New Grey Skirt

As of this writing, I can report that I have spent 238 minutes running so far in January, a number that is better than for the same time period in the previous five months and beats the monthly total for two of those.   Given a lack of snow/ice almost any of my January numbers look good at this point but, fingers crossed, the trend will continue.  I promise not to bore you with these details very often.

On perhaps a more interesting note, I have boxes of clothing put aside for alteration.  It is my intention to work through more of those, either to improve my wardrobe or to learn from the attempt if it doesn't turn out well.  Fortunately, this one was a dawdle.  This is a skirt that Bill bought for his mom in the last year of her life.  I remember admiring the ribbon insert and the embroidery when we bought it, though I certainly wasn't thinking about it coming back to me at the time.

I ran across a bag of her things in the loft one day and set this skirt aside for further consideration.   After taking making sure Bill was OK with my wearing his mother's clothing, I took some measurements of me and of the skirt.   I decided that removing two panels would do the trick.  This would also allow the up and down pattern of the decoration to continue uninterrupted.  All I had to do was take apart two seams and then re-construct one to join the edges.  Piece of cake.

It appeared that someone, I'm assuming a carer at Ella's residential home, had sliced the lining out of the skirt, presumably because it was not cut sufficiently large to allow the full movement permitted by the stretchy wool of the outer skirt.   I spent quite some time hand-tacking the trimmed lining around the elastic at the waist and I marked the newly joined back of the skirt with some red embroidery - nothing fancy.  I have half-slips that will suffice in place of the lining, if one is needed.  The fabric is fairly heavy, has a nice hand, it is warm, the skirt hangs nicely and it's very comfortable.  I can't think of anything else one could reasonably ask of a piece of clothing, but in addition this will remind me of Ella. 



I am very pleased with the outcome and have already worn the skirt.  My winter uniform tends to be calf length skirts or dresses with jackets or cardigans and tall boots and warm socks.  I find I can put more warm layers under a skirt and boots than under jeans or slacks and still enjoy freedom of motion. 

Certainly all the potential alterations aren't this simple, but I thought it best to start off with the easier projects rather than get discouraged early on.   Frugal Scholar wrote earlier about the joys of 'making do', which prompted an interesting discussion.  Rather like 'making something from nothing' this sort of 'making do' gives me a great deal of satisfaction. 

Is there anything you do to 'make do' that makes you happy?