The thing about making items you can wear is that you’re literally parading your creative vulnerability around where everyone can see it on your actual body - and the most scary thing is that you can immediately see everyone’s reaction. When it comes to writing or less ….. attached …. making / creating, there is a distance between the creator and audience which is definitely a comfort. I’m so grateful to have an acquaintance who wears her knitted creations with absolute confidence, and I think of her every time I wear my homemade clothes out in public!

My book skirt that I finished today was the last item on my making bucket list for the summer, and I definitely learned new lessons I hadn’t encountered on my last two attempts with this pattern.

One of those lessons was the challenges of working with an out-of-print fabric that is sold out almost everywhere, so I had to figure out how to piece together the scraps I could get my hands on. I’m cursing my past self for not just buying bolts of this print (and the accompanying navy version) from the Curio by Rifle Paper Co collection. I managed to keep the books in a line with my piecing for the main skirt, but I barely had enough fabric for the waistband and had to sacrifice an even line of books there to actually get a skirt made.

And someday (SOMEDAY!!) I shall finally master sewing silky fabrics and my lining will look much more polished. For now though, at least those imperfections can stay hidden :-)

My goal when wearing this out for the first time? Just responding with “YES! I love it!” to anyone who asks if I made it. NO pointing out the imperfections or what I would do differently next time.

Just, “YES! I love it!”