My first Kew turned out so well that I almost immediately went for round two. I picked up this striped, lemon-ed rayon at Mulberry Silks in Carrboro, NC during a sale after coveting it online for a while. As much as I liked it, I was suspicious of these lemons. Would I really wear something covered in citrus fruits? Was I merely charmed with whimsy?
But I bought 2 yards with zero plan, as you do.Â
This summer I've been seeing all these vintage/vintage inspired summer twin-sets on the 'gram and was like, ME TOO! I WANT TO COOL KID TOO! I figured a crop top/skirt combo meant that I could try out being a fruit salad to see if I liked it but could also break it into separates to avoid total lemon-time.
The top is the Kew dress in crop form, with added ties for jauntiness. I cut the pieces as is constructed the top as usual. The bottom was serged and turned under into a baby hem. I prefer doing narrow hems on light fabrics with a serged edge— instead of a double turned hem— because I find that there is less bulk and less of a tendency to flare the hem in a weird way. I originally wanted to cut the ties onto the fronts but didn't have enough fabric to swing it so I sewed them on separately. The ties are basically the strap pattern cut four times, sewn into tubes and turned right side out. They hang directly down from the bottom, not sure if that was the best way but it seems to have worked out.
The bottom is more or less the 3/4 circle skirt from Gertie’s Ultimate Dress Book. Really less, in order to make it fit on the fabric I had to remove some of the fullness so it's really somewhere between a 1/2 and 3/4 skirt. Not much to report other than It Is Good. I missed having a good swishy skirt in my life and now I has it-- and want a wool one for winter.
As individual pieces, I love it. My favorite way to wear the crop top is with my black ultra high-waist jeans. The skirt such good drape and swish and has the right kind of vintage charm with the print.
As an outfit? I like it? I think? I like the contrasting stripe directions and I think it's better as a two-piece outfit than a full dress. It's a lot more print than I'm used to though. It will probably end up being separates more often than not and it's a neat way to get more wear out of one outfit. Would be a great outfit to travel with! (Although she does wrinkle a lot...)