Skirts for Winter?

[JRMILLER]

I play-tested one of the MouseWorks skirts last night in the single digit, blowing, snowing evening... It worked surprisingly well, The fleece fabric is soft on the inside and the outside and just a wee bit thicker than the one I ordered from them a year ago... The result, very warm and soft... In fact, I was suffering more through my piss poor winter jacket than I was my lower end... Truly a remarkable and now practical device!....

Congratulations on both the skirts and the job Carl, it was a good year!

[Big and Bashful]

Did you get the black one? is it knee length (ish)?

[crfriend]

Congratulations on both the skirts and the job Carl, it was a good year!

Thanks, John. I landed the new gig in late 2013, but 2013 is a year I want to forget very much as it was bad pretty much from January 1 onwards and grew progressively, if not exponentially, worse through early August. 2013 will not be missed one little bit (I should have quit the job where I was on January 1, 2013 following the re-org, but that's 20/20 hindsight).

2014, however, looks like it'll be brighter and happier all the way 'round unless something really goes wrong with my new job, which would surprise me.

My new MouseWorks skirts are entirely in the 2014 domain, having been ordered on New Year's Day via e-mail with confirmation arriving on the 2nd. The build was finished on the 4th, and the resulting package is on the road someplace between Virginia and Massachusetts and might possibly be delivered tomorrow -- or at least that's what the US Postal Service package-tracking website is saying at the moment. I may have happiness in the mailbox when I get home. (Then I get to pay all the bills that've been piling up.)

[crfriend]

My two new MouseWorks skirts arrived this morning with the normal mail, and the carrier made sure to wrap the box in a plastic bag, tie said bag tightly, and leave it on the back porch as out of the rain as possible. Sapphire brought the box inside and put it in the chair in my study as a surprise for me when I got home.

It was a pleasant surprise, too, as the two skirts are both wonderful and warm. One is an ankle-length short-nap velvet (almost a velveteen) burgundy number and the other is a slightly shorter crème fleece one. The initial intent was to have the fleece able to be worn under the velvet one if the velvet one wasn't warm enough, but after about 30 seconds of that I decided that one was quite warm enough and that both were overkill.

Neither has seen outdoor mileage yet, but I've had the velvet one on for a couple of hours and it's delightfully warm and comfy.

Bravo to Ryan and The MouseWorks for custom-building these two for me. I am sure to enjoy them for some time to come!

The first day on the job went well. It's no so much as a learning curve as a "learning cliff" but I'll power through that pretty quickly and be off and on my way!

[Kirbstone]

To luxuriate in a mouseworksskirt must remain just a dream for me, alas.

Carl, Re: Learning Cliff. Reminds me of that scene early in the film 'The Guns of Navarone' where the protagonists scale a cliff in the wet & the dark. Well, things have changed in the intervening years and there is now a nice white painted stair and good restaurants for yotties underneath.

HavaSupai Landfall at Castellorizon.jpg

HavaSupai Castellorizon 1000 ft. stair..jpg

I hope your view will be just as sunny when you reach the top!

T.

[crfriend]

I play-tested one of the MouseWorks skirts last night in the single digit, blowing, snowing evening... It worked surprisingly well [...]

I had an impromptu "science experiment" with my new fleece skirt about a half-hour ago in 3 degree (F) (-16 C) still-air temperatures with a 10 knot wind out of the west (the "Alberta Clipper") which yielded an effective wind-chill of -14 F (-26 C). This is very likely well outside the design-spec for MouseWorks skirts, and was actually unintentional on my part. I shed less heat from below the waist than I did from above (despite a usually-warm fleece jacket), but by the time I drove the 1/2 mile to get home I was trembling violently and pretty much uncontrollably from the cold. Not fun. The fleece skirt is, however, a very nice thing and had I been wearing trousers I'd probably have been a vastly more miserable bloke.

Once inside, my legs began to warm up first, and it took a while for my upper body to catch up.

[dillon]

I had the opportunity to wear my own insulated skirt today. It is a Woolrich skirt, not the prettiest I have, but not bad. It has a drawstring and somewhat functional pockets. When I bought it some time back, I had not realized it was as warm as it is, despite being only knee length. I wasn't sure I would ever be able to give it a decent test, but I was in the cold today (cold for eastern NC, anyway) for an hour or so to split some kindling from a longleaf pine stump, and haul a wheelbarrow load of firewood in to fill the wood box. I wore it with leggings and leg warmers, a fleece pullover and fingerless convertible mittens . I stayed toasty warm in 20 F weather. I can't imagine needing one warmer for this climate. Later I wore it for a quick trip to the post office. Now I am enjoying a glass of mulled wine with my feet up, watching an old movie, and typing here on my Kindle. Nice life!

