i may have mentioned here before that Em and Sadie, daughter of my good blog friend, Vintage May partner, and amazing sewist Jess, are the cutest little long distance buddies. they text emoji “conversations” back and forth, they FaceTime, they send each other drawings with giant 5 year old lettering and stickers across the envelopes (with Jess and i squeezing addresses into whatever blank spaces we can find). i’m sure the post office loves those.
for Em’s birthday in May, Sadie was excited to send a present, and she and her mom worked together to make this ADORABLE skirt, which quickly became Em’s favorite and is in constant rotation. Sadie turned 5 in August, so it was high time we returned the favor!
Jess had written a post saying Sadie loves feathers, which gave me the hint i needed to sew up this skirt for her. the pattern is the Oliver + S Swingset Skirt, which hadn’t grabbed me as a must have until I saw Gail make a few. now that i’ve made one, i’m totally hooked! it’s not quite a circle skirt but it’s very twirly, i love the triple waistband (two rows of elastic and one ribbon), and i love the fact that it’s lined! it’s a quick, fun sew but has more style than the simple rectangle of fabric skirts i usually make.
i used a vintagey lace trim for the “ribbon” since it seemed very CINO to me. i think it came from Cherie (Daiso?).
the feathers i hand drew, stuck on with steam a seam lite (affiliate link) and topstitched around the edges and up the middle using silver metallic Gutermann thread. the top feather is white seersucker, the middle is heather ross far far away double gauze, and the bottom is violet cotton couture, all scraps from prior projects (maybe you can guess them? i used the HR pre-blog/flickr only).
the skirt fabric itself is Denyse Schmidt for JoAnn a couple years back. still getting good mileage out of the 2.5 yards I picked up, originally intending on making something for myself with it!
i sewed a size 4 since Em and Sadie appear to be almost exactly the same size, and threw in some other goodies including this drawing of Ariel (Sadie’s favorite Disney princess) done by Em. Ariel is wearing a “on HUMAN legs!” pink fancy gown, complete with a castle, ocean, and seagulls.
word has it Sadie was thrilled to get our little gift. and one day soon, these two little long distance buds are actually going to get to meet each other in person!!
plans are in the works. 😉
skirt as top 
That is so sweet that the girls communicate back and forth.:) The Swingset skirt is one of my faves. I love the appliqued feathers!
So cute! The feathers are super cool! When’s the next film petit going to happen?
Adorable !
how very cute! love the feather appliqué.
I seriously have an irrational love for that fabric and regret not buying a bolt of it when it was available. Weird, I know. But it’s the perfect shade of yellow! And it looks great as a skirt. Those feathers are amazing.
isn’t this the best skirt pattern for little girls? I just love the way it hangs and as you said, the great waistband. What a sweet gift for Sadie! And those feathers . . . oh the patience you must have to top stitch all those! My hat goes off to you:) And tell Em the picture is a piece of real art – love it!
have i mentioned how jealous i am of your stockpile of this particular print? 🙂
the feathers are such a great touch – i love this pattern (obviously) and it’s a great blank canvas, as you’ve shown!
so awesome! seriously, you guys are too cute with your penpal stuff. Love it. And those scraps are so perfect for on that skirt.
I mean really! This is so cute. I feel a feather obsession coming on! Sweet little friendship.
Lovely skirt. I’ve only made this skirt pattern once but I love it for all the reasons you said. It’s a gorgeous gift and very sweet to read of their long distance friendship
love the feather details, such a pretty skirt 🙂
How do I love thee skirt? Let me count the ways…I love your feathers, your print, and your cute lace tie…I love the adorable lining and the fact that I didn’t have to sew it…I love the silver top stitching and feather fabric…ok I’m done with the mushy love letter to this skirt.
Seriously though, we loves it. Can’t wait to see you guys!
It was so fun making it, sooooo glad she loves it (and you too apparently, ha!). 😀
Oh so cute! I’m looking forward to making one of these skirts for halloween. Love the drawing too. It makes me laugh because Clover draws pictures of Ariel too and specified that she’s got her “human legs” in certain ones. haha!
Que lindo queda las plumas y el lazo!! A mi hija le encantaria!!