Clueing for Looks

A few years back, Shanen came over for an evening hangout and--long story short--I got her hooked on Sherlock. So for Christmas two years ago, I thought it would be fun to make her a Sherlock skirt. We only just got around to taking pictures now.

I saw a few Sherlock skirts on Etsy, but figured that if I could find the fabric on Spoonflower (which I did here), then I could easily make one myself. You may recognize the overall theme of this skirt as "Bored Sherlock".

I picked up one yard of the cotton poplin, and figured it would be enough for a subtle gathered skirt.

Channeling the Sherlock collar flip.

When my local Fabricland went out of business a few years ago, I also bought them out of their wide black elastic. I figured that since this skirt was a surprise, I didn't want to sew a skirt with any major fitting. Shanen's mom helped out by measuring her (telling her it was for something that she was working on), so that I could get close to her sizing. I cut the fabric into a rectangle and stretched the elastic to fit the length of fabric, plus seam allowance. Easy-peasy.

I made sure to do my best to not end up with a weird pattern placement on the butt.

Can you spot the magnifying glass? Girl is dedicated to the theme.

I lined the skirt with a lovely blue Bemberg Rayon.

I also bound all the seams with blue binding, but didn't get a photo. One of my favourite parts of the skirt, however, is this:

Wait, what?
THIS:

I was trying to think of a way to add the smiley face from the wallpaper in the show to the skirt. At first I was planning on getting some fabric paint, then it hit me...embroidery!

I added a patch pocket, because, let's be real, all skirts are better when they have pockets, and then I did a simple split stitch smiley face. I was even extra careful to match the pattern of the pocket to the skirt.

Doing her best to channel Sherlock's thinking face.

Overall I am super pleased with how this turned out, an luckily, Shanen was too.

There is no better way to find fellow Sherlock fans in the world than to wear a skirt made out of his wallpaper print.

Oh! And let's not forget the best outtake of the "shoot":

Someone was having trouble keeping a straight face.

{Honey, you should see me in a crown}