Hope Chest Pencil Skirt

Have you ever looked at a fabric and known almost instantly what you wanted to do with it?

That’s how it was with this beautiful Anna Griffin fabric.

I was browsing one my fabulous sponsors’ sites, The Ribbon Retreat, when I came upon Anna Griffin’s Hope Chest collection. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. I wish I could scoop up every print in that collection and bring it home.

My favorite was the Blue Hope Chest Floral print. I knew I must make a pencil skirt…like this one I made last year. I scoured my craft room…well actually craft area :), and I could not find the pattern I used. It was only a partial pattern from the D.I. so I must have purged it without thinking about it. I didn’t fret though because I still had (and have) the skirt I made from it (and still love wearing it). So I drafted a new pattern from it, making little tweaks to it to improve it.

Well one of the tweaks was that I made it a bit smaller in the waist and hips. The previous one was a bit baggy on my pre-pregnancy body. So I fixed that…without really thinking about how my body doesn’t look like that right now.

Duh. Now it’s too tight. It rides too high because the hips don’t fit right.

I need to shorten it but I’ll have to wait until it fits properly for me to see just how much.

How could I know that the name of the fabric would be so appropriate for this skirt at this time. As a hope chest is to a young girl collecting things for her future wedding and babies, this skirt is me hoping I’ll be this size again in the future! haha.

I finally forked out the $11 and got an invisible zipper foot. I can’t find the exact link for mine but click here for a metal version if you’re interested. This foot was SO so worth it. It actually made sewing in the zipper fun…because it was easy.

The teeth of invisible zippers curve over a bit. The grooves in the concealed zipper foot pull the teeth open and over so the needle can get right to where it needs to go…automatically.

I tried making the zipper go right to the top of the skirt so I could avoid having to put in a hook and eye. Tsk. Tsk. Probably won’t do that again. But I learn something new with each project.

For now…I’ll set my beautiful skirt aside and hope I’ll fit in it soon! :)

Does anyone do this too? Sabotage themselves after they have a baby…I think I’ll go back to making Easy Mommy Skirts for a while. :) I actually already have a cute one in mind. Stay tuned (which means it will be a few weeks…hopefully).