters of this wrinkled cotton blend recently. I loved the colour and hopes the wrinkle effect would wash out (in which case I would probably have bought more). It didn't wash out so that rather limited my options.

The one I went for was very simple: A simple but big gathered skirt (my apologies for the quality of the pictures, I was back to using the self-timer again). There are three full widths of 140 cm wide fabric in there. And I put in-seam pockets at the side/front seams.
Of course if would look quite impressive over a big petticoat but I like to be able to wear even full skirts on their own as well. With gathered skirts, that often makes me worry about having the hemline kind of curve in past the hips. In this case, I tried something new to deal with that:I sewed an 8 cm strip of thick-ish flannel to the hem allowance and then hemmed the skirt using the sewing machine's blind hem stitch. 

When wearing the skirt, the effect is subtle, but it is certainly there.

And then, I obviously needed a nice top to go with the skirt... It's a very simple tried-and-tested shape with cut-on cap sleeves. I just gave it a new touch by inserting a strip of contrasting fabric under the neck band. At first, I wanted to make it like a kind of second neckband but at the last moment, I decided to keep the center front in the dark blue. I like the effect, like a stylized collar.

This weekend, I should really go ahead and unpick the side seams on that 1930's dress but I am really glad I made this outfit. It's a lot of fun to wear.