Second Picnic Blanket Skirt...

Whilst on one of my many recent trips to Sham Shui Po, I picked up this lovely little fabric. It has a woollen quality to it, which i'm guessing is acrylic and it has a random cream printed spot pattern on a lovely rich navy background. 

I made the easy decision to make a second Picnic Blanket Skirt. My first one was a very simple make, with a very effective outcome. This no pattern make by Tilly and the Buttons involves some simple measurements and only a few simple stages of manufacture - seam, placket, gather, waistband, buttonholes, buttons and finally hem. (See instructions here) This time I went with a dark wood button, which compliments the navy very well. 

As you can see, the fabric does crease when it's worn, but I think that this blends in with the overall aesthetic quite well. This skirt sits lower in the waist than the first one, which should suit lots of my existing tops. 

My next question is, do I make another Picnic Blanket Skirt, this time in Christmas fabric? 

My first picnic blanket skirt!

So, I have had a bit of a Tilly-fest recently. One of these Tilly makes is a pale, spotty denim picnic blanket skirt. The instructions for making this skirt are on the Tilly and the Buttons website and handily, you don't need a pattern. All you need is a notebook, a tape measure and your brain. With just my waist measurement and a skirt length required, it ended up being a fairly straightforward process. I marked out the rectangles for the front and back skirt pieces and waistband using a fabric pencil. Other than that, I just needed 3 pieces of interfacing - for the waistband and buttonstands. 

I am extremely pleased with the finished article, I have found that I very much enjoy doing manual buttonholes, so this skirt was a really enjoyable garment to make. I found the cute, pale wooden buttons in a shop in Sham Shui Po and the fabric was part of my haul from Shenzhen. 

I would recommend this make if you are comfortable working with numbers. I plan to make a second version of this skirt because I love it so much, but this time in Christmas fabric! Watch this space nearer to December...