Apparently, this is what it looks like when dreams come true.  The other day my daughter told me she was shopping and saw a chiffon maxi circle skirt that she fell in love with.  I asked her why she didn’t buy it?  Because she sews also she had found a few deficits in the skirt that she just couldn’t live with.  1 – It wasn’t long enough (she’s 6’ tall too!) 2 – it wasn’t lined so she’d have to wear a slip underneath, and 3 – from experience with fabric, she knew that chiffon wouldn’t hold up to the many, many wearings she planned to give it.  Then she said it, “But we could sew one just like it and make it perfect, right Mom?  And by we I mean you…”  Ah, the innocence of youth.  How could I reject a plea like that?  Plus that profession of faith in my sewing abilities made my momma heart soar!

To begin building the perfect maxi circle skirt, we ordered khaki rayon challis from CaliFabrics.  (And then when we miscalculated how very, very many yards of fabric a full maxi circle skirt would take we placed another order.  But never mind that part…)

We knew rayon challis would be lightweight enough to stand up to copious amounts of wearing, and was easier to work with than chiffon.

To fix the sheer have-to-wear-a-slip issue, we lined this skirt with lightweight rayon jersey fabric.  This not only solved the opacity problem, but is much cooler to wear in hot weather than traditional polyester lining fabric.

Of course we solved the not long enough problem of the RTW skirt too.  This took many mathematical contortions, a 2nd order of fabric, and the firm insistence of my daughter repeatedly that she really did in fact want a full circle skirt.  (I may or may not have almost cut a 1/2 circle skirt while she was sleeping, but quickly repented of my evil thoughts!)  You can read all about the construction details of this over at Skirt Fixation.

At her request, this skirt also has an invisible zipper, because if you’re making a float-y, maxi, lined, full circle skirt, why not?  {Insert liberal amounts of sarcasm here…}

We tried for a few twirling photos, but this skirt is really so full that it’s impossible to accurately represent it’s fullness.  It takes several days to line dry if that tells you anything about it’s fullness.

As you have probably noticed, a gorgeous new rayon challis top entered the picture with this skirt.  I sewed it for myself to replace a staple navy blue dress shirt of mine that was getting quite threadbare.  The fabric is this amazing quality navy rayon challis from CaliFabrics.

I used the Key Largo Top pattern, added my standard wide shoulder and broad back adjustments as well as gave it the ruffle sleeve treatment.  This rayon challis is absolutely heaven where ruffle sleeves are concerned.  

This top is pretty much fulfilling the same dream garment role for me as that skirt is for her.  We’ve had a nice little talk about how she’s not going to steal my clothes.  Again.  {Insert 17 eye roll emojis here…}

She’s promised that if I get more than 20 comments on this post she’ll give it back.  Help a poor momma out, would you?