Leading Ladies Challenge: Gathered purple circle skirt

My inspiration was from Lauren Bacalls outfit in the film Key Largo (1948). The aspects of her outfit that I took were the full gathered skirt and the white skirt. I love how simple and elegant this outfit is. 

For the gathered circle skirt I added 5cm onto my normal circle skirt measurement, cut it out and gathered it to fit my waist measurement. I did struggle with keeping the gathers in place so in the end I gathered it with elastic, turned it over and top-stitched. However, it doesn't look quite right without a waistband so I wear a ribbon or a belt over it.

The skirt material is from one of two curtains that I bought from a charity shop for five pounds. They look and feel like silk dupion but are actually 100% polyester. Because of the added waist measurement the skirt is much shorter than I wanted it to be but thankfully it is still wearable...just. To conserve the length I did an improvised version of a narrow hem which consisted of an overlocked edge turned under and stitched about 1cm from the edge. I really love the extra fullness that the gathered circle skirt gives.

The shirt is one of dads that I refashioned about a year ago by removing the sleeves and collar, taking it in at the sides and elasticating the waist. On reflection I wish I hadn't gathered the waist because the gathering always shows if's tucked into anything and looks kinda weird.

I love this photo because I look like I'm about to fall on my face when I'm actually just running...

That's all I have to say about this outfit! Thanks to Project Sewn for inspiring me, because otherwise this skirt would never had existed! Oh and also thanks to Ed for taking photos.

Thanks for reading,

Lauren xx