Moomin Skirt

I’ve been a big fan of the Moomins from a young age and like most people of my generation I came to know of the delightful inhabitants of Moominvalley via the nineties cartoon. I didn’t read the wonderful Tove Jansson books until I was in secondary school, and was enchanted all over again by the free-spirited Moomin family and their decidedly bohemian friends. A lot of the stories are overlain with melancholy, and the whimsical tales often carry a lot of depth or wisdom.

This particular fabric depicts the Moomins in the jungle or on safari (just like me!) and therefore combines two of my favourite things: Moomins and animals! Rather than a repeated print the full length fabric was like a mini tableau, featuring Little My commandeering a rhino, Moomintroll and Snorkmaiden climbing with the monkeys, Moominpappa dozing in a hammock above some tigers and Moominmamma calmly watering her pumpkins in between the chaos.

I’m holding my Moomin egg timer in these photos which is one of my most treasured possessions. I’m not from a very close family and we are all terrible at gift-giving (James says I’m just hard to buy gifts for, in which case I take after my Dad) but my Mum bought me this last Christmas and it’s one of the best presents I’ve ever had! I like to use egg timers when I’m practising to divide my time between different pieces.

I followed my usual skirt pattern (first seen here) and for this particular skirt I also engaged in some pretty rash pattern cutting decisions in a vague attempt to preserve certain characters. I sewed it by hand as I don’t have a sewing machine. Whilst this may have resulted in some untidy stitching (which would never have been allowed to see a shop floor) I don’t mind too much, as how many other people have a Moomin safari skirt?