Riding Skirt Revitalised

This black riding style skirt came from a second hand clothing store and has been very useful for the last couple of years on cold winter mornings when I had no inspirations as to what to wear.  With a pair of comfortable flat black military style boots it almost feels like I am striding off to work in my PJs, very comfortable but not too hot in airconditioning.  But it did need a bit of a boost to add some colour to the winter wardrobe, so here it is.

First of all I got an old woollen blanket and dyed it green.  Then I drew some templates of curving vine shapes on paper, pinned them to the blanket and cut out several to make “stems” around the bottom of the skirt.  They were appliquéd in place with blanket stitch, making two curlicues at the back where the birds now sit and two at the front also for extra interest.  Then the fun really started.  Using pieces of  felt and woollen squares I cut out varied flower, leaf and bird shapes and appliquéd them onto the curving tendrils.  The leaves were given veins with couched threads and the flowers had detail added with French knots, satin stitch, pistil stitch and split stitch.  The birds just needed a couple of beads for eyes. 

This was a thoroughly enjoyable project and very simple to achieve, all in all a fun way to inject life and longevity into an old favourite and colour into the winter wardrobe.