The Garment Formerly Known as Tablecloth Skirt

In early February, Rhonda (of Rhonda's Creative Life) posted a picture of a piece of fabric that a friend had gifted to her. This friend had purchased the fabric in Africa — it was a cotton jacquard that had been tie dyed with indigo and kola nut dyes. I drooled all over it, and Rhonda generously gifted it to me.

The first thing to do was to follow the instructions on the handwritten label and give the fabric a vinegar soak to set the dye. I used the bathtub and an entire bottle of white vinegar to give the fabric two soakings. What surprised me was that the water turned quite brown, both times — I had expected the indigo blue to bleed, but it was the kola nut brown. After two soakings, each followed by a thorough rinsing, I machine washed and dried the fabric. Afterward, I thought the fabric looked very much the same as before, the blues and browns didn't visibly change, so it truly was "extra" dye remaining in the fabric.

Rhonda approved of my idea of sewing the fabric into my tablecloth skirt. In fact, several weeks ago she asked me to write a guest post on her blog about the skirt for Fabulous Free Pattern Friday, which was posted today.

For this version of the skirt, I cut the center square a bit larger, so the resulting rectangles are a bit more narrow. The larger the center square, the fuller the skirt and the larger the hemline. The corners are less pronounced.

I am really going to enjoy wearing this version of the skirt, so many thanks again for this thoughtful gift, Rhonda! Again, check out Rhonda's blog for my guest post with details on how to sew the garment-formerly-known-as-the-tablecloth-skirt. (Too many people assume that this skirt is made from a tablecloth, so I do regret that name.)

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