The Purple Maraudaer endorses this skirt*

*the Purple Marauder does no such thing, nyarrr

This is mostly a very boring post about a skirt I have made WAY too many times now.

This is my 3rd Imagine Gnats Alder skirt (previous ones here and here). It's a quick easy make that doesn't use up masses of fabric, and most importantly for me, has excellent pockets that can hold tissues, both my phones (work handset and mobile), random bits of stuff I have to lug around the workshop and my kindle *not all at the same time, but that's a test I haven't quite put any of these through.

This was part of my MadeUp pledge (the other half being the banner that I plan to spend the evening embroidering), which was to make a skirt that was actually suitable and sensible for work. I wear my other two Alders fairly regularly, but they're both quilting cotton and so quite stiff. They're also garish as fuck, and while my workplace is pretty lax, I sometimes feel like they're humouring me (to say nothing of the horrific t-shirts I wear on fridays)

Before I start waffling about sewing, let me explain to you a thing about me and literacy; if I wasn't literate, I probably wouldn't be here right now. Being able to read and write has given me an out over the years, that when everything went to shit (and it has, repeatedly) I've had a space to clear my head, put words on a page, and lose myself in a book. It's given me the ability to fight my corner when I've had to, and it's given me a circle of friends who share my love of the written word who I would be lost without...




It's also given me a book collection that I am continually adding to, and which I might eventually read my way through.
My mum was a voracious reader, I picked that up and had read the school library by the time I finished primary school, I went and did an English degree (which actually killed reading for me for a while) and now I'm rarely without my kindle, a book and at least one notebook. Book vouchers are my go to response when family have no clue what to buy me at christmas (its usually that or more mugs; there's a limit to how many people I can fit in my house, so a limit on how many mugs I will ever need). I'm also not ashamed to admit that I've been in fandom since I was about 13 and have read millions of words of fanfiction over the last 16 years.
I can't imagine not being able to read, but I know full well it's an issue, and I know that as teachers get more and more bogged down in bureaucracy, and the government gives fewer and fewer shits about the state of the education system and the impact it's having on future generations (unless it means that those in power can call the illiterate rude names and deprive them of basic living necessities), it's going to come down more and more on outside organisations to help those who aren't literate to become so, or to manage with their lives.
(and please don't start on at me about the dumbing down of younger generations due to text speak and image based GUIs; I will fucking cut you and then show you the research that it simply isn't true)

Anyway, sewing, that's what you're probably here for, right?

So, on a binge of fabric buying just before my birthday, I went on a hunt for some simple black cotton lawn. Apparently this is nigh on impossible to find, but I found this stuff instead at Croft Mill, which they don't appear to have in stock any more. I bought 3 metres of it, but ended up with 2.85 and a £1 refund, which they were very apologetic about. And then it sat around for ages because I'm a wastrel who never gets stuff done.

This skirt is a size 18, which WAY less elastic than it recommended for that size. I think I may have to suck it up and recut the pattern in a 16, because there's too much bunching at the back and it's annoying.
It's still a bit stiff, but hangs a lot better than my two quilting cotton versions. It's also a little more sheer than I would have liked, but with leggings, no one noticed it at work today.

Please excuse the dodgy selfies, dad was too busy at lunch to take any photos, and he legged it out the office at the end of the day before I could collar him.
This one also doesn't have the feeling that the slightest tug will pull it off, which the other two suffer from, and I sewed the hem slightly smaller than the pattern calls for, giving it a bit more length. I should probably lengthen the pattern a little, but as you might have gathered, I'm lazy as fuck.

The one thing I am super proud of, is the top stitching, because it's actually neat! And bright purple :D