Hello, old friend!

Once upon a time, back in the days when I was really putting the "starving" in starving artist, I made myself a skirt that I loved about as much as one can love a piece of clothing. It was flattering, comfortable, beautiful, and it was swishy in just the right way. It was made from a vintage polyester dress that had a seed-sack straight skirt made out of patchwork blocks, which was about as flattering as a seed sack. It was not cute. I removed the bodice, separated the strips, and put a wedge of black polyester microfiber faille in between each set, making a long a-line skirt. I didn't have quite enough fabric to make the waistband, so I made the waistband a bit small and hoped for the best.

You can guess how that worked out. At the time that I made the skirt, I was self-employed and so romantically broke that a good part of my caloric intake was coming from out-of-date Cinnabon. A friend who happened to be a Cinnabon franchisee would show up at my house every month or so with a dozen boxes, which I would then freeze and eat throughout the month for breakfast and lunch. I can confirm from personal experience that you actually can get sick of Cinnabon. I can't smell them now without being transported back to those days, and I have no desire to ever ingest one again... but I digress.

At the time I made the skirt, I was the skinniest I have ever been. The waistband was a little snug even then. Since then, I'm back to a normal healthy-person weight and entirely Cinnabon-free, and thus the skirt languished in the back of the closet making me feel overly-chunky for not being able to wear it - not the way I want to feel about my former favorite thing in my wardrobe.

Last week, I spent the better part of three hours opening all the seams and letting them out just a little bit. I think I got an additional 1.5" out of it, but that made all the difference. I then made a new waistband out of black silk charmeuse, and all was right with my closet.

I had even forgotten just how great the skirt is - slimming, soft, easy to wear - and the silk waistband was totally worth the nuisance of sewing it. I have my old friend back - woot woot!