Skirting the Issue

Hey y’all!  Look, I made it back here before the calendar flipped to yet another month!  I deserve a treat!

Today I managed to shower and get dressed before work, which is a huge accomplishment. It has become all too tempting to just roll out of bed, put a clip in the rat’s nest formerly known as my hair, and begin working.  Every time I do that though, it becomes a video-chat-heavy day, and I end up regretting my choices.  My poor coworkers have had to see me in all my sleepy-eyed, frizzy-maned glory enough times that they may be reconsidering their love of Skype.  Which is actually okay in my book.  I know it’s the future and all, but video chatting is probably one of the worst inventions.  I would gladly trade it for a pizza rehydrator or self-drying coat.

I have mentioned before that I’m in some clothing swap groups on Facebook, many times. Not only are these groups excellent places to find clothing, but they’re great for finding talented bad-ass friends, too.  There was a skirt I wanted and someone was selling it in a group, but a few other people were interested.  Another group member, Nati, emailed me saying she could make me the same skirt if this purchase fell through, and I must admit that at first I was like “Oh shit is this girl trying to scam me or what” because I thought there was no way in hell she could have the same fabric that Retrolicious makes skirts with.  I ended up buying the skirt for sale in the group, but this mysterious stranger informed me she had a Facebook group for her skirts, and I’d be welcome to join.

After joining Nati’s group I stalked all the photos and comments, and sure as shit, this girl is the real deal!  She has an incredible array of beautiful and funky fabrics, and everyone was extremely pleased with their skirts from what I could tell.  I’d had my eye on a number of novelty printed fabrics and finally settled on two skirts after months of lurking in the group.

Nati makes each skirt customized to your waist and length specifications, and is happy to modify the fullness of the skirt to your preferences as well.  The finished pieces have nice, wide elastic waistbands, which look great on their own and even better belted (though I have a habit of belting everydamnthing).

LOOK AT THESE DOUGHNUTS YOU GUYS.  I badly wanted to wear this skirt to go buy actual doughnuts but my dreams didn’t come to fruition, partially because I was afraid of being too corny.  The scoop-neck shirt is from Amazon.  The earrings are by a local maker, Cameoko. The shoes are Crocs, which I got on Ebay.  They’re my second pair of these exact shoes, and I didn’t even get a second pair for a good reason like, say, the original pair wearing out due to overuse.  I was cleaning up around the house and grabbed a pile of stuff to throw away, and a pile to put away.  I must have gotten my piles confused (ugh multitasking) and threw a couple items in the trash that I shouldn’t have.  I only came to this conclusion after I checked my closet and found a lone purple Croc, and searched the house high and low for its mate.  I was beating myself up for throwing it away, but figured replacements would be easy to find.  Well, as rarely happens, I was wrong.  I could find lots of updated styles, and they were all ugly.  I set up an Ebay alert, as I’m wont to do, and eventually a pair of pink ones in this style and my size showed up. I bought them, thinking I’d never come across purple ones again, and threw the sole purple shoe away. Once again, it turned out I was wrong!  Purple ones showed up on Ebay shortly after my pink pair arrived, so I bought them too.  The purple pair made me so happy, and I felt like a champ for being able to fix my careless mistake.  Until I was wrong. Yes, again. It has to be a record for me, and one of which I’m not proud.  See, the other day, Zach opened a drawer in which he keeps his shoes and found the missing mate.  It hadn’t been in the trash at all, it was merely misplaced!   And of course that didn’t matter anymore, since I’d chunked the other one in the trash.  But now I have two pairs of Crocs!  Which is likely not something most people would be proud to have tied to their online identity, but there you have it.

This skirt got so many compliments while I was out not buying doughnuts.  A guy came up to me at Publix and was like, “Where’d you get your skirt?  My girlfriend wants to know, she wants one.”  I guess the girlfriend was shy, but I’m not so I made her pull out her phone so I could share Nati’s Facebook group with her.

This skirt is so precious, I couldn’t stop admiring myself all day.  The colors are bright and plentiful–my favorite kind! I can think of at least 4 other top/belt/shoe/earring combos off the top of my head, which means I may actually end up wearing it multiple times.  A rarity for me, I know.  This top is also from Amazon, the belt is from Cats Like Us, and the shoes are Swedish Hasbeens.  Also if you’re wondering why my face looks strange and dead, it’s because I forgot to put on mascara.

These skirts are so incredibly well-made, I couldn’t possibly be more pleased with how they turned out!  I’m stumpy as hell and ordered these at 23″ in length + the 2″ waistband, and would probably do a 21″ length next time.  Not because I want to show off my gams or anything, but I think shorter skirts and dresses look better with tights and boots, and I’m about to move somewhere I’ll be in tights more often than not.  Since the waistband is so sturdy, I think I could roll the band over once and belt it if I really felt the need to make either of these shorter.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Nati’s work or purchasing a skirt, check out her Etsy shop or her Instagram! She has scads of fabric, and is always on the hunt for more, and best of all, she’s easy to work with and hilarious.  (Also I paid full price for these skirts.  I know how it sounds, but I swear I’m just stoked about them and wanted to share.)

Okay I’m going to eat more Cotton Candy grapes and look at houses I can’t afford on Zillow.