I finished my skirt on Friday night — sewing on the fold-over elastic waistband with patience and the help of a lot of Wonder Clips!
It felt so great to sew in that tag!
Saturday began with an hour or so watching the boys play soccer.
We had some lunch afterwards and then went over to meet the baby.
Mack could hardly get enough of her!
She is pretty irresistible, and so content!!
Then it was concert time! Rusty and I went to see Rosanne Cash with the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra along with John Leventhal and her band. The concert was fantastic! We enjoyed selections from The River & The Thread, The List, Black Cadillac, and more. There were numbers performed with only John on guitar as accompaniment, with her full band, and with the symphony — it was a nice range. I enjoyed every minute.
As hoped-for, I wore my new skirt! Styled above with my Catamount A-line Tunic Dress, Fluevog "Sunny" sandals, and a J.Jill sweater (it was chilly!), the tunic is maybe a little long for the skirt — I will definitely be making a shorter tunic top to show off the skirt a bit more — but this is a combo that I've had in mind since the beginning. The single-layer tunic and the bottom layer of the skirt are both dark grey, and the red beads on the tunic play off the burgundy top layer of the skirt.
Rosanne wore an amazing Alabama Chanin jacket, by the way — we weren't close enough that I could tell the design, but it was WAY sparklier than anything else in the room! Stunning and perfect. I didn't take any photos 'til the end for fear of being kicked out… I am not (much of) a rule-breaker! ;)
Here it is on Mother's Day, worn with a shorter J.Jill top… I'm thinking "uniform"! I was so comfortable all day long — and I am not necessarily a skirt person! I like skirts well enough, but my short, high waist and bit of a belly can make it a challenging relationship. Here are some details, more photos below.
Alabama Chanin Swing Skirt
- Swing Skirt – pre-cut & -stenciled kit from Alabama Chanin
- 100% Organic Medium-weight Cotton Jersey – Burgundy (top layer), Dark Grey (bottom layer)
- Anna's Garden stencil
- Button Craft Thread – double strand of Maroon/Burgundy throughout
- Running stitch for construction & embellishment
- Knots on the outside
- Left Front Panel: Negative Reverse Applique
- Right Front Panel: Reverse Applique
- Back Panels: Stitched for Negative Reverse Applique but left un-cut
- All seams inside felled
- Fold-over Elastic Waistband sewn with herringbone stitch
- Unfinished hem
Mother's Day started with a funny card from Rusty, a couple of books, some chocolate…
It continued with mimosas to accompany bacon, eggs & pancakes for a big family breakfast, more gifts, some shopping, some sewing, and knowing that people were working in my garden! Rusty & Kate tamed a bit of overgrowth in the back. I just don't garden as much since I quit smoking… and that's been a lot of years now!!
I put my new waistband skills to use yesterday, applying fold-over elastic to a couple pairs of leggings for Junah & Ginny.
These were included (by mistake or on purpose… we will never know) as part of the Alabama Chanin fabric haul that my Utah friend scored and sent to me. There's another pair of 0-3m, two more pair of 2-3y, and a couple of in-between sizes too — all in the same grey jersey with plaid knee patches, and pockets on the larger sizes. I haven't heard yet about how these fit. The kiddos wear mostly cloth diapers, though disposables sometimes… and these close-fitting leggings might be for wear with disposables only. Time for some more Big Butt Baby Pants!
It was truly a fun, fabulous, and memorable week/weekend.
I hope yours was pretty good too!
