How to walk comfortably in skirts

Do you have a lot of skirts you never wear? I do. Do you hang on to them because you really do like them but you can't figure out why you don't use them more often? Me too. 

The problem is often the length. You look in the mirror and it looks perfect. Start moving. Is it restricting does it feel like your legs are wearing a straight jacket? That was the case with a few of my skirts. 

A good friend casually mentioned that she always raises the hem of her skirts a few inches, if not they are so irritating to walk in. This person is  a great lover of sports and outdoor activities, no wonder she would pay attention to this.  It's so obvious, and yet it had never crossed my mind that the solution was so simple. 

The pictures below shows some of the skirts I have hemmed. Little changes makes all the difference. 

 

This one has so many nice details like the buttons, the belt-loops, I didn't want to make any other alterations. 

Long and plain. 

Nothing wrong with a little lace, it takes away the formal look of this particular skirt. 

Here is your typical office skirt, even though the colour is slightly more interesting than black or grey. 

After raising the hem and sewing on some flowers, it looks like this:

 That is just so much cuter! And it is really fun to wear something no one else has, something you designed and put together with your own hands.

This is the last skirt for today. Shiny, silky, fabric, but there is that annoying length again. So, up a few inches, and I added a double hem.  Result:

So why don't fix up some of your own skirts? It's one of the easiest things you can do. With very little effort you have a whole selection of brand new skirts, without spending a penny. 

The dilemma with vintage clothes

Should vintage clothes be preserved at all cost, not altered in any ways, even if it means I would never use them? I have this crazy long skirt, probably from the 70's. and even though I really do adore it, there is no way I can bring myself to wear it. It's not really my style, but I'm hesitant to destroy something that is in fact a fashion heirloom. On the other hand, what use is it just lying in a drawer? Ponder, ponder....

After much back and forth, I finally decided to alter it. Even thought I love the end result, I'm still not sure I did the right thing. See what you think:

There is no question about it, this is one weird skirt. It could come back in fashion, I could  come to love it as it is. Or not. These things are so hard to tell. 

To get the shape I wanted I not only cut off half the length, I also took it in quite a bit. Then it looked like this:

Now it's perfect! I wear it a lot, nothing is softer than velvet and wool. If you read the next post, you will see what the left-over fabric got used for. 

Coat or jacket?

 This is a lovely coat. Red, buttons up all the way, sort of a classic design. Could my dislike of this coat simply be that I've had it for too long? Almost 10 years to be exact.
Or, is the coat is in fact way too long and hopelessly boring?

It reaches to mid-ankle, something that makes it cumbersome to walk in. There is simply too much fabric to deal with. And come to think of it, the coat has clearly not been design with a specific season in mind. I can't wear a sweater under it, so it's not a good winter coat. On the other hand, the lining is really thick, so it's obviously not a spring coat either.

What to do? Change it of course. In this case, from coat to jacket.

I cut off the collar, the skirt part and got rid of the belt. Then I sewed on a green edge on the neck, but what next? I didn't want an 80's cropped jacked, but wasn't sure how to precede, or with what. I needed a vision.....Of course! I had to transform this outdated coat to the fabulous plaid jacket I had seen in a thrift shop in Ashland Oregon. Last week I cut off a velvet/plaid skirt, so I had all this left over fabric. I love it when it all comes together. 

Now my jacket looked like this:

As you can see it's still some hours away from being done but at least I knew what I was doing. 

One skirt fitting, new buttons, some hand stitching, and a bow later, it looked like this:

The bow in the back was originally a 60's hair-clip, but I thought it would look better on this jacket than in my hair. 

Now I know what to wear when I take the train to Glasgow in a few weeks.

Plaid and shortbread, here I come!