Hi all,

I finished my Mariposa Skort and I love it.

The fabric and pattern just belong together, I think that they both have that tropical holiday vibe, perfect for this sunny summer we are having.

The pattern is from the Itzoma pattern company, and the designer of the company is Melissa Lowry. Until she designed some fabrics for Minerva, I hadn’t come across her, when I looked at her Instagram profile, as I just adore her fabrics, I realised she did patterns too which I immediately gravitated too and this skort pattern drew me in, Minerva sell her PDF patterns also.

I have long been a fan of skorts but mine are sporty for golf, this one is different because it is a dressy, flowy skort, it is a wrap that you don’t mind when the wind catches it, in fact you want it to so that you can flash off the lovely short element to it LOL, I wish now that I had graded down a size from the waist so that the front was more open, revealing the shorts more. It does seem a shame that some of this beautiful fabric is hidden, you do get sneaky peaks though, like the top where the skort falls a little lower into a nice V where it is tied, when I cut it out, I made sure there was a parrot in just the right place on the shorts where they were showing, and as you walk the skort moves to the side, so not all stays hidden away, I suppose you could always use a contrasting plain fabric for the shorts to save on your lovely printed fabric.

The only change I made was to double the fabric up on the ties with a contrasting fabric. I did this during construction, so had to unpick part of it and figure out how best to finish it where the ties joined the top of the front panels. I wasn’t keen on seeing the wrong side of the fabric and hems on the ties as a single layer, it would be okay if the reverse side was nice to look at, but I felt this would spoil the finish on mine. Luckily, I had a piece of the purple haze Meet MILK Vida Tencel Lyocell Voile left over which I used for my Kimono dress. It is nice and light in weight, similar feel to my main fabric and picked out my favourite colour in the fabric which is the lilac flowers. I also came across another soft pinkish scrap of fabric to make some bias binding, changing my mind on following the instructions for a Hong Kong finish for the hems of the facings, I thought it was light enough not to make it bulky and if I had gone to all the trouble of changing the ties not to mention that it has French seams throughout, then I may as well make every part of it have a beautiful, professional finish.

I purposely made the back elastic on the looser side as I wanted to wear it lower than my waist on occasions, mainly when tucking something in. I don’t know if it is because I did this or if it would work with the elastic tighter, but I can pull my skort down without having to unfasten the ties, perfect for going the loo as no one wants to Faf about every time you need to go.

As for the fabric, I can’t say enough good things about it, firstly the Terrance William Parrot Paradise is everything you want in paradise, the colours, the exotic fauna and bright, bold Parrots fluttering around from flower to flower. This is the black version, which I have to say makes the print pop, the other colourways are beautiful also, I love the mint one for a fresh look.

I chose a Minerva exclusive EcoVero Viscose Challis POD Fabric as I wanted something that would have flow and drape. It is perfect, I just love how buttery soft it feels, it is light, airy and moves beautifully. I had no problem cutting out or sewing this challis, some can prove to be rather slippery suckers, not this one, I even managed to cut it out as a double layer for the back piece, which is cut on the fold, normally I wouldn’t attempt to do this with a viscose challis. The rest I did on a single layer to make sure the print was where I wanted and the two front panels are different sizes anyhow.

It washes and irons lovely, it is opaque, which would be great for making a pair of palazzo pants, wouldn’t they be nice in this print, this fabric is just a dream to wear, I could quite happily make everything in the fabric.

I used a microtext 70 needle and my new magic silk pins which I shown on my previous post, they are so lovely to use, I found it easy to handle and sew, unpicking didn’t prove to be a problem, all in all a very enjoyable sew, what with the fabric and the great instructions, which had a sew along I found helpful with a part that I didn’t quite understand, visual instructions are sometimes a godsend and I really appreciate when a designer goes to this extra effect.

Just got to make the matching top now, I am having a battle with myself which to make. I have nailed it down to three, the Swim Style Patterns top from the Andi set (I am wearing a black one in three of the photos), a Style Arc Cara top which is an off the shoulder style, I was thinking I could elasticate the bottom to make it a balloon style hem, or the House of Izzie Float on Top but shorten it, one of my favourite tops to wear, it might be the amount of fabric left that makes the decision for me, that might help as I am going around in circles trying to decide.

Thank you for reading and happy sewing all

Sheila C xx

Fabric: Minerva Exclusive Terrance Williams Parrot Paradise EcoVero Viscose Challis POD Fabric Black.

Pattern: Itzoma Sewing Pattern Mariposa Wrap Skort (PDF)

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