A(n awesome) Gabriola Skirt

I think we’ve established that I’m short.  Proportionally a lot of my lack of stature occurs between my shoulder and my bustline, but my legs are also pretty short – enough to mean that I have to take up most RTW trousers, and I haven’t even contemplated a RTW maxi skirt or dress for years.  I think I’d convinvced myself that floor length skirts just weren’t for me, until it suddenly dawned on me that if I made a long skirt, I could make it the right length…..really not sure why it took me so long!  (Pun not intended…..)  All of which is a long-winded way of saying that I’ve made a Sewaholic Gabriola skirt…..and it might just be my favourite skirt ever.

I managed to persuade Mark to take some photos in our local park so you get much nicer scenery than usual….

This fabric came from Remnant Kings online, it’s a woven viscose that’s drapey and cool-feeling and the perfect weight for a skirt.  It feels fabulously swishy when I move and it’s heavy enough not to be blown about in the wind – very important in an Edinburgh summer.  It wasn’t expensive either, and it seems to be on sale now – I’m seriously considering buying more because I’m completely in love with the print.  My favourite neutral is grey, and the background colour of this is a gorgeous silvery-grey, with random splodges of a teal-y shade, all overlaid with pretty much every type of animal print you can imagine.

The only downside to the print is the fact that the yoke seamlines are completely obscured – but I really don’t care!  I do think I might make another Gabriola in a slightly less busy print, because I really like those seamlines.  This is the first Sewaholic pattern I’ve made, and the fact that they’re designed for a pear shape really made a huge difference fit-wise. There was no grading required between waist and hip sizes, and it fit perfectly with no adjustments at all – apart from the 10cm I took out of the length of course….

This skirt just makes me happy every time I wear it.  When I’m standing still, it drapes in these lovely folds, and when I walk it does this:

Possibly not the easiest thing to photograph, but it billows and wafts around my legs and makes me smile.

I am a bit lacking in tops that go well with this shape.  I generally like loose-fitting and boxy tops which don’t work that well – as you can see with the blue jumper I’m wearing.  The only more fitted tops I have are all sleeveless, and I want to be able to wear this skirt through into autumn so I think I’m going to investigate some more fitted t-shirt patterns, maybe the Renfrew, seeing as this Sewaholic pattern was such a success.  It’s another one that scores highly at work – I do have some fantastically enthusiastic colleagues, so wearing anything new that I’ve made always results in people stroking fabric (with my permission encouragement obviously…).  I’m even learning to take the compliments gracefully, rather than saying ‘oh, but the hem’s really uneven / I made a mistake here’ etc etc.

Finally, no blog post about a skirt like this is complete without some twirling….I discovered that my camera has a ‘burst’ mode which we put to the test – I had a lot of fun, ended up slightly dizzy, and ended up with some pretty good action pictures….