All change!

OK, so... you know that bead-organiser-organiser storage bag I was going to make?

I normally edit my weekly Ocado order on a Tuesday (it comes on Thursday morning, and I have a thing called Ocado Reserved, which means I have a regular weekly slot and they try to predict what I'm going to order in advance, which is... well, mixed, as you can imagine, but I can always edit). But if I remember I'm going to need something I don't often buy - in this particular case, cocoa powder - I tend to go and stick that on the order at the point where I remember, so it won't slip my mind by the time I get to the main edit on Tuesday. So, on Friday, I went to put the cocoa powder on my order; and, as they do, they threw a page of assorted offers at me while I was checking out.

And there was this bag. On offer. Made from recycled plastic bottles. I checked the dimensions and it was pretty much exactly the right size. It comes to something when Hobbycraft don't have anything near the specific craft storage item you need, and then you suddenly find it at Ocado, of all places.

I actually ordered four, in the hope of a) having somewhere sensible to put out-of-season clothes and b) corralling at least some of the yarn which is taking over the flat. But that sorts my bead storage, which means, of course, that I now have two metres of olive green organic cotton which needs to be repurposed.

It's only 112 cm wide, which is a width I don't normally buy for any purpose other than making things like bags; but then it occurred to me, extremely belatedly, that actually my skirts don't need to be very full these days. They certainly used to. I didn't often wear a skirt (still don't, hence the very belated realisation), but when I did it had to have room for walking. And, when I say walking, I mean striding around at a great pace on my disproportionately long legs. But these days? I'm on wheels. I can get away with a skirt that's 130 - 140 cm in circumference, even at the ankles. So I can just cut two pieces 70 cm wide and a metre long (my ideal skirt is 90 cm from the base of the waistband to the hem, so that allows a generous hem I can let down in case of future shrinkage), which leaves me with a piece 42 cm by two metres. That's enough for two generous pockets and a two-piece waistband; I like my waistband to be about 120 cm (elasticated to fit, of course, but I need it not to be too tight getting it on because of Sibyl). The pockets need to be at least 30 cm deep, and after a little thought I decided to use the whole 42 cm width, because if I used only half of that, then with seam allowances my pockets would end up only 18 cm wide... and I like more than that if possible. (I very rarely need to put my Bible in my pocket, but I do prefer to be able to!) This meant cutting the waistband in two pieces, but that was fine, because it left me just enough fabric to do that thing I did with the concert skirt, which was to make a self tie belt to hide the waistband. Not quite in the same way, though. It'll be stitched in at the sides of the waistband and tie at the front, rather than going the whole way round and being held by ribbon carriers. I thought I had some ribbon in a shade of green which, while not quite the same as the fabric, at least wouldn't shout; I much prefer to use ribbon for the belt carriers than to faff around making them from the fabric itself. But I didn't, as it turned out, and that's not a problem because I haven't enough fabric to make a full tie belt. It's not quite a zero-waste project because I did shape the pockets a little, but it's extremely minimal waste.

As you see from the photo, the pockets were initially pretty wide. I realised I needed to cut them down a bit so I don't have to gather them at the top to fit the width of the skirt front. But not too much! In the end I needed to take off only a few centimetres.

This is basically going to be the wearable toile for the alstroemeria skirt. (I know I've mentioned that somewhere here, but I can't remember which post; I do keep a record, but I can't find where it was specifically mentioned.) I was originally planning to hack the Saguaro trousers for that, but actually I think this is going to be easier, and the finished effect won't be very much different. The alstroemeria fabric is wider, though, so I should easily be able to get two pockets across the width of the remaining strip of fabric after cutting the skirt pieces, which will mean I can make a one-piece waistband and probably a full tie belt.

And... it occurs to me I could do with a few more of these, and they're very quick, so I've picked up a couple of two-metre lengths in a sale. I have also picked up two and a half metres of a print I also really liked (red, with white birds); the extra half metre is so I can do the pockets without having to worry about the waistband and tie belt, because it's only 110 cm wide (which tells you exactly how much I like it, because for the most part I was skimming over any fabric I knew was that kind of width). A half tie belt is all very well, but I'd rather have a full one if possible. We have some hot weather coming up, alas, and skirts are quite good for that.

So, it looks like being another busy week!