Dear Michelle

As you know, I was pretty excited to make your skirts. I was so chuffed when you emailed me to order some P&E to cheer you up. How wonderful to cheer people with sewing!

I actually ended up making you 2 skirts, so you can pick which one you like the best, and I will send the other one to Georgie Love, so someone else in need of cheer can snaffle it.

The cool-flavoured one I cut out as a demonstration skirt at a remake and remodel workshop that I ran at the Candelo Town Hall on tuesday night.

It is, of course an ex-tablecloth, but I can tell you that in all my years of collecting and sewing with tablecloths, I have never seen one coloured like this. The pocket is an ex-placemat, courtesy of my little sister Meg, who is an avid rural traveller/op-shopper and extraordinary fabric scout. The red ric-rac around the pocket is, I think, kind of fancy. It's the first time I've done something like that, but I can safely say that it's my New Favourite Thing, especially since I organised my fabric/haberdashery stash and discovered about a billion little bags of it that I've been picking up over the years but never actually using.

The warm-flavoured one is a skirt that I'd cut out a while ago, which had been lost amongst my extensive 'in-progress' pile. I came upon it while I was looking for fabric for your skirt, and when I measured it, just out of interest, I found that it was exactly your size. I shit you not.

I decided that it was providence, so sewed it up for you, adding a birdie pocket as per instructions. The 'Fig parrots on Eriostemon' were leftover from the tablecloth I used for Ally's wedding dress.

I love that the birds and the plant are both identified in such a no-fuss way, almost like you're looking at a text book. A tablecloth text book - now that's something I could look at...

Anyway, let me know which one you like best, and I'll get it in the post to you. I hope the cheering works!

x