Satisfaction

I am so pleased with how this skirt has turned out. It has been the bane of my life over the past week.

Actually, I think we can extend that annoyance to the whole Paris print range in River Island. The dress version haunted me for weeks. Last year I found one in my size randomly tucked away in a rail of jumpsuits in the little River Island store near to where I work. Most odd, thought I, where are all the others? I hadn't been paid at the time so I couldn't afford it and resorted to that horribly sneaky trick of hiding it right at the back of a crowded rail so no-one else would notice it. Went back: it was gone. DOOM! Went back again and found it. HUZZAH! Bought it, then discovered it didn't look at all flattering on my shape. DOOM! Char bought it off me. HUZZAH! (I felt like I had a bond with the dress by this point and didn't want to just return it for a refund)

Alas I did not look this pretty when I tried it on.

Then up popped this skirt in the sale and Mum bought it for me as a birthday present. Unfortunately when it arrived it was a very weird midi length and had super unflattering pleats that made me look about 40 miles wide. Undeterred, I decided that if it was going to make me look wide, it would be on purpose dammit!

So began three evenings of hell (I won't even go into the palaver that was the shopping trip to buy the netting). I do not like working with netting. I had to handstitch three flipping tiers onto the underskirt of this. The hemming was horrible - I unpicked and resewed one section more times than I care to remember, plus there are little twinkly bits on the fabric that my machine does not like sewing over the top of.

But it's done. And I love it. Swoosh!

Top - George

Skirt - River Island sale, birthday present

Shoes - Primark via ebay

Necklace - H&M

Bracelet - a present from the truly wonderful Vix

ps - quite a few of you asked about the sewing machine in my last post. It's great! My main reasons for buying it were that it was basic and fairly cheap (and also because it's green...). I didn't see the point in spending hundreds on a big scary machine that I didn't know how to use. So yes, it doesn't have some of the fancy features that the pricier models have, and I don't know how well it would cope with heavy fabrics, but it's absolutely perfect for the things I need it for. I'm a real novice when it comes to sewing machines and even I find it easy to use, so I give it a double thumbs up.