Orange and Yellow 70's two piece

Last winter I was offered a couple of bolts of fabric that my local town hall were about to throw out.  Among these bolts was a very 1970's home decorator fabric in lovely shades of orange yellow and brown.  It just screams 70's curtains.  Well of course I loved the fabric and I wanted to use it to make a very 70's skirt. I never even really thought about it I just knew that I had to make a button up A line skirt out of this fabric.  I didn't bother with a pattern just started draping in around my body. I decided to put the stripes around the body which was a pain for stripe matching but I think it was the right decision.

I wanted a contoured waistband so went back to the pencil skirt I made for last years Pattern Review Sewing Bee and cut out two waistbands using that pattern.

 I then cut 4 panels from the fabric to the length I wanted.  I lined up all the stripes, centered each panel on one section of the waistband and sewed from the waistband out to the the full width of the panel.

The only problem was that I've put on weight since I made that skirt and I found that the waistband was a bit too snug.  To counter this I just extended the front button band (which was just created by turning under the front edge of the skirt twice) up along the front edge of the waistband.

I self faced the waistband not bothering to use any interfacing, two layers of the upholstery fabric really reduces the need for extra interfacing.

Once it was made I realised that I had forgotten to put pockets in the skirt , so in true 70's style I added patch pockets to the front.

I used plain white snaps to secure the skirt up the front. and double turned the hem.  I left it quite long  about 1" off the ground (though in these photos the grass is so long it looks like it's dragging - I need to mow the lawn obviously).

Since I had plenty of this material I decided that it would make a good muslin for a shirt that I had been thinking about.  I wanted a pattern for a kimono sleeve, princess seam top made from woven fabric.

 I started with the pattern for my blue peacock dress and extended the arm holes out into a kimono sleeve.  I also added the waistband onto the main pattern piece plus an extra 4" of fabric to give the right length of top I was looking for.   I modified the front and back necklines into what I was thinking of and then cut out my pattern and sewed it up.  I had to make a few modifications, mainly around the arm hole to get it to sit just the way I wanted it to, then I modified my pattern re-cut it and sewed it up properly - each seam was over locked and then top stitched.

The sleeve holes and neckline were finished in yellow home made bias binding.  I did put a zipper in the back, but then decided I didn't like it and was too lazy to take it out so I just top stitched the zipper lap closed over the zipper.

I'm really happy with how this top came out.

And now I have a whole outfit made with this beautiful fabric.  What do you think?  too much??