Upcycled Tartan skirt

 

OK so this came out very frilly. Very frilly indeed. Its not my usual look. 

The original skirt is a very short Y2K from River Island. I loved this so much it has stayed unworn in my wardrobe for many years. It really is short. Even in my 40s I stopped wearing it so 10 years later its never going to be worn. I last wore it over leggings with boots and that was OK but I am now far too old to wear it even like that. But I still love it and want to keep it. Its also very warm being a wool mix. And the details are lovely. It lost the "RI" diamante logo many years ago. It still has most of the diamante on the belt loops. Which work with wide 90s and Y2K belts which I still have quite a few of. 

Well I had to think of a way to get this back into my wearable clothes. By chance my DIY scarf from left overs from my upcycled kilt a few years ago fell on top of it. At the time I was having a long overdue wardrobe clearout and this was on the "it should go but actually I need an excuse to keep it" pile. 

Well what a great way to keep this:

So its hand pleated so not perfectly event. I kept the overlap on the side so if I decided not to like the end result I can retrieve the scarf. Had to unpick my hem from one edge of the scarf as well but otherwise a very easy upcycle. My only mistake: well I should have overlocked the raw edge before attaching. I attached very close to the edge over the original yellow skirt stitching which is RTW so not much edge to attach to really but I managed it. I didn't feel confident I could overlock accurately without cutting anything off. Since I did not want to cut the edge off I went with zig zag edging. I never used to own an overlocker and zigzag worked well for most of my adult life so it should be fine. Items like this tend to get hand washed anyway so it should stand up to life.

Its a very twirly skirt

Well my end result is very "80's", but thats OK. I wore this out with my partner and our son last weekend and it does feel loud but it also feels nice. It needs boring colours to tone it down. Maybe I will not wear my purple walking boots with it again but otherwise this has been a resounding success and it means I get to wear my much loved tartan skirt again. And don't feel like I am too old for it anymore.

It actually came out longer than intended because the waistband is a basque but I had forgotten that. Its been so long since I wore this. When it was in fashion people had rear cleavage and very low waists. 

I am probably lucky this still even fits!

But it does and I am happier now to be able to wear it again.

The grey top is one of my very thin fabric pixie tops tucked in and it works really well like this so I think especially since I made two of these its going to be this seasons top of choice for layering. 

I am a bit late posting this but I have had the most awful cold and until today really just wanted to hibernate. My life does not allow for that really but it would probably have helped me get better quicker.

Anyway thanks for popping by and take care won't you. There are some horrible bugs going round in the northern hemisphere right now!

Have a lovely week,

Bracken