Koos Skirt and Lagenlook trip wardrobe

I have had this skirt designed by Koos (Vogue 1244) half made up for what seems like several years.

It was lots of fun to choose and put together the different fabrics. I used quilt strip piecing methods rather than all the little patterns pieces and then cut my finished piece to the size of theirs (this was made convenient by a full underskirt piece in the pattern).   BUT when I tried it on it looked TERRIBLE---the LAST thing I need is a long skirt with vertical stripes emphasizing how short-waisted I am.  And of course I would never wear that tiny top and thought it looked almost clownish in one of the print fabrics (on ME, the model looks great)

I've been thinking a lot about the Lagenlook lately since there's a good discussion going on in Pattern Review and had the idea to have large horizontal stripes on the top to balance out the bottom.  Instead of having the stripes go all the way up to my waist I used the dark underskirt fabric on the upper half, giving it a "layered" look. Then I gathered up my top tee into horizontal pleats to give my upper torso some more width.

The underskirt is sewn to the outer at both top and bottom so all the outside is finished. It pulls up the hemline in a soft fold which you can see here.

This is the final item in the mini-wardrobe I've made for my 5 day trip to Charleston, SC coming up. It won't be very cold there but I did want to look fallish!

The top left is a sweater I crocheted and the bottom left is the Sewing Workshop Trio outfit. The others I've already blogged about.   Hope it doesn't rain as I didn't have time to make my grey krinkly microtech raincoat!