This skirt all started out with curtains I made for my bedroom. I doubt you'd be interested in plain, boring tab-top curtains, but the colour itself is to die for. All the time I went through the chore of making them, I was thinking - gosh, this fabric would have made such a pretty dress!
Curtains had to be made, though, and sooner than later, as my appartment's windows are not fitted with blinds or shutters.
A few days later, however, I hung some Liberty fabric that I had just prewashed over my bedroom door, to dry (reduced space will make you pretty inventive); as I looked up, I realized the curtains next to it matched one of the spots in the design absolutely perfectly. I had just enough of my green taffeta left to accent a garment - as a belt, for instance... and thus the Spot On Skirt came to be.
My initial idea was to make this vintage dress:

Simplicity 1158, © 1955
But, I don't have that many skirts, and I have a few other dresses planned out anyway. I just figured a skirt would get more wear, and the reason why this Liberty had been sleeping in my stash for several years was that I wanted to make sure I'd make it into something I'd be wearing a lot.
I therefore decided to simply use the skirt part from the dress pattern, and add my own belt and closure.
I wanted something different from the regular dirndl, so I used the pleated version from the pattern (view B, the red one on the pattern cover). The skirt is really four rectangles of fabric sewn together, and pleated many, many times.
This picture shows a close-up of the pleats (and incidentally a happy kitty):
Despite the
previous post suggesting the opposite, I went pretty obsessive with cutting and sewing perfectly on grain, and matching the dots at the seams.
(oh dear, even my bedcover matches my blog's colours!)This was purely gratuitous, as all the tiny pleats make this kind of detail totally unspottable (ha!) when the skirt is worn. Still, I know my skirt is perfectly on grain, and therefore hangs as well as it can.
I first wanted to add an invisible zipper as usual, but then realized buttons might be cute and more in keeping with the skirt's era. I know zippers were already in use, but I also know my Grandma still used buttons way more readily than zippers at that time.
I like how the white buttons on the green belt mirror the green spots on the white fabric.
You guys all
know by now who did all the work (I'm really just modelling), so there she is in all her fluffy glory:

I am now working on Butterick 5209, which I just
had to get and make after seeing
Trena's lovely version.
Happy weekend, everyone!