twirly twirly twirly

During the school year, the thought of having endless hours of nothing to do sounds soothing and wonderful, a kind of hazy ideal of naps and snacks and lazing in bed with a book.  However, now that summer is here and I don't have anything to occupy my mornings, I've managed to get bored quite quickly.  It's going to likely be worse now that Mom's working out of town for several weeks at once because there's not anyone to be bored with!  So, I have begun questing for different ways to occupy myself.  I've gotten through a couple bestsellers, and I've been doing well with my goal to make at least one new recipe each week.  I've gone dancing at least twice, had a Shakespeare night, played a few game nights, and watched more hours of Netflix than I can count.

In defiance of boredom, I decided to do something I've never done before.  I made a skirt!

and one, and two, and a twirly twirly twirly!

When Jessica and I went swing dancing at Kats Korner on Saturday, she had a super swirly dress on.  I have one pink dress that spins, but I've worn it dancing so many times already that I've been wanting a new one.  It's hard to find a reasonably priced dress that spins just right, so I thought - I'll make one!

I've never sewn before, aside from some sloppy little stitching project in Pioneer Girls growing up in church.  I've certainly never used the sewing machine before, or bought fabric.  I found a tutorial online here at MADE, which was so delightfully simple to follow.  Jessica and I went to JoAnn's to find cloth, which was probably the longest part of the process.  There were at once both so many to choose from and so few.  It doesn't help that I'm terribly indecisive.  Oh well, I've already decided I'm going to make another one.  :)

We came back and took over the kitchen, cutting out patterns and cloth, ironing and pinning things, sewing and crying out in mild frustration over our inexperience.  We got about halfway done before it was time to go off to a Memorial Day picnic - which was thoroughly enjoyable, as were the many rounds of Scattegories and Bang! that were played afterward.  But I digress.

This morning I got up (after a ridiculously lazy lie-in) and finished the skirt.  I did manage to mess it up a bit, but I fixed it and I don't even notice the flaw, so hopefully no one else will, either.  I then went outside with the camera and took a bunch of fun pictures to show how well it spins.  I am so pleased!  Oh, and I made a matching headband to go with it.

 I, Laura Kathleen, have made an article of clothing.  And it doesn't look awful.  It does what I want.  It looks like I expected.  It worked!  I did it!  I feel SO accomplished!  I have added a new skill to my repertoire.  I have taken one step closer to being able to do everything.