Stocking Up on Seperates

I have been known to build outfits around very small things. Like a few buttons becomes a need for a dress, a pair of shoes needs new trousers or something, and so on. I bought this ring while on holiday in Los Angeles:

- and then I bought these boots from Ebay:

And - I came across this picture somewhere on the interwebs, and became obsessed with, of all things, the belt loops!-

Source

I noticed a western theme bubbling up. As luck would have it, I had these two pieces of fabric in my stash which I'd never quite found a use for:

I really wanted to make these into blouses, but looking at my wardrobe, I realised I also needed skirts to go with them. And it would give me a reason to make something with those belt loops! I had fabric left over from my Birkin flares, and some other black twill from a long ago project, enough for 2 skirts. And so 2 western-themed outfits were born!

Here's the first:

The blouse is Simplicity 3414 from 1950:

I made view 1 with short sleeves:

And added a subtle western touch with some top stitching and arrowhead tacks around the fabric channels on each side:

The skirt is a denim-weight black stretch twill, which is a hack of my self drafted pencil skirt, and a flared section taken from Burda 122 and added at the back:

I have worn this skirt constantly since I made it - it's like the skirt equivalent of a favourite pair of jeans. I added some denim details to it like topstitching, belt loops, and a jeans-style zip at the back:

Centre back fly zip

On to outfit number 2:

The blouse is Simplicity 6110, from 1973:

And the skirt is mostly Simplicity 6017, with pockets borrowed from Butterick 4990:

And with self drafted belt loops!:

I carried through the theme of topstitching and arrowheads on the inverted pleat at the front:

And that's really it! I'm off to listen to some Patsy Cline and eat some bbq. See you soon!