How to Wear a Print Summer Skirt in Winter with the Thrifty Six + Layered Necklaces and Scarves

I have recently been welcomed into a wonderful group of fashion and lifestyle bloggers that focuses on styling preloved clothing and accessories in themed monthly posts (third Monday of the month). I hope that this showcase of secondhand items and outfits provides some shopping and style inspiration for anyone who is interested in creating great looks in a way that is sustainable for our planet and our pocketbooks.

Today's topic is Cheap Frills...and this posed a bit of a challenge to me since I'm not a frilly girl. But I do like a feminine floral print in a skirt with a bit of flounce to it, so I decided to demonstrate how to style one for winter. This example was specifically created with a Minnesota winter work-from-home day in mind but could work for any time/place cold enough that you want tights with your skirts!

Let's start with a look at the skirt. It's an unlined lightweight cotton A-line skirt with top-stitched pleats in a feminine print of flowers and butterflies in bright pink against lime green and black foliage on a white background. It doesn't exactly scream "Wear me on a winter's day with a high temperature in the single digits over 0 F!" But it absolutely can be worn on such a day, as I will demonstrate!

There is one feature to a print summer skirt that makes a big difference to me in how easy it is to style in winter: does it have at least a bit of a dark neutral or semi-neutral color that makes picking out a pair of tights and boots easy?

This isn't to say that a print skirt lacking a dark neutral or semi-neutral can't be worn in winter, but I personally find that winterizing a summer skirt goes awry when it's hard to pick out a tights and boots/shoes combination I'm happy with. I personally prefer wearing tights and boots that are a medium to dark tone; I have experimented with ivory or oatmeal tights and have been 100% unsatisfied with those outfits. If you like to wear light colors or bright colors in tights, more power to you! Perhaps you will have an even easier time winterizing your print summer skirts than I do.

So I recommend you consider what colors you like to wear in your tights and boots combo. The colors I like and own in tights (and that I have boots to wear with that match or otherwise coordinate) include:

-Black

-Navy

-Grey

-Brown

-Olive

-Burgundy/maroon

If a print summer skirt has any of those colors in it, I am already off to a strong start in putting together a winter outfit.

The black in today's skirt makes pairing with black tights and black boots a slam dunk. I have two pairs of black boots to choose from: tall riding boots and ankle boots with a pointy toe and an edgier style. I like wearing the edgier ankle boots with feminine skirts because the edgy aspect helps tone down the sweet feminine aspect and the combination creates an interesting juxtaposition of styles.

As for the tights, you can choose whatever denier (weight) of tights or leggings makes sense for your weather and comfort. I tend to wear a very average/standard weight of tights but you can certainly look for fleece-lined tights if you run cold. (Note that I'm using the American English terms so by "tights" I mean tights that are opaque and thicker than "hose," which tend to be sheer and lightweight.) If you love fishnet tights or other styles with an open/loose weave, they can be layered over tightly-knit opaque tights for warmth.

If you are doubtful that tights can be warm enough in winter so you stick with pants...well, in my experience, tights are generally at least as warm as pants and can be warmer than many, especially when paired with tall boots. In fact, since I've been working from home, I wear pants more often in the winter because I don't always need to extra warmth of tights!

The critical consideration in picking the weight of your tights is understanding that the tights (plus boots) are where the warmth in the outfit is coming from. The tights basically are the pants. The summer skirt you're putting over them is for modesty and style, not warmth, so pick your tights accordingly.

With my tights and boots situation sorted out, I decided to show the very easiest (yet quite striking) choice for a top: more of the dark neutral or semi-neutral from the skirt, matching the tights and boots...in this case, black. Did I say easy? Because it is definitely easier to find something in a neutral or semi-neutral color than to match an accent color from the print. I also love this combination because it draws attention to the skirt and makes it the statement piece of the outfit.

OOTD 2/10/25

I know some women can be very self-conscious about wearing a stand-out print on their bottom half, but if I can rock it on my plus size bod, you almost assuredly can on yours too! That said, I respect that we all have different preferences and priorities so I will point out that I selected a top piece with structure to pair with the bright and flouncy skirt. We often hear the formula "fitted over loose" to describe how to pair a top with higher volume bottoms, but it really doesn't have to be all that fitted (tight) if it has structure to it. I chose a shorter long-sleeved T and a textured tuxedo jacket made from a thick knit fabric, both with a tailored fit that has structure without being constrictive. (The knit fabrication of both pieces make them more comfortable than structured woven pieces would be.) These two thrifted items layered over each perfectly and have a fit/silhouette/length that worked well with the skirt. Oddly, I don't think I've worn this T-shirt and jacket combination before, but it has gone on my list of Pleasing Pairings to wear together again. Really, this whole T-shirt, jacket, tights, boots combo sets me up well to create many different outfits by substituting out various print or solid color skirts.

For my daily bracelet stack, I combined 7 DIY beaded bracelets in the black, white (clear), bright pink, and yellow-green color palette of my skirt. I mixed gold and silver in my stack, using the mixed gold/silver space bead in the center to make this mixed metal stack look intentional. I love that the black-and-white line drawing tube paper bead bracelet adds another graphical element (along with the striped beads) to my stack. {stretch bracelet tutorial} {bicone paper bead tutorial} {tube paper bead tutorial}

I took advantage of the blank canvas created by my black top and tuxedo jacket combo to go very extra with my accessories, layering scarves and necklaces in my look. We could call this the Neutral + Print Skirt + Maximal Accessories outfit formula.

