A Bird For a Skirt

A while back I asked my cousin Barbie if she would paint a bird for me (a Purple Finch to be exact) in exchange for me making her a skirt. Barbie has a degree in Medical Illustration, so it's no surprise she's got some mad skills. Growing up, I remember having a framed watercolor of some ducks she had painted hanging in our dining room. I always marveled at the detail and photorealistic qualities of that painting. Recently, it occurred to me that I didn't have any of her work in my own home. Lucky for me, when I approached her about trading a painting for a skirt, she happily agreed. A couple weeks ago she delivered the painting. It's amazing! I'm over-the-moon excited about it.

And here's some detail shots. Amazing stuff.

Now that you're done swooning, I'll show you that skirt I mentioned above. Barbie selected this adorable Girl Scout fabric by Robert Kaufman, found online at ZeetZeet. She also selected a contrasting brown polka dot fabric for the base of the skirt (sorry I don't have a link for that one.).

For the pattern, she chose a McCall's pleated skirt (pattern #M5591).

She's chosen the skirt pictured on the left (view A). For the main skirt body I will be using the Girl Scout fabric and for the contrasting base of the skirt I will use the brown fabric. Plus I'm going to add some red rick rack trim where the two fabrics meet.

I'm really excited about this project and will be chronicling my progress here, so don't worry, you won't miss a thing! Anyone else working on a fun project?