warm weather in new york = beautiful trees, miles-long walks all over downtown and parts adjacent, and a jaunt to coney island (complete with a ride on the cyclone and a so-bad, so-good pile of cheese fries & a chili-cheese dog. yum!). :)
i like spring.
(and...i am so glad to be back in new york.)
hi hi. sorry it's been so long. things (time, mostly) got away from me. i knew moving cross country w/ a 7 month old baby was gonna be harder than heck, but it was so much harder than i had even anticipated. even with help from movers, mom, and friends, i've been pretty much completely overwhelmed these past few weeks. i've felt like i was underwater. or at least, buried underneath an ocean of boxes.
pete, poppy and i are *just now* settling in to our new place (in manhattan this go 'round, wow!). we've been living in our new digs 2 weeks today. the whole relocation thing was made that much more challenging by two major baby milestones: the addition of two more chompers in baby p.'s mouth (the top center ones), and some new found motor skills: crawling, and now, pulling up on everything in sight. she's on the move. *sigh*
we're finally getting the last little bits and bobs put away, getting together with friends (& making big dinners), and little p. and i have started to explore our neighborhood. we've made all sorts of cool discoveries and have noted many places nearby we'd like to visit again or check out, including: the wafels & dinges truck, angel street thrift shop (a rather expensive "thrift" store, but one that's actually very well curated), the union square greenmarket (drool, droollll!!)...and the list goes on.
dangerous for me and related to the above: seems i live with short distance of SEVERAL thrift stores. uh-oh, i'm in trouble, people...! :)
anyhow, now that i have sorta-kinda found my bearings again...
...i am going to *try* and resume a semi-regular schedule of posting from here on out. that means: whenever i can, just like before. :)
(hopefully someone's out there and still reading! :P )
inspired by my own recent post about the great patterns on offer over at burdastyle, i decided to sew up my own version of their kasia skirt pattern.
i've been lusting over high-waisted skirts in general for a while now...really, since way, WAY before my daughter was born (and she's six months today!!). needless to say, i had to wait a while...whilst my waist expanded and then contracted to the point where i could finally wear such a thing. that time recently arrived (yay, post-partum weight loss!) and i'm eager to make the most of my newly recovered shape!
it was worth the wait to wear this style...i love this skirt pattern, and the results! i worked on it over several evenings, after the baby girl was put to bed, and for a couple hours over a recent weekend.
i'm happy to say my version fits me like a glove, without any alterations to the pattern or the garment (except length, because i'm a shorty). yay for that! *phew*
the deets: it's made from some medium weight black cotton canvas-like fabric i thrifted so long ago...that i cannot even remember when or where i got it. i'm guessing i thrifted it somewhere in florida, before i moved to new york city (in 2004). i made this skirt with it, and that shot is from 2005. oh well, who knows. similarly, the buttons are so old, i have had them for ages, don't even know where i got them from or when. i didn't have 6 of one kind of button so i mixed and matched the buttons on the front of the skirt to make it look interesting/intentional.
the pattern was free, the fabric and buttons were recycled/dirt cheap...i feel like this skirt is a prime example of "making something out of nothing"...my favorite kind of something to make.
sewing it was pretty darn easy, the pattern is probably intermediate level...has some tricky bits that might trip up newbie sewists, like the interior zipper, the gathered hip yokes, and so forth. those slightly challenging details are what makes this skirt particularly stylish, however, and worth the effort to sew. i totally want to make another (or maybe a FEW more!?), maybe one in denim with big wooden buttons? or another one with totally mismatched colorful buttons of different sizes on the front? this skirt pattern could be really fun to play around with, i'm thinking.
best of all, i can totally see myself wearing this cute number with all sorts of things, if not everything, it's so perfect and versatile: with a buttoned up blouse or tank tucked in to it, over leggings, with my equestrian boots, cowboy boots, with a little shrunken blazer or any one of my ubiquitous denim jackets over top (HA!)...or maybe all of those or combo of select members of that list at once?