First, the necklaces (all DIY): I wanted a long necklace under my infinity scarf so I took several plain chains and one of my approximately 88" seed bead/bugle bead necklaces that I made specifically for this skirt and I wore them doubled so they were in the range of 44" long. To one of the silver chains I added an upcycled paperboard pendant with the image of a seed bead embroidered rose that I cut out of a Fire Mountain Gems (FMG) catalog {tutorial}. Because the necklaces are doubled over, the weight of the pendant (as light as it is) would tend to pull down on the chain over time, but I wanted everything to stay in place. So I used a little paperclip-style bail to hold the chains together. Because a bail with nothing attached would look kind of strange, I made a little charm from a pink bead and two bead caps on a head pin and clipped that in the bail as a dangle. What's nice is that I can easily remove the bail and the dangle to mix and match bails, dangles, and chains/seed bead necklaces; all the pieces are detachable and interchangeable. I have this bail in several metal tones that came in a set from FMG, so now that I've figured out this technique for holding my chains together, I'm set to wear many, many variants on this style of layered necklace with the different seed bead wrap necklaces and paper pendants I've made.

My DIY earrings are another easy stack design using beads in the familiar color palette from my bead soup to match my skirt.

My layered scarf uses a technique that I don't think I've tried before! When choosing my scarf for this outfit, I was waffling between the thrifted pink ombré striped one and the patchwork scarf. Then I realized that because the patchwork one is an infinity scarf and the pink striped one is a long rectangular scarf that I could wrap the pink scarf around the patchwork one (and tuck the ends of the pink one into the wrap on the back side). Not only would this let me wear both scarves (which yes, is seriously extra) but it would help cover up the orange color in the patchwork scarf that doesn't otherwise exist in the outfit. Obviously, it wouldn't be wrong to wear a scarf with an extra color, but once I thought of this scarf wrapping idea, I had to give it a shot. I thought it turned out really cool. And talk about a face framer! It definitely draws attention upward...which is especially helpful if a bold print skirt pull the eye in a way you don't love, but really, pulling focus to the "portrait area" is a nice point for most anyone.

I've said this before, but if you like making jewelry, using an item for your wardrobe as a starting place in inspiring your creations is a very practical and stylish idea! You can create traditional sets of very matching pieces or more loosely coordinating sets as I did here with the necklace and earrings. Though the necklace and earrings don't share any beads, they work well together because they both relate in color and style to the skirt. If your goals are to make jewelry you will wear again and again, and/or to wear outfits that look great but were easy to put together, making jewelry pieces/sets that coordinate with your existing wardrobe is a slam dunk.

Now let's review the Cheap Frills that my thrifty friends have styled...

The Thrifty Six:

• Emma of Style Splash

• Jane of Preloved-Vintage-Handmade

• Jodie of Jodie's Touch of Style

• Nancy of Nancy's Fashion Style

• Sally of Within a World of My Own [me]

• Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge

Emma of Style Splash

"I love anything frilly...and if it's a bargain I love it even more! I bought this orange frill blouse on Vinted for about £4. The navy Marks & Spencer jacket is also pre-loved, from a charity shop. Oh, and the hat is second hand too! A very thrifty outfit!"

Jane of Preloved-Vintage-Handmade

"I’m shameless…

The T6 theme for February is ‘Cheap Frills’, so how could I not slip into a cheeky pair of vintage frilly knickers…

These frivolous frills were never designed for show, but I like to shimmy them shamelessly on the outside for all to see!"

Jodie of Jodie's Touch of Style

"There was a time when I would have NEVER worn ruffles of any kind. I didn't consider them professional so I never bought them. After retiring, it's been freeing to incorporate all sorts of styles into my wardrobe. For this prompt, I decided to concentrate on women who don't love frills...I paired them with other styles so they wouldn't be too girly. This is one example where I included frills in a more masculine look. Everything except the vest is thrifted or preloved. "

Nancy of Nancy's Fashion Style

"Cheap frills.....okay, just had one item and no time to search for something on Vinted. So how to make it work! I actually like frills on blouses, picture Prince back in the days. Or even further back: Adam and the Ants!! But no frill blouses in my closet, say what? So I came up with this look and I have to say, I am loving it. Can't even be bothered with all the lines you see through the silky skirt. But I am wearing a dress! I also wore it for the Animal Prints but No Leopard theme last year!"

Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge

"I am not a frilly type so I had to dig deep into my closet to find a preloved something with a hint of frills. This thrifted floral dress has a bit of frill connecting each of the tiers as well as frilly flutter sleeves. I added a super frilly scarf which was not preloved but was definitely cheap! I bought it for a few dollars from a New York City street vendor about 25 years ago, making it just as budget- and environmentally-friendly as buying secondhand!"

Next month's topic is Speckled, Spots, and Polka Dots...which is right up my style alley.

In the meantime, visit these lovely bloggers for the details of their thrifted Cheap Frills outfits and more style inspiration:

• Emma of Style Splash

• Jane of Preloved-Vintage-Handmade

• Jodie of Jodie's Touch of Style

• Nancy of Nancy's Fashion Style

• Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge

Do you like wearing frills? Or flounces or other swishy feminine things? Do you like to mix feminine + masculine or feminine + edgy? Would you style a summer skirt for winter? Do you ever stack bracelets, layer necklaces, or double up on scarves? Do you like the Neutral + Print Skirt + Maximal Accessories outfit formula?

Blogs I link up with are listed here.