I wear what I sew part 5: Friday casual outfit

If you’ve been following these posts for the last few days, you would notice that I wear a lot of suits. Which I do, so that’s very observant of you! And thank you all for the lovely comments on the suits. But on Fridays, if I don’t have any meetings organised I like to dress a little more casually to fit in with every one else for a change (I’m usually quite overdressed in my office even though it is a corporate environment). However, I do struggle trying to find something appropriate for the office in the dressy casual category so I find dressing on a Friday always takes a lot longer than the usual suit and top combo. This is where laying out a week's worth of outfits like Carolyn does would certainly prove useful.

Last Friday I wore a paneled skirt which I morphed from Vogue 9625. I have made this is as a dress before, but here I used only the skirt part of the dress, added a narrow waistband and shaped two of the panels at the back instead of darts for fitting and voila, I have a paneled skirt. I’ve made this skirt a few times, as well as once for my mother, and it is very quick and easy to sew and only needing a variation in the number of panels to increase or decrease size.

The fabric is a wool (the scratchy type unfortunately), which is a lovely grey colour with fine black lines running through it. I cut the fabric on the bias to get some drape in the way the skirt would hang, and also to have the lines become a feature. And the skirt did drape in lovely folds, until I sewed a narrow hem and then it stood out and became more of an a-line skirt shape, but I still like it.

I’ve wore it to work with a RTW knit crossover top in a vibrant purple colour, with suede flat shoes in a matching colour with silver buckles, which were custom made in Vietnam when I was there earlier this year for the princely sum of $20!

The final tally for the working week is twelve made garments from fourteen worn garments, a grand total of 85%, which is pretty good but as I said previously I did make a concerted effort to select made clothes over RTW since I knew I was keeping score.

What else I discovered:

a) I wear a lot of skirts – this is because pants don’t look that great on my pear shaped figure, and I’m not good at making pants that fit so I don’t!
b) I should always line jackets, especially tailored jackets, they will wear better and probably longer too.
c) I should avoid polyester fabrics, even if the colour or print is great because it doesn’t sew or last as well as wool or other natural fibres
d) I have enough shoes to wear a different pair for 65 days straight, so I shouldn’t buy any more (but I probably will anyway…..)