Ruffles and Tweed

A while ago I was given a box of fabric bits and pieces from a friend’s mother, who is now in her nineties and hasn’t sewn for years.   

As well as some lovely vintage prints she had started making herself a pair of trousers out of this wool.

It’s a heavy wool and almost a bit scratchy, but I love the tweedy look.  The lady is a lot smaller than me, so there was no way I was going to be able to simply complete the trousers for me, so I carefully unpicked the half made trousers and assessed the fabric that I was left with, with a view to making a skirt.

The pieces that I had weren’t wide enough to make a straight skirt, so I had to be a bit more creative.  The back was a simple fix – I put a curved godet in the centre back seam, drafted from my skirt block using the same technique that I used here.

Although it is a very subtle effect, I also added a little embroidery to the two back panels – just because I can!

At this point I stalled slightly, while I figured out what to do with the gap in the front.  Eventually I added a panel to the front lining and attached layer upon layer of stone coloured chiffon ruffles from the $1 stash.  It sort of looks as though I’ve vomited chiffon down the front of the skirt.  

Or maybe it’s just a cute play on the hard and soft of the tweed and the ruffles?

Here’s my dilemma:  When my daughter was living at home she would sometimes come home from school, look at my current project on the dummy and yell “STOP! Move away from the fabric Mum.”  This was her sign that I had gone, or was about to go, over the top.  With no resident daughter to rein me in I wonder whether I’ve gone too far with the ruffles and embroidery here?

What do you think?