holiday retro

i've said it before and i'll say it again.  the day after halloween is my favorite shopping day of the year.  and for good reason.  most of the decorations are half off, so it's easy and cheap to get yourself the hook up for next year.  i'll admit that my home decor takes a not so subtle nod to the macabre.

and then you find gems like this :

this is (sideways and i can't figure out how to flip it) this years cotton table cloth in the halloween section of Target.  100% cotton, and oh so amazballs.  the original price was $14.99, and i picked it up for just $7.50.  and it's a huge piece of fabric.  i forget the actual dimensions, but big.  it IS a table cloth after all.  and if you've ever been fabric shopping you know that any good measure of fabric is going to cost a butt ton more than $7.50, especially quirky fabric like this.  

so i picked it up.  before the car even got out of the Target parking lot, i'd sent a missive to my Heather who is my go-to gal pal in the fabric/clothing design department.  (everyone should have a Heather, they're great, i have a couple of Heather's)  i automatically envisioned a skirt out of the fabric, i just wasn't sure what kind.  Between Heather and myself, we decided on a pencil skirt.

now, i've never made a pencil skirt before, and Heather was there for me again.  she pointed me here, to an amazing tutorial on drafting a pencil skirt pattern.  once the pattern was made, it was super simple to stitch it together.  

pencil skirt pattern

i honestly couldn't be more pleased with the results.  the skirt has a kicky retro flair, i added a ruffled kick pleat in the back, and i can see me wearing it even though i'm not a skirty kind of gal.  i think i'll even pick up another table cloth if there are any left.  

the completed skirt looks amazing,  now i just need somewhere to wear it.  

the kick pleat gives it a little tail.  

here's a better picture of the ruffles.