A rose by any other name...

...would be a Capulet.  Ha! 

Today's project was an attempt to salvage a skirt from last summer that I loved the fabric/color, but not the fit.  The linen was to that perfect level of softness, and I wore it a lot last year, but struggled to get the fit right this year.  The elastics were initially too tight, so I made them longer, and then the thing felt too big and schlubby. 

 

 

I submitted two designs to a crafting magazine in September that had a very specific palette, and the dusty rose of my skirt was one.  I had embroidery threads out already for the submissions, and the two worked so well together I decided to try embroidery on the pocket edges as part one of the fix.  

 

The embroidery design was from a packet of patterns I bought a long time ago.  I enjoyed the process of embroidery quite a bit, and like the result very much.

My attempts at alteration of the skirt's fit, however, less so.  I will say it does fit better than before, and I like the inverted pleats better than the previous iteration, but the pleats are uneven enough to make my eye twitch (something I only noticed after taking the photos--oy!), and the skirt still feels like it has too much volume.  Although, looking at the photos, it looks fine.  It's a feeling I have when wearing it more than the look of it.

After taking off the waistband and reapplying it three times in variations on the fit at the side seams, I gave up.  After this wearing, I washed it and put it in my fabric bin to deal with another day, as I'm out of matching thread and ideas (having started with a full spool, to give some idea of how many seams were applied and ripped out in the course of this alteration!).  My patience for the project is gone.  

I probably need to deconstruct the whole thing (except for the pockets) and recut it on a narrower pattern to see if I like that better.  What I really want to find is a summer skirt pattern that looks good in linen but is relatively slim and straight--i.e. the Elemental skirt in a woven, or my Anne Adams 9481 in the drapier linen.  This seems like an impossible ask.   I know, I know, I should just try something and see how I get on with it.  Maybe I'll find a magical unicorn!