The Eye-kea Skirt

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Ikea. You get out to that big blue and yellow box by the freeway, get all lost and disoriented, then dazzled by all that clever Scandinavian design, and next thing you know you're dragging a bunch of unnecessary furniture and soft furnishings back to your house, in my case usually on public transport. I have difficulty avoiding clutter in my home, and I don't want to subject my interiors to the whims of fashion - when I buy a sofa or a table, I intend for it to last a long time. And shopping at Ikea goes against my belief in supporting small, independent businesses - I feel like I'm selling out to 'the man'. (I'll never shake off my 70's San Francisco upbringing...)

But every now and then I have to succumb. I really needed to replace the curtains for the bay window in my living room. They're huge windows; if I bought the fabric from some of the local fabric shops it would have set me back close to £100 (approx $150 USD). But buying the fabric at Ikea was only going to cost me about £50-£60. I was going to have to live with it.

As is usually the case with Ikea, I didn't just buy the curtain fabric. In fact I was pretty impressed with the fabric selection, and found it hard to resist buying stacks of it. I did treat myself to this:

Vannerna Titta, £9 for 3m (source)

 It's meant for a childs bedroom curtains or cushions, but I immediately saw it's Dali-esque appeal:

The Eye, Salvador Dali, 1945

Which inspired me to create this:

That's me doing a 'surrealist' pose

 It's not the first time I've made something and then had to think later about how to work it into my wardrobe. With this skirt I decided that the best look was a 50's musical beatnik look as seen in films like 'Funny Face' and 'The Rebel'.

Audrey Hepburn going beatnik in 'Funny Face'

Nanette Newman in 'The Rebel'

 

 I admit it's a bit freaky; I wanted to debut it recently at a christening, but Mr Needles quite rightly said it might scare the children! 

The skirt only used about 1.5m, leaving me another 1.5m to play with (the fabric is sold in ready cut pieces of 3m). Probably enough to line an upcoming jacket project - stay tuned!