Skirting the Issue

While I won’t be taking requests most days on my updates, there have been a lot of queries regarding the now infamous skirt – mostly regarding its construction. Now, in the back of my mind I have been planning on eventually turning Natural Nerds into a group of sites, each dedicated to one aspect or another of my epic level nerdiness. One regarding the slightly manic levels of crafting I get myself into, another chronicling the Prime Geeks and I’s kitchen obsession. There is even talk of luring the PG to the darkside and working on a tech driven site. But, until then… I might as well intermingle all of the above here. Besides which, this particular skirt falls perfectly into my attempts to Reduce, Reuse, and… well. You know.

Early this year, the Prime Geek and I agreed to merge our gaming books and our mp3 collections, and settle down into married nerd life. I am the last of two chicks to leave my momma’s nest, the baby AND the only girl. Now, my resistance to all things “girly”, IE - pink, fluffy, lacy, or a horrid combination of the above has been the bane of my dear momma’s life. She had great hopes when I was small, for tiny and blond I turned out… at first. Nothing pleased her more than to schlep me to the beauty parlor, have them put the huge sausage roll curls ala Shirley Temple into my hair, and produce me to friends and family. Sadly, those days were short… and far from sweet. I hated babysitters, for they all came bearing boxes of ribbons and bows – danged and determined to turn me into a walking doll. The day my hair was cut short was a freeing day for this tomboy. Besides, do you have any idea how dangerous it is to swing upside down in tree branches with hair to your hips? Nearly strangled myself a dozen times over! Now, my momma, being a sweet and patient women, finally gave in. She let me run wild… provided my chores were done and I put the dress on for church. She has endured my forays into purple hair, chainmail bikinis, and leather pants. Granted, endured with confusion and more than a few “Dear Lords!” tossed in, but she has endured. As I have grown up, I have slowly reintroduced womanly wear into my wardrobe, although at 6’1 I still hold a true disdain for all things “cute”. The hair is long again – soon to be blue, but long. She has, reluctantly, understood I will never be a Barbie, and rarely will I fit the norm.

It is this allowing me to forge my own path that made me decide to head back to the fields of “normalcy” for my wedding. Just this once, I would let my momma see a sweet faced princess – instead of a tumbling, laughing gypsy. So the wedding dress… was, well. Have I mentioned yet that my family is half southern? So the tendency to white, poofy, and even a tad sparkly was indulged. Yes, there even was a tiara. Dear old mom went a bit nutty on the dress. It was lovely…. And oh so pricey. In all my years of adulthood, I have never spent on a full years worth of clothes what this dress cost. Guilt racked my nerdly soul…. I even almost nixed the dress, so shocked was I at the thought of spending what my parents did on something I would wear but once…

But…. it was so pretty. Who knew, that deep in my darkest soul, there was still a sliver of the little girl who let her momma play princess with her? So a pact was made. A way to salve my guilty conscious… and let me be a princess. For the next year, not one new article of clothing would I buy – the only caveat would be socks and underwear. I could only expand my wardrobe by refurbishing old items or sewing entirely new clothes. Somehow… that evened me out on the karmic scale.

Hey, I never said I was rational.

The skirt (directions and pictures follow tomorrow) was my first step into refurbishing clothes. I somehow managed to rip the side seam of a pair of blue jeans, ( I seem to remember the rip involving a sword, two large “nephews”, and a charging elf. Looonnggg story.) and, rather than seam it back up again, I decided I was lacking a decent denim skirt. A few hours of rummaging the internet for some directions… sadly lacking for the most part, and a few more profanity filled ones as I ripped the jeans apart and figured out how to put it back together again… found me the owner of the most comfy skirt I’ve ever had. All the advantages of blue jeans, with the “quick I gotta run to town and pretend to be an adult” aspects of a skirt. What more could a Natural Nerd want? Clothes that are “more than meets the eye”. *




*Wow. Can’t even type that without humming the transformer theme song. There must be something very wrong with me…..