braid

My folk skirt - yes, remember the skirt that I so wanted from a few weeks back? that I saw on the table of contents page of a knitting book? that I emailed the author and photographer about to see if they knew where it was from? Yes, that one there on the left.

Alas, all of my research came up with nowt so I took matters into my own hands and started to collect images and details of suitable jacquard ribbons (you can see the collection at Pinterest). Imagine my delight when I checked the web page for Esther's Fabrics (go on, take a look too) while organising our trip to Bainbridge Island and saw one of the ribbons!

The photo must have been taken a while ago because they only had one colourway still available in said ribbon, a blue/orange/bronze combination. I'm not sure whether I would have chosen this one (over the garnet/fuschia/black or pink/cream/green alternatives) but I am delighted to have some in my hot little hands.

And to think that I can now actually start making my own folk skirt. I'm going to look for some poplin in cotton and experiment a bit with how to get the look of those lace appliqués: draw them on with a fabric pen or (Alabama-Chanin style) just with a Sharpie? freehand or make a stencil? or then actually go to the trouble of screenprinting? And of course, what colour fabric for the skirt??