[crfriend]

Well, that was a quick response. Shipping is no problem but pockets are a no-go.

That may be down to his design-pattern or his machinery. Generally speaking, pockets are best placed pretty much at, or slightly behind, the hips; the skirts in question are 4-gored skirts with a flat front which puts the seams (where pockets would logically go) forward of the hip-bones.

In chatting with Sapphire this evening, and using my fleece skirt as an example (with the front of the waist stretched to simulate a flat front; mine was custom-done evenly all the way 'round) she mentioned that small pockets at the seams would make sense. (I will take that as meaning that "they'd make sense there for a women's skirt; on a guy they'd be all sorts of wrong. Use your imaginations.)

So I just sent the proprietor an e-mail asking his opinion on the matter and giving him full freedom to refuse the build. It's only fair. I completely understand his reasoning for not wanting to do pockets, but pockets are, for so many, a necessity in modern life; however, the fit and flow of a non-pocket-encumbered skirt is a wonderful thing to behold.

Guys, I think it may be time to either learn how to travel light or simply carry a bag of some sort. I do both nowadays. My wallet is vastly thinner since I needed to pare it down to shirt-pocket size (and this had nothing to do with being unemployed as that only emptied the wide portion of the thing) and what with having to carry other bits of comms gear and assorted paraphernalia to allow me to use said comms gear forced me into "bag-mode" which I still embrace even though the comms requirement is now in the past.

We shall see what happens.

[janrok]

Well, Carl, that makes two of us.
I asked this Ryan to consider a pocket option but he rejected the idea.
Perhaps if the rest of you send him emails asking for pockets he might reconsider.
I don't like the idea of having to carry a bag of some sort.
Jan.

[crfriend]

I don't like the idea of having to carry a bag of some sort.

Understood.

Personally, I'm not really bag-averse, so I may be somewhat biased. Too, the fleece fabric might not stand up terribly well to having pockets sewn into it; it's quite supple and flowy and anything much more than a trifling pocket would likely weigh it down to the point of not really looking very good. I think that if pockets are required fleece might not be the best choice in fabric.

In any event, time will yield the answer when I get a response from Ryan.

[partlyscot]

My job, and my usual day to day activities, are pushing me to design a flush fitting hip belt kind of thing. I need space for an iPod kind of tool at work, and will be getting a smartphone or small tablet soon, maybe one of those that blur the lines, a "phablet" or large screen smartphone. Along with pens and small pad of forms, that kind of thing.

[JRMILLER]

Guys,
I have several homemade fleece robes and they have pockets on the seams -- no problems in a couple years of use. Fleece holds up well to the stress and strain of pocketness... It does take extra work and in the case of Ryan's skirts, it would likely double the time he takes to make them... Someday I will have time to do my own and they will have pockets -- until then, I muddle on.

[Caultron]

Is having anything to carry bothering you, or is it the idea of carrying a purse?

I don't want to carry a purse either, but when I run out of pockets I do carry a small backpack, even though sometimes on one shoulder.

Other than that you can also get messenger pouches, ammo pouches, camera cases, and various other non-purse carry-alls...

[partlyscot]

Is having anything to carry bothering you, or is it the idea of carrying a purse?

I don't want to carry a purse either, but when I run out of pockets I do carry a small backpack, even though sometimes on one shoulder.

Other than that you can also get messenger pouches, ammo pouches, camera cases, and various other non-purse carry-alls...

I am slightly bothered by carrying a "purse" but not much. I simply want to be able to have things with me during the day, instantly accessible, but without bagging out my pants or skirt. Small things, tissues, a few coins aren't much of a bother, but this modern world, and my job, require bulkier stuff. When out and about, I habitually use a small backpack, to keep my hands free, or be able to keep them in my pockets for warmth. I ride bicycles a lot, and find the rear pockets on cycling jerseys useful, I'm thinking of the flat hip belt as a continuation of that when off the bike.

Others at work are using belt mounted pouches of various designs, but if I have things "dangling" I continually snag them.

[janrok]

I suffer from a very painfull condition called "Frozen Shoulders" and everything I have to carry is a burden.
That's why I got to have some form of usefull pockets. My jeansskirt has deep pockets and so do my Sportkilts and those are the skirts I wear outdoors.
Indoors I wear a Macabi, short in summer and long in winter and Macabi's are true pocket champions.

Pockets in(on) a fleece skirt should not be too hard to do: Either in the side seams (like Sportkilt do) or simply sewn on.
Jan.