29 hour skirt

Ivy and I went to the Goodwill the other day. It is appalling to me how everything in there is so gosh darn expensive. T-Shirts? $3. Button down shirts? $5 or $7. Seven dollars? Maybe I am just the ultimate in cheap, but I refuse to pay that much for a used shirt. I always wonder at the things people in blogland get at Goodwill for cheap. Mine is never, ever like that. There is no $20 furniture - only $70 furniture, regardless of the materials or condition. So all we came home with yesterday was a black linen shirt on sale for half price. I have a design in my head for a dress I'd like to make for Ivy, but I thought I would use one of J's old work shirts to try it out before I cut up the linen. But this is what happened instead.

 Cute skirt, no? I haven't been able to get a really good picture of it, but it has two pockets on the front. As I was holding up the shirt to cut it into a dress, I noticed the pockets on it and thought "Oh, that would make a great shirt!" and started hacking away. I wanted to have it finished in 24 minutes (the length of an episode of Dora the Explorer) but got all carried away. In the end, it wasn't finished until the next day. First I made a ruffle bottom for it. Ugh. Nope.

So I ripped the ruffle off and hemmed it. Then I thought better of it and ripped the hem out and used red grosgrain ribbon as a binding inside. You can't see it, but I know it's there. To match the red buttons. We had a hard time deciding on buttons.

I'm pretty happy with it. It is about as cute as an olive green 60/40 polyester skirt can get on a three year old. And those pockets can hold a lot of marbles. I find it very endearing that Ivy loves everything and anything I make for her. And then she broadcasts it to the whole world "My mommy make dis!"

Excuse the horrendous flash pictures. How I wish for sun-filled rooms. Maybe someday. I'll leave you with a before and after. The poor girl. It was only about 33 degrees when I took this picture. She's such a good sport.