The Great Skirt Conundrum

My crappy attempts at dressmaking have recently seen me move into tops. Should be easier than making a proper dress, right? Wrong. The current work-in-progress has been on the go for about three weeks and is causing me no end of grief. Getting it finished may well be the death of me and even when it is done, I then have the problem of what to wear it with.

The current wardrobe situation is as follows:

• I own one pair of respectable jeans and one pair of dungarees. That's it in the trousers department.
• I have quite a lot of shorts but haven't been wearing them recently as I don't feel that comfy in them any more.
• Skirts? I have a few but really not that many. The time is definitely here for the collection to be expanded.

My constant problem is my dratted stomach. I am very conscious of it. Even at my slimmest it was still an issue. It won't go away, so I have to do my best to hide it. This is why skirts are so awkward - they seem to cling in all the wrong places.  Mind you, trousers do similar, which is probably why I hardly have any of them either.  There's more choice with skirt styles though so I live in hope that I'll discover the magic one that really suits me.

I've been mooching on the George site this week, particularly their skirts section, and there are some really pretty things tempting me.

Should you even be attempting to wear pencil skirts when you have an awful stomach? I'm inclined to think not: I certainly haven't found one that makes me looks non-hideous. Doesn't stop me wanting the heck out of this floral beauty though!




Speaking of fab florals, HELLO! This is only five quid in the sale. I might be able to make it work on me.




I'm more likely to end up with something like this though, although more likely in black than pink.  The few skirts I do have (and like) tend to be more on the A-line side of things.




Or perhaps I play it safe and stick with the trusty skater skirt... I've seen this one in store and it's plain but really rather cute.

So then, skirt gurus of the blogging world. Am I missing something obvious in terms of styles that might suit me? Can I ever wear that pencil skirt?

*[]*

Take One Skirt...

(Yes, I should have taken the photo before wearing it all day, not afterwards. Should probably also have remembered to cut the tag off before I wore it...)

It is definitely not something I'd usually buy. I am not the sort of girl who can waft around in a floaty cream coloured thing and not end up with some sort of bizarre stain on it by the end of the day. Consequently I don't buy that sort of clothing. I admire it, I even go and stroke it sometimes, but I don't buy it. So how did I end up with this beauty? It was very kindly sent as a free gift by Gemma from Pink Haired Princess when I bought a couple of things in her recent blog sale. I looked at it and ooh-ed over it and hung it up for a week or so, then finally decided, what the hell, I might as well wear it. It is a very different length and colour to anything else in my wardrobe but this year has been all about branching out so it seemed like an opportune moment to try it.

Skirt - H&M via blog sale
Jumper - Dorothy Perkins
Tights - Ethel Austin, I think
Pumps & earrings - New Look (I wear these earrings stupidly often)

I am not entirely convinced by the overall look of the outfit. Perhaps it's just because it's a step out of my comfort zone, who knows? Thoughts/opinions/criticism are very welcome! (don't be mean though - I am feeling very poorly and I might cry if anyone is horrid). Any ideas on what other tops I could pair it up with?

I wore it with flats today just from sheer lack of energy to pick out a better pair of shoes. I tried it with The Fierce Boots ™ when I got home but I'm not convinced it actually looks any better. Plus, y'know, I can't actually walk in them for more than about 3 hours so they're not really a practical option anyway...

ps - I didn't get any dirty marks on it, woo hoo! That's got to be a first for me.