Today I'm going to show a new project and an old project, combined to make a rather unusual outfit that (I'm hoping) kind of works in a slightly zany way.

The blouse was recently finished, as a badly needed addition to my summer blouse wardrobe. I used leftover fabric from my blue 1950s house dress, which meant it was a great stash-buster.

The skirt, however, is from a few years ago, made during my first few months as a budding seamstress. And it has issues.

 I used an 8-gored skirt pattern taken from a 1950s dress pattern. The green broadcloth was too lightweight and so the wrong choice, and I don't think the pattern I used worked the best for the alternating panels, but hey, at least I was being creative in my early sewing days! The fun retro cherries-and-blue-bowl print is why I call it a picnic skirt. A matching blouse was planned but never happened. Maybe it still will.

It's not quite a circle skirt, but pretty wide. Wider than the only crinoline I had that was the right length, so the poof isn't as much as could be desired for the perfect 1950s silhouette. 

Just to add another splash of color and pick up on the berry theme, I paired it with my strawberry straw purse, and tied in the navy blouse with navy vintage sandals, but otherwise red accents.

Oh, and sunglasses are needed with any picnic outfit! These I picked up at a thrift store. They are modern but have a perfect 1950s cat-eye shape, without being too exaggerated for my taste.

The blouse was a mostly complete success and quite easy to do. My first raglan sleeves like this, and it was so nice to not have to set sleeves. I'll have to do patterns that feature raglan sleeves more often. The collar had a few rough spots, but otherwise everything went well and it's exactly what I need for the summer. If I make another version I'll play around with the fit a little more to see if I can get it a little more to my liking.

Cherries make me think of summertime, and summer's on its way here in Idaho's Upper Country. Might as well meet it 1950s style! 🙂