Double Dip

two two two FOs in one post!  That's what happens when you get lazy about taking pictures:  the FOs start to pile up!  

I finished this skirt almost two weeks ago, but I decided that I wanted to wait to post it until I'd finished my mohair cardi, so I could make an outfit out of it.  This is a skirt that's been on my list for a while:  the inverted pleat skirt from Burda's September 2012 issue (also available as a download).  This type of skirt is just my style.  I used some of the leftover fabric from the pencil skirt for my first go with the pattern:

Interesting story:  for my pencil skirt, I used a size 38 waist and 40 hip, and as you know, it came out too small.  For this skirt, I used a size 38 waist and 40 hip, and it came out too big!  D'oh! 

Also, I got duped by the styling.  If you clicked the pattern link above, you saw that the lovely red skirt on the model sits at her natural waist.  The pattern states that this skirt sits 1" below the navel.  Did I believe it?  No, of course not.  I decided it was going to look like the one on the model, despite all evidence to the contrary.  I wonder if I'll ever learn.

So technically, it really isn't too big.  It just sits on the hip (like it was designed to) rather than at the waist (like I wanted it to).  No biggie; I can fix that next time.

I wore it last week with a silk blouse and my Exeter cardigan to go for coffee with Alicia.  What with the silk of the blouse and the lining of the skirt, I felt like a slippery mess!  Too bad, because I like this blouse against this turquoise.  Maybe I'll try it with the pencil skirt.  You can't see it well here, but the blouse has some of this same turquoise in the print.

Of course, it ended up being 73 degrees that day!

And here it is with the mohair cardi.  I really love this turquoise with forest green:

More leopard shoes.

As you can see, the cardi is quite boxy, but I'm OK with that.  The thing I'm not so crazy about is how the ribbing bunches up and gets poofy.  I may consider running some elastic along the inside.  I do like how the shoulder seam sits just at my natural shoulder edge, although I'm not really sure why.  It looks a little more vintage-y?

I spent the better part of a day finishing this up.  There was a lot of sewing.  The button bands are knit separately and then sewn to the fronts.  No buttonholes are worked; rather, the right button band is sewn leaving spaces between it and the front edge for the button to go through.  This is probably the best way to approach an opening for a button this big, but it's quite tedious to do.

I was considering sewing some ribbon on the insides to stabilize the button band, and I may still do that.  But really, as a cardigan, I think it looses its appeal somewhat.  It looks much better buttoned up, because the buttons are showcased that way.

Here's a pic of the back, just because I took it.  You can clearly see here that there's no shaping whatsoever.

Heh.  It really shows off my trapezius muscles.

And finally, here's me trying to look the model in the magazine, a la 1963.  I didn't go so far as to cut my hair, but I did try the pose, and I did put on some similar jewelry.

Things never end well when I try to look like a model.