another weekend, another skirt suit

Monday, 18 February 2008
I am mildy obsessed with suits - I have about twelve already and I just can't seem to stop making more. I do have enough reasons to suit up to come to work: I work in a corporate environment, I feel more in the mood for work when I'm wearing a suit, I don't like getting caught out for surprise meetings or presentations when I'm not dressed the part, and it makes me seem older (and therefore wiser) because I am relatively young to be in the managerial position I am.

And whilst I love a sharp black suit with a killer pair of heels, appropriate for work meetings (I do work in the government in the Sydney CBD afterall), that sometimes feels too much like a uniform and I need to break free. Plus I love colour and unusual styling....

Hence, my own made suits are either vintage fabrics or vintage inspired styling. The Louis Vuitton inspired suit in the post below has made it into my regular summer work wardrobe, and with it's full skirt and little jacket it never fails to elicit comments from colleagues.

Next up is this suit, made from gasp! modern fabrics and modern patterns, although I tried to give it a 60s mod feel with black piping and a black button:

The jacket pattern is Simplicity 3874, which loads of talented bloggers out there have used made the dress, although I've not seen the jacket in action yet. I modified the jacket by pleating the jacket body at the collar instead of gathering, lining the jacket, adding the piping and the single button at the front. It was very simple to make as the jacket has raglan sleeves and it sewed up in no time at all. The skirt pattern is Vogue 9615 (OOP), a lovely A-line shape skirt with a wide waistband, which I modified by adding the piping around the waist to match the jacket. The only thing that held me up on the skirt was two, yes TWO, invisible zips breaking on me and hence requiring the skirt to be taken apart to install a new zip.












The fabric I used is an Australian wool, tropical weight, in a beige colour with fine grey threads running through it. I purchased it in 2005 from the fabric market in Shanghai of all places, because even though I am in Australia, Australian wool is verrrry expensive and the fabric, which is milled in China from raw wool shipped from Australia, is verrrry cheap there!

It turned out very well IMHO, due to the simple lines of the design, the lightweight fabric which didn't too much interfacing to make this design work, and the little details of the button and the piping.

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