The Care Bears taught me how to touch my toes

I used to love watching the Care Bears when I was a kid, and I'm not a fan of their new slimmed down reincarnations. When I saw this curtain panel with the chubby bears at a thrift store, I knew I had to make a skirt out of it.

I started by undoing all the seams on the curtain. Some of the edges were faded slightly, so I trimmed these off. I was left with a rectangle just under 3X my waist measurement, which is great for a gathered (dirndl style) skirt. I cut a strip off the top to use as a waistband, but instead of trimming the faded edge on the bottom, I chose to cover it with ribbon. This way I didn't lose any more length. Somewhat anxiety causing thing with the ribbon - I didn't really consider the pieces I had might not be long enough before sewing them on, and found out they were nearly the perfect length. I had about 3 inches left at the end.

With the trimmed fabric scraps, I made a large bow. Both this and the skirt hem have some ruffled eyelet trim (because it's cute, obviously).

The curtain was a bit sheer, so I lined the whole skirt. I considered adding pockets, but since I only needed one seam on the curtain panel to make it a skirt, I decided not to.

The lining has french seams so it's pretty on the inside and if the top layer flies up in the wind.

Since I had such limited fabric, I also used the lining for the back of the bows - the larger one I mentioned earlier, and two smaller ones which I temporarily attached to a headband for the photos. I'll put real pin backs on them eventually so it doesn't look as messy.

I recently got a hair cut I don't like much, but curling it makes me feel significantly better. (So does pretending I'm a black and white film actress, clearly.)