Seeing Spots

Hi there,

Have you ever had an idea come out of nowhere and get stuck in your head?
Well, that's where this skirt came from.

I was watching Family Feud this past weekend and one of the contestants had on a lovely black and white stripped 2-tier skirt. On the 1st tier, the stripes were diagonal and on the 2nd, they were horizontal. It looked really cute and it inspired me to sketch a similar skirt. Instead of 2 tiers of stripes, I was going to have the 1st tier be polka dots (spots) and the 2nd tier be stripes.

I had to go to Jo-Ann's on Tuesday to buy a walking foot for my sewing machine (having issues sewing ponte knit ... story for another day) and I had a couple of coupons that would expire on Wednesday. While I was there, I thought I should get the black and white fabrics for my skirt. I found several options for the polka dots but no black and white stripes *gasp*. Sure, they had chevron and I considered it but nah, I didn't want to get that. I was gonna go home and try another day/another store but I couldn't shake the idea so I re-designed the skirt based on the fabric I could see and ended up with  the 3-tier polka dot skirt you see here: under $6.50 and in about 3-4 hours.

Enjoy the pictures!!! :)

The 3 Polka Dot Fabric Pieces

  

Close-Up Indoors

Outdoor "Photo-shoot" :)

Spots & Stripes Dress: January's Make Of The Month

  * At the beginning of this year, I set a goal to have a #MakeOfTheMonth every month. This will be something I make because I want to - not because of a client's order, special request or for sale on the Etsy store.

** The #MakeOfTheMonth for January is a Spots & Stripes dress that I sketched on a post-it note sometime in 2014. The design was for a fit and flare dress with spots on the bodice and stripes on the skirt. I didn't get a chance to do anything about the sketch till now. I did change the original design by adding stripes to the bodice and I think that was a smart choice. Enjoy the pictures below :).

** Check us out on Instagram @zichie_designs.

I was going to get regular polka dots and a matching striped fabric but these 2 together caught my eye and won't let go.

The initial plan was to have an A-line skirt but I've recently been wanting to make box pleats so I did.

As I previously mentioned, I was going to make the entire bodice out of the spotted fabric but after I took a 2nd look, I decided to bring the stripes up into the bodice.

 

I wanted to do something different for the back so I added a cut-out but I made the band wide enough to cover any bra straps. :)

Final Look: