Arya Cat of the Canals – Part 2 Skirts and Accessories
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Part 2
Skirts
To start with I wanted pleated cotton skirts, since the original is clearly pleated. I found pleated chiffon skirts and pleated satin skirts in abundance, however, cotton, or even an opaque non-shiny pleated skirt, was nowhere to be found. So I resorted to crinkled cotton. These exist in every colour under the sun… except olive green. So I bought a black one for underneath, and made the green one. However, I still had to buy beige fabric and dye it. Olive green simply isn’t in fashion right now! I chose beige instead of white so that it would be a more muted colour when I dyed it.
I didn’t use a pattern for the green skirt. I just cut trapezoids, sewed them all together, gathered it onto a larger waistband, and then put elastic in the waistband to fit. The result is a very full skirt which isn’t too bulky at the waist.
Accessories
The net is made of garden twine. I made three plaits, and sewed them together to make a long flat piece for the band. Then I tied on lots of strands, evenly spaced, and started knotting. I pinned it to a spare bit of fabric as I went to keep it all tidy. I also dunked it in the olive green dye-bath to calm the colour down a bit. It was a bit bright next to the olive of the skirt fabric. The wooden beads came out of my stash.
The gloves are cheap black knitted gloves from Target, and I cut off a few fingers.
The neck thingy is an uneven strip of the bolero fabric. I put it through the washing machine to start it fraying, and then pulled more threads out of it with a pin. It is safety-pinned to the back of the bolero because I was worried it would fly off and disappear.
The boots are my beloved hiking boots.
Hair
I delayed cutting my hair so that it would stay in braids for this outfit! I did a center part, dividing my hair in half. I then put my head upside-down, and did two dutch braids up the sides of my head. I ended up with ‘braid horns’, which looked quite ridiculous. The end of each ‘horn’ was then curled down and around itself and pinned, to make the little bun things. Lots (and lots) of hairspray held the fly-aways at bay (mostly).
