Becoming Blossom

The year was 1990. I was a tall, geeky brunette 8^th grader who seldom saw girls like me on TV or in movies. Then along came Blossom. Oh, my dear Blossom, how you enriched my life. She was so geeky and cool and how I loved her hats and that tie skirt! I was able to buy one of those hats, but I never, ever found that skirt. I even started buying ties just so I could one day make it myself. I never built up enough of a collection though and the years and decades passed. A few weeks ago, while shopping at the 99 cent store, I wandered down the clothing aisle and discovered hundreds of ties! Could it be? Could my dream become a reality? Yes I decided! So, 16 ties were purchased and this weekend, I made my junior high dream come true. I wore my tie skirt proudly at work today and got compliments from half of the office. I spent the day with a smile on my face, knowing that Blossom would be proud.

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How to Become Blossom:

This is what 16 ties looks like. I spent quite a bit of time in the store trying to coordinate the colors. I tried to avoid duplicates and stick to a few general colors that would look good next to each other.

After I got home, I decided to utilize an old skort instead of somehow trying to sew the ties themselves together. I removed the shorts portion and any pockets, then ironed it so that I would have a flat surface.

I then put on the skirt and did some playing around with the ties to figure out how long I wanted the finished skirt to be. I went back and forth and finally settled on having it just above the knee. Then came the tricky part. I had to figure out how many ties I needed and discovered that I needed 18, and I had only bought 16. But, I remembered, I had been collecting ties over the years just for this reason and I should utilize a few of them. I even decided to sacrifice my Star Trek tie since the color scheme fit in well.

It was then time to cut. I cut it longer than I needed and also remove all of the tabs on the back so that everything would lie flatter. I am keeping the skinnier end and fully intend to make something else fun in the future.

I laid out the ties in the color scheme that I finally settled on and discovered that I needed to use a few of the skinnier ends in order to fill in a few holes. I think they ended up looking cute. I sewed along the top of the skirt and trimmed off any extra on the top. I also then sewed down along both side of the tie about 6 inches to keep things lying a bit flatter. I then chopped off the rest of the under skirt so that only about 8 inches remains of it. Just enough to keep the ties steady and to be able to button it securely. And that as that say is that. It’s not perfect by any means, but it was certainly fun and I will enjoy it for years to come.