In the pink

When I saw this skirt at the thrift store recently, I had to have it.

Confession: even though I make most of my own clothes, I wanted this for me.  I sew; I don't always have the patience to piece strips of fabric, even if I can find that many coordinating colors and prints.  So the original plan was: mama has a brand new skirt.

Until I looked at it more closely, and saw that the previous owner had mangled the zipper.  We've all been trapped by an invisible zip at least once in our lives, but this woman fought her way free - to the point that the zipper had not only broken, but it had torn the fabric along the seam.

The cotton is just too fine to sustain a mend in a tear of that magnitude, so what did I do?  I took it up to the cashier, pointed out the damage, got a dollar knocked off and came home with plans to cut it up.

If it would have looked cute on me, it'll look even cuter on a little girl - this is going to be either a size 1 or 2, depending on how much fabric there is when I lay out my pattern pieces.  The skirt was fully lined in pink cotton, so I can either line or face the dress with that, and you know I'm going to use those beautiful fabric ties as ornament somewhere.

This won't take long - most of the work has been done already, and I'm feeling inspired.  I should have something to show off - and list - in a few days.