Meet Rachel

Fifth grade, I think. Rachel on the left, me on the right.

We've been best friends since sometime between fourth and fifth grade.  To tell you the truth, we didn't hit it off right away.  I may have turned her off a bit with my over-obsessive need to protect my crayons and make sure they were returned in the right order in their box.  I'm glad she gave me a second chance.

Over the years we've had a few opportunities to live nearby one another but most of the time we've live clear on the opposite sides of the world. And that's true right now as she lives and works in Uganda.

Fourth grade school play.  Rachel is the third from the left at the front, I'm the one with the dark bangs in the front.  

This year when her birthday came around I wanted to make her something special and I thought it would be fun if it was something she could wear.  I couldn't keep it a secret though.  So I sent her an email asking if she liked the pattern I picked, Anna Maria Horner's (AMH) Proper Attire Skirt, to pick which color she liked, if any, of Cloud 9's Geocentric line, and asked her to send me her measurements.  She liked the pattern but couldn't decide on the fabric color and sent me a few measurements.

I decided that it might be easier to use final measurements from a skirt that she likes and luckily that's what AMH uses on the pattern envelope.  I also got it in my head that the skirt had to be gray and yellow, so I ordered the Circles Metal colorway and used some lovely yellow cotton stretch shirting I bought off the remnants table at G Street.

The pattern was fun to sew.  I love the flat piping but I left it off the side seams, I just thought it would look best.  I also left off the buttons.  I actually bought some yellow buttons but when I put them on top of the fabric it looked too busy.  Then I showed them to Juan and he said they looked like condoms.  And they do.  I think I'll just keep those stashed away until the girls are teenagers.  The only other alteration I made was to lengthen the skirt based on the measurements Rachel sent.

I didn't get any pictures of the skirt up close because I finished it with just 30 minutes to get to the post office in time to send it overnight to another good friend of ours that was flying out the next week to see Rachel.

Overall I really love the pattern.  My only complaint is that the actual final waist measurement did not match the final waist measurement listed on the pattern envelope.  It was actually about 1 1/2 inches larger.  I wish I had noticed this much sooner than I did but I had to send it as it was.  As you can see it fits, but it does sit lower on her hips than I wanted and also goes past her knees a little more than I would like.

But doesn't she look cute?  The top looks perfect with it.

I have plans to use this fabric combination again in the near future, so stay tuned...