The Skirt Challenge

Well, you've seen my entry into the skirt challenge at Darrell's. He has finally sent me pics of his entry. The one that had us all gasping with surprise and awe. With the exception of his co-worker, Denise, we all just saw a beautiful blue silk A-line skirt. Simple design and we didn't see any original elements. We all started to tease him mercilessly until he quietly said "I made the fabric". We all were silenced. We had all taken for granted that the beautiful glass beaded and bias pintucked fabric was one that he carried by the bolt. After all, we have all seen similar fabric before. Then Denise said that he had painstakingly pintucked the yardage on both bias angles to get a diamond effect and Then he cut and stitched the fabric into the skirt. Then he added the beads. Each one stitched on individually.

Look and drool ... and appreciate the skill and the patience this man had for his craft.
This is the full view on a mannequin in his shop (He designed and made the top and the net shrug she is also wearing).


This is a closer view of the skirt front:

Here is a detail shot of the pin tucks and the beads:


We are trying to badger him into submitting this into Threads, either for the Reader's Closet column or to write an article on how he did it. He is resisting. Help us convince him otherwise! Comment so that I can copy them all and take them in on our next get together!

What is the new challenge for our little group? We had to bring in 3 lengths of fabrics, all had to be 60" wide and a natural fabric and a half yard long. We also had to follow this guideline: One had to be a print, one a solid and one could be anything. We then a Yankee exchange (after some German cheesecake, that is!) and picked/stole one fabric piece from each of the 3 piles. I brought in 2 pieces of linen and some silk chiffon. I ended up with my baby blue linen (I had originally picked a piece of royal blue raw silk, but it was snatched from me!), a piece of purple silk with yellow ribbon embroidery and a black polka dot on white cotton. The finished garment must have all fabrics visible, no other fabric may be added except for linings and interfacing. No other rules. I will post shots of what I have tomorrow. Till then, start thinking for me! I need inspiration ... feel free to send me pattern shots for ideas!