Stripy handmade skirt and #secondhandfirst

I made a skirt!  I'm super proud of this make, my first skirt AND my first outing with my overlocker.  I made it with the honeymoon in mind, but since that never really happened, it's not really had a huge amount of use so far this year sadly, it got cold too quickly for a thin summer skirt.  I could definitely wear it with brown tights and boots though, I need to trial that on our next date night, I have the perfect pair of vintage cowboy boots...





The fabric is a thin cotton my brother brought back for me from Thailand a few years ago.  He brought me back 2 pieces of fabric he bought off a market stall (plus a handheld sewing machine that was the dodgiest thing you ever saw!) and they both sat in my stash until one day I decided to make a skirt for the honeymoon.  I was digging through the stash for something to use and came across this candy stripe fabric and a lightbulb came on.  An energy saving lightbulb, obviously.



I used this 'How to make a gathered skirt' tutorial, found via Pinterest (feel free to follow me, click the widget at the bottom or search for 'Craft and Thrift').  It was super simple, though the fabric wasn't wide enough to cut one full strip with the stripes all going vertically, so I cut it in two pieces and sewed it together along a stripe.



I already had the elastic in my stash and since the pattern was free, this was a completely free make.  Love a shop-my-stash make, it feels very thrifty.





Check out those tidy overlocker innards.  I'm still using up the old craft labels but I do like how they give a little professional touch to a make.

Apologies for the shonky, inside, tripod photos, I'm still learning all the tricks for self-photography.  Next week is Traid's #SECONDHANDFIRST week and I'm pledging to wear 20% of my outfits second hand so expect an outfit post a day documenting my progress.  This will help me with my tripod shots (practice makes perfect!), encourage me to finish up some DIYs on thrifted clothing so I can actually wear them AND help promote a good cause.  I'm looking forward to the challenge!