Pastel Christmas: 1950s Novelty Print Skirt

I have a few Christmas makes to show you this year – here's the first one!

I've owned this skirt pattern for quite a few years, and always loved the sketched version with alternating prints. Never got around to making one until I took a closer look at this novelty Christmas bike print when I was looking for something else in my Christmas fabric bin, and suddenly wanted to make a skirt out of it.

At first I wanted the alternating gores to be either mint green or dark green, but I didn't have suitable fabric, and also wanted it to coordinate with my aqua 1950s sweater (scratch the mint green idea). While I was waiting to go to the fabric store for a dark green, I suddenly wanted to make it in time to wear to a Christmas event in 2 days. Scratch the fabric store idea! I looked through my solids and found a pink that was the perfect match, and exactly the right yardage.

So I changed plans and went all sugar-plum pastel-ish instead! And yes, I cut it out one day and whipped it together the next day, just in time to wear to the event.

I had to cut some corners to do so, of course. There is an incredible amount of hem, so there was no way I would have hand-hemmed it and gotten it done in time. Instead I top stitched lace hem tape to the edges, turned it over, and machine stitched it.

I wore it again on Christmas Eve, when we dress up to do a formal dinner as a family, which is when these photos were taken.

The pattern calls this an "umbrella skirt" – and it's an appropriate name since it's very much like sewing an umbrella shape together. 16 gores make So. Many. Seams.

There is just tons of fabric in this thing. Almost 4 yards, which is more than enough for a dress normally! I like how the contrasting gores play as the skirt moves, though I need to get a bigger crinoline to do them justice.