Nothing To Wear

A birthday party.  This is how it began.  As my excitement grew to spend an evening with one of my close friends, a thought popped into my head.  That thought led me to spend notable time perusing the web in search for something to wear.  I used to have this horrible habit where I would buy a new dress almost every time I went out.  That habit was kicked quickly upon warily standing on my own two feet, paying for rent and the mountain of every other expense I seem to have attracted like a magnet.  So I checked out F21, and with my luck they were in one of their weird transitional-we don't have that cute of stuff right now-phase...you may or may not agree, but my research has confirmed this.  I looked on All Saints website, then came back to reality and agreed with myself that I cannot spend upwards of $100 on a top...$200 on a dress.  I checked some other sites, but still wasn't finding anything worthy.

Luckily, I recently went on a fabric shopping trip downtown.  There, among homeless citizens, I found a great crochet lace fabric that I thought would be perfect for a Bavarian costume I'm currently working on.  I bought it and eventually decided it wouldn't be right for that costume so it was put aside. 

I've been craving a simple high-waist mini lately, and the crochet lace inspired me to try and create a simple yet classy skirt I could wear to the birthday party.  It began with me draping the gray knit backing for the skirt on my dress form in a very messy, haphazard manner.  I knew I only had a couple of days and limited energy, but half-assing this skirt wasn't an option.  I would need structural support for the knit fabric to stay up on my waist, so I re-draped, and re-sewed a skirt with boning and a black contrasting binding along the top.  I also wanted a subtle tail hem...just because. 

I wanted to make a sheer chiffon tank to go with it, but time was not on my side and I ended up pairing it with a simple black tank.  For someone who tends to over-think their designs and tries to come up with the most technically challenging concepts, this was truly an exercise in simplicity.  

Image property of C.A.P.

Image property of C.A.P.