Tanzania Skirt

Hi all! Today's make is all about the fabric, which was given to me by my friend Connor as a souvenir from when he went to Tanzania. I decided that a simple gathered rectangle skirt would work best to showcase the print. A shift dress would also have been good but I like my waist defined, which shift dresses don't tend to do enough of for my liking. This skirt is also my entry for Oonapalooza because of the awesome print!

The fabric consisted of 2 of these panels. I only used one for the skirt so I could keep the other intact for a wall hanging of something. I cut it in half horizontally to get the most fullness and used some white fabric from a bedsheet for the waistband, which you can't see in the pictures because I decided a black ribbon over it looked best for this ensemble.

I kept the selvedge as is and didn't hem it because I like the writing at the bottom. I tried to google translate "ubaya sikuwa nao nawalipa visa vyao" and google translate disappointingly came up with "I was wrong with their visa nawalipa". I like to think that it does translate to something meaningful though.

Frustratingly, even though this is an incredibly simple project, all that could go wrong, went wrong. The invisible zipper broke just after I finished the skirt and the gathering was uneven so the center back had become the side back. So after having a mild strop I unpicked the zip and the waistband, re-gathered the skirt, re-attached to the waistband and re-attached the zip. Now it's done though, I am rather pleased with it and am proud of myself for working through the issues rather than tossing it in the corner and leaving it for a year.

That's all for now!

Thanks very much to Connor for the fabric, and to Ed for taking the pics for the price of 2 marshmallow pancakes.

Thanks for reading!

Lauren xx