Little Red Skirt

Last month I was walking in town wearing the navy skirt I’d made, and a woman passing by complimented me on my “cute skirt”. I thanked her and in that moment I think my head grew three sizes (but luckily I kept my wits about me and refrained from regaling her with tales of how I’d sewn it myself). While it’s always nice receiving a compliment, it was doubly so getting one from a complete stranger on something that I had created. There’s a certain thrill in having sewn something that is uniquely yours, and while what I sew is hardly perfect, it’s still mine. I decided on what pattern to use and I decided what fabric would be appropriate and I was the one who sewed it (for better or for worse).

Knowing that I made something passably cute gave me extra motivation to create a skirt I’ve been wanting for a while: a red one. Although I already have a simple red circle skirt that I had bought years ago, it isn’t a skirt I love. In fact I rarely wear it. The problem is that while it looks fine from a distance, it feels terrible; it’s made out of this cheap scratchy polyester that I would never use if I were to make a skirt. No, I bought a nice cotton sateen for my skirt.

The skirt pattern I used in creating my navy skirt had another variation that had a pleat down the front, and I thought I would try it for my red skirt. Since most of the directions were the same as the navy skirt, I didn’t have too difficult a time sewing this skirt. I had the normal problematic moments that I usually have when sewing, but overall it went fairly smooth. And I was happy with my simple bold red skirt.

I know I could find something similar (and probably made better) in a clothing store for a reasonable price (and really cheaper overall when you consider not only the materials used but also the time and energy spent to create it), but the skirt itself was not the entirety of my goal. With every project I work on I’m practicing and learning how to sew, so that one day I can sew whatever I want with ease and confidence. Finishing a project successfully just denotes that I’m on the right path. [Pause.] It's just a really long path.