Inspiration Strikes!

Last night I headed into the mall to pay a bill for JB. He's been working a lot and simply forgot to put it in the mail. I offered. I had to walk through several departments at Macy's to get to my destination. Several cute skirts caught my eye as I walked through. I thought they were cute enough for me to stop, pick the skirt up, check out the construction, waistband, zippers, hems, and finally the price tag. The price was ultimately enough for me to put them back down :) The skirt that I really, really liked and want to make was just a simple gored skirt, with a facing rather than a waistband and zipper. This skirt had 8 gores of white lightly embroidered fabric. The gores were slightly flared at the bottom, to make the skirt really full and swishy. Between the embroidered fabric gores, were strips of lace approximately 2" wide. The lace was just sewn to each gore. Finally, the skirt was hemmed with a huge (almost 5" wide) piece of crocheted cotton lace. Fabulous! Absolutely stunning! I have to have this skirt - or something very similar. Price tag = Around $90. I also had to run by Hancock Fabrics to get some quilting cotton to line a bag I'm in the process of making, as well as several other notions - including thread. I looked for patterns. Nothing. I looked for white eyelett or embroidered cotton fabrics. Nothing. I even looked for the white lace trims. Again Nothing! I looked at home - I do have one Simplicity Skirt pattern which I believe would work for the envisioned skirt. This morning I searched the pattern website. I think this New Look Pattern would work.

The advantage of the Simplicity pattern is that I already own it. I have made it before and I know it fits. the disadvantage is that it's only got 6 gores and in my mind more gores will provide more fullness and swish when moving? Am I correct with this theory? The New Look Pattern has 8 gores already. My thought is to just fold out enough space for the lace, less seam allowances. The Macy's skirt was constructed completely with a 5-thread serger, with the exception of the zipper insertion.

Of course, this may be a moot point, as I can't find the right, fabric or trims. But I'm headed to Pacific Fabrics tonight for an ASG meeting, so I'll go early and look while I'm there. The plan is to find the materials and sew it tomorrow for wearing on the beach on Sunday :) I'll let you know how this plan actually works for me!