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August 03, 2008

Dirty Birdy

Thanks to the Knitty community I heard about the revival of Clothkits, an '70s iconic clothing company, and, being a) really rubbish at sewing (my last decent sewing effort was an ill-advised dress when I was 17 that made me look like a dental nurse. I wore it to the Proms. I'm still ashamed to this day) and b) having just been given an old sewing machine that had no instructions, I decided that the best thing to do would be to spend a load of money on a fantastic work of textile art and buy a clothkits 'Rob Ryan' skirt to make. Rob Ryan is a rather fantastic artist whose speciality is 'cutting out' (his words)- I believe he was in the Observer's '50 coolest people' list recently, much to his embarrassment. Anyway, the skirt kit sat there for a while, along with a number of other bits of material bought to 'make' skirts (haha). Luckily Glittr came to stay, and took me in hand, cuffed me around the ears a bit and as a result of some fantastic experiential learning we have...

a beautifully fitting, fully lined 'Dirty Birdy' skirt, so called by me because the design gives you something Glittr and I have termed a 'fanny bell'. This doesn't put me off it in the slightest- I think it is a feature to be proud of. No need for a sporran, just point yourself in the direction of whichever young man or woman (depending on your preference) you like and they'll get the message soon enough.

Goes nicely with red, I think, and just so you have some sort of perspective, this was made to a proper UK Size 12 (not your 'modern day' size 12 which is really a size 18, or whatever it is some shops (M&S) do these days).

My next project will be another Clothkits collaboration with 'People Will Always Need Plates' in eau de nil and VW orange. It's not the kits themselves, but the fantastic prints that you won't be able to get anywhere else that draw me. That's me in skirts for the foreseeable future then.

Posted by scumkitten at August 3, 2008 01:29 PM

Comments

Beautiful skirt with fanny bell thrown in? Sign me up, sign me UP! I love it and am completely jumping on the Clothkits bandwagon.

Posted by: SRW at August 3, 2008 02:25 PM

Gorgeous shoes too.

Posted by: glittrgirl at August 3, 2008 04:46 PM

Oh man! That is fabulous. And yes, great with the shoes. If I only I didn't hate sewing. And wasn't in the midst of radically changing size (damn this pregnancy lark). And so on. Oh well, bookmarked...

Posted by: Robynn at August 3, 2008 07:01 PM

loving it! wish i could sew something half as good. Also, if you shift it round slightly to the right you can have an arsehole ladder to go with your fanny bell....

Posted by: purlpower at August 9, 2008 12:39 PM

Indeed, although you couldn't have them both at the same time, which seems an oversight.

Posted by: Skitten at August 10, 2008 06:17 PM