Remember the hippy skirts I wanted to make? The tiny one was a miserable failure. I've never been very good at sewing without a pattern, but I figured this was going to be fairly easy. Here's where I started:

I found a pair of jeans up in her closet that were too short but still fit around the waist. They didn't have pockets in the back, but I figured for a first attempt the simpler the better. And the fabric with raspberries would be nice for summer. So I opened the leg seams and sewed in the little patch of fabric. Very little of the fabric showed, but it turned out cute enough, just a little boring.

Then I tried it on her. Let me tell you, this baby has got some funky proportions going on. I had to shorten the skirt a little more and then even less of the berry fabric showed. Plus the poor thing walked like a penguin. So I slit the side seams and she could walk a little better, but it just didn't look that cute. So this morning I had the bright idea of adding a little gathered skirt to the bottom instead. A few minutes later I was done with this:

A bit more cutesy and a little less hippy than I was going for. Oh well, let's try it on. Ready?

I laughed so hard. It looked ridiculous! There is a scene in the movie Steel Magnolias where this woman is dancing at Shelby's wedding reception. She has on this awful pink dress and *GASP* she isn't wearing a girdle! The other women say it looks like two pigs wrestling under a blanket. If you don't know the movie- nevermind. But the skirt looks just like that woman's dress. Bad. Too tight on the baby pot belly, and then exploding out in a big bubble-butt poofy skirt. Nora was not very happy with it either. It made her cry.

SO, I am going to take a break from those skirts. And I'm going to find a PATTERN to make myself something out of this fabric:

What should it be? A bag? Maybe a simple a-line type skirt? Any ideas?