Happy New Year! I hope you are having a great start to 2022.
I took a little time off to relax over the holidays, although I couldn't stay away from sewing for more than a few days. I've started a new dress design for 2022, as well as a corduroy maxi skirt for myself as I'm tired of running around in leggings or jeans. I am just so fundamentally a skirt person, and I have so few winter skirts and dresses, I decided I need to start making more for my wardrobe.
I'm going to start with telling you about the corduroy skirt, since it's almost done, and I'll be writing a much longer post on the new dress next time.
We've been having some warmer than normal weather lately, so I haven't been able to wear any of my wool skirts (too hot), and I needed to find a lighter-weight fabric, but not as light as my cottons and rayons. I thought corduroy might fit the bill perfectly.
Speaking from experience, nice corduroy is hard to find. Most is very poor quality, and even if it is better quality, the colors and prints are not very attractive. The best site I found for printed corduroy was a store called "fabricmade" on Etsy. How cute are these prints?
Unfortunately it was going to take about a month to get here, and I didn't want to wait that long. Next time I'll think ahead and order from them when I know I'll be looking for corduroy.
It was a long shot, but I decided to check my fabric stash, and lo and behold! The perfect corduroy was found - probably carried around with me for the last 15 years!
The color palette was exactly what I was looking for - early spring pastels with an ice-blue background - inspired by these kinds of colors:
And these...
Here is the actual fabric:
First I cut out the front and back, as well as some lightweight cotton lining in the same pattern for a little extra warmth.
Then I sewed the back seam together and applied the zipper. Now, I have a strange little habit of liking mis-matched zippers - in this case, it was a cream colored zipper on a blue-grey fabric. I just like a little surprise when you unzip and see the contrasting color. 
For the most part, you can't even see the contrasting color, except a little with the zipper pull, and this will be covered even more when the waistband pulls the two sides together. Here is it all sewn up from the outside:
Next is the waistband - I attached the interfacing, and prepared the seam allowances. Here you can see what it looks like on the inside, folded over to show what it will look like once it's sewn up, and where it will attach to the top of the skirt.
And finally...completely attached to the top of the skirt! The fabric looks a little rumpled but that will allow it to stretch out on the body once it's on.
Finishing touches are the hem and the clasp on the back of the waistband. And it's done! 
I styled it with a pink sweater with puff sleeves. I'm so happy I have a new skirt to wear during the in-between winter weather that isn't warm or cold. It's pretty, and floral, and reminds me that Spring is just around the corner.
Next time, I'll be showing you how I'm designing a new bat-wing dress inspired by the styles of the early twentieth century and Downton Abbey.
