Good Things Come to Those Who Wait...

Or something like that.  I'm not sure I believe that statement, at least not entirely, but I do think it applies in this case.  To wit: a corduroy skirt.  But not just any corduroy skirt, a perfect gold corduroy skirt.  It is no secret that I love my marigold linen skirt to distraction, but it isn't a great weight for winter, and I've long hoped to find a heavy-weight corduroy to make a shoulder-season version.  Kaufman's gold for a long time was what they termed "cider" and was really an odd color somewhere between chartreuse and beige.  Not gold at all. 

 

Recently, Kate Davies came out with a sweater called Yolk that I immediately downloaded and plotted to make.  The whole outfit sang to me--the colors of the sweater, the gold cord skirt (you see where I'm going with this...), the dark tights and heavy boots.  Being the good little lemming I am sometimes, I started looking at my thrift shops for a gold cord skirt and nada.  Then I tried etsy for cord fabric and nothing.  I went back to my old standby fabric.com, which it must be said, has had a really poor selection of fabric for the past year or more.  I get it, everyone was making masks.  But I'm glad to see more things back in stock there again. 

Anyway, Kaufman had added a gold cord to their 14-wale line that I like so much so I decided to see if it would work.  It is the perfect gold, and I'm super pleased with how this skirt came together.  I used my trusty Anne Adams 9481 (heavily modified/redrafted) and took another 1/2" or so out of the center back, which was just right.  Although, I had to take in an least an inch there on the previous corduroy iterations, so who knows what's what...I thought it better to start with 1/2" and make adjustments from there.  (I still wear all three of the heavy-weight ones quite a bit, and recently refitted the lightweight navy blue one for an elastic waist.  I also made a slight change to the lighter blue one to help the pockets lay flatter instead of bubbling up at the top). 

 

 

I did the waist band slightly differently because I only had 1.5" ban-rol, but it worked out, and I like the finish very much.  I got my machine to make two buttonholes on this fabric (finally!) and even sewed the buttons on with the machine, which made this a very fast project indeed.  I put one button on the inside flap of the waist band and the other on the outside and I like that very much.  I put gold bias tape on the hem and turned it in 2", which is a good length for this style.

  

Obviously, I've not had time to make the sweater yet, so stay tuned!  I've got the Lilias Day on needles and am waiting for the yarn to come for the Yolk.  

(I should add that this outfit has been my silhouette all winter: tank top under a slightly boxy sweater over straight skirt with wool tights.  In colder weather I've been wearing a wool skirt and Uggs and maybe adding a scarf).  It is comfortable and I feel good in it, so win-win.  I'm over tucking stuff in right now.