Two piece Liberty silk twill setacular

Last weekend I attended the superfun Sydney Frocktails hosted by the wonderful Caz (Useful Box).  It was a great night and I met loads of lovely ladies and saw again many sewing friends. Honestly though weeks out from the event I was really struggling for an outfit and was close to not going. I didn't want to wear anything I already owned and I didn't have any fabric in the stash to sew up.  In almost desperation I decided to bring out a skirt I'd made back in August but had never worn as I didn't have the right top to go with it (well of course it goes with stripes but not perfectly with any stripes I already own - as hard as that is to believe) so I, at the last minute, bought some extra fabric over the phone from the Fabric Store to make a two piece setacular.

Warning - these photos were taken the day after the event, I am tired and my outfit had become quite crinkled and I didn't put nearly enough effort into ironing it..but it's been so long since I posted I thought I'd better get something on the blog!

The fabric is a Liberty of London silk twill which is a bit tricky to sew but the twill gives it some stability, only of course to be offset by the stripe matching required.

The skirt is a simple pleated wrap skirt which I made up as I went.  I had no interest in putting in a zipper to this fabric so the waistband is just a long piece that wraps around and through a button hole. I haven't quite worked out where the wrap should sit but the tie is long enough to wrap around either to the front or to the back.  

The top is from 'We love Tops' a Japanese book. I've made this top up a few times but it has never really worked for me with pleats, but this fabric just calls out to be pleated and I needed it to be cropped to work with the skirt.  I really love the top and  will wear it seperately with my navy culottes. 

 Do I love it?  Mmm..  I think I did a great job at matching the fabric with a pattern. It's super fun to wear and I did enjoy the feeling of silk.  But I also felt a bit dowdy in it which might have somthing to do with the skirt length and the shoes I chose to wear with it (despite the fact that I do love these shoes) I think they needed to be higher.   Sewing can be a bit like that can't it?

A bit of a roller coaster of liking it, loving it, hating it.... loving it again.

I managed to pick up a bit of fabric last weekend, so excited to get sewing again following the Christmas present rush and the sewing laziness that followed!