Late Sew Weekly: Chase This Light Paper Bag Skirt

And here I am, with my second Sew Weekly challenge ever, late again! Two weeks ago, the challenge was to sew something inspired by a memorable album cover. I don't know how particularly groundbreaking it is, but I personally LOVE Jimmy Eat World's Chase This Light album. When my sister gave me a copy, I listened to nothing else in my car for at least a month. And that's including hour-long-each-way drives to home and back each weekend and one trip to Sacramento. Sadly, until this challenge, I didn't even know what the album cover looked like, but I was super excited once I saw the beautiful peacock feather.

So. Blah.

As I mentioned before, I've just been getting into this whole feather trend, but haven't found any really appropriate fabric. Well, for this project, I had the perfect refashion in mind. I've had this linen/rayon blend empire-waist sundress from a thrift store ($2!) for a year, but it never looked very flattering. The cut of the dress made it just sort of hang on me, making me look shapeless; the tan linen color just looked blah next to me face...but I loved the fabric's suggestion of a peacock feather pattern. What to do? Obviously, keep the bottom border and turn it into a skirt!

Oops, I forgot to iron it.

I used Adventures in Dressmaking's paper-bag waist skirt tutorial as a refresher to make sure I knew what I was doing, then went ahead and cut off the bodice. I turned down the top a couple inches, sewed my two lines, put in the elastic, and done! I love fast refashions. After looking at it a little more, though, I decided I wanted to add some detail to it that would bring to mind the fabulous gold tones of the album cover. I used some gold thread to outline one of the "feathers" on the skirt, and even though you can't really see it from far away, it makes me happy to know it's there!

 So, check off another Sew Weekly challenge! I suppose I will eventually go back and tackle the famous Grace Kelly Rear Window dress, but I'm more eager to do a nautical-inspired dress, especially since I just picked up some navy blue bedsheets at the thrift store! We'll see if I actually finish it on time, though, since I'm already in the middle of another project.