Happy Pride – Rainbow Skirt

Happy Pride Month! (Let’s ignore the fact that I’m posting this in July and Pride month is June). I had all the best intentions, but life gets in the way. Now that it’s summer, I want to enjoy the warmth and sunshine. I’ve been sewing in the evenings but haven’t gotten around to photos and blogs – so bear with me because my posts might be a little sporadic. Now, onto the happiness that is Pride:

I’m embarrassed to say that this is my first Pride! Each year something was going on, vacations, birthday parties, illness. I was beyond excited for Pride this year and wanted to make something fun to show my love and support. I figured what better than rainbow? Of course I procrastinated getting my fabric and my dreams of a knit maxi dress were foiled. I figured JoAnn’s would have something awesome but they didn’t have anything that matched what I had in my head. I thought about taking separate colors of fabric an piecing them together but I really wanted a smooth-blending-ombre-rainbow look. Enter Amazon.

I found this gorgeous organza fabric and fell in love instantly. It was available with Prime and $14.99 for 5 1/3 yards – SCORE! I bought 2, for a total of 10 2/3 yards. The width was wide – 54 inches. There were five 5-star reviews. I mean, how could I go wrong?! Oh yeah, let me now mention that I have never sewn with organza. Yep, that’s how I could go wrong! This fabric just does not want to cooperate. It’s slippery, awkward and does whatever it wants (which is never what you want).

The fabric came in the promised 2-day delivery and I ran around the house pretending I was a super-hero with a glorious cape and then wrapped myself up in a cocoon with it. It was dreamy and gorgeous. The colors were EXACTLY want I envisioned. I knew that I wanted to make a maxi skirt with a black band.

I quickly realized how insanely hard it was to measure this evenly and cut it correctly. I measured my height from my natural waist to the ground and came up with 45″ long . I attempted to cut a straight line but it basically looked like a drunk toddler cut it. Oh well, fabric cut and onto the next part – sewing this bitch.

I attempted to gather the organza as best as I could on my sewing machine. There was no rhyme or reason about how I did this. I used a basting stitch and just hoped for the best. It was then I realized I wish my hoarding self had a ruffler foot. I did this with all the pieces of organza and then cursed myself 100 times while sewing. I also broke a needle and thought I broke my machine – apparently you just unplug it and plug it back in. Relief!.

Next, I had 2″ black waistband elastic and cut it to 28″. My waist is 30″ and I wanted it to be snug. I put one piece of the organza up to the waistband and then started zig-zag stitching it on and stretching the elastic as much as possible. I butted-up all the pieces and ended up having a few layers – which was wanted I wanted since organza is see-through and I didn’t want to wear pants underneath. I liked the idea of “slits” in all the panels, so I didn’t sew any of them together – and I sure as hell didn’t hem this. If you’re wondering, I wore a bathing suit bottom underneath it.

I did end up having to cut off a few inches on the front pieces. I was tripping all over myself – haha! I guess that 45″ length was not correct. Might I mention that I was so intimidated by this fabric that I ended up having a half a bottle of wine before attempting?!

But guess what? I LOVE THIS SKIRT! It turned out exactly how I had envisioned it. Yes, it was a huge pain in my ass to sew – but it’s amazing. It flows in the wind, it’s bright and gorgeous and it got my point across – I SUPPORT YOU. I might be straight, but I accept you. I don’t care who you love (as long as it’s consensual and it’s not a child). I accept you no matter what your gender. Non-binary? I’ll call you by your proper pronouns. I’ll be there for anyone that is a good soul. I have all the love and acceptance – and so does he.

You know what’s crazy to me? I posted the below photo on my Instagram and immediately had people unfollow me. I wasn’t upset that I lost followers, I was upset that there are people out there so offended and filled with hate that they felt the need to unfollow me. I feel bad for those people. We need to be here for other each. We are all human.

Okay, enough of my rant. I want to say that I had a blast at Pride. It rained but that didn’t stop us. The feeling of love and acceptance was magical. I can’t wait to attend again next year and cheer everyone on!!

Bonus: Nico wanted to get his face painted. They asked him what he wanted and he likes skulls & creepy death stuff – so they suggested a rainbow skull and he LOVED it!! So cute!