Burda of the month of April: 4/2012 skirt #122

I'm still chugging away with my Burda challenge: not only have I finished April's garment, I've nearly finished the one from May and have traced out the one from June too.  I may be able to stick with this self imposed challenge after all.....

The skirt I made from the April issue (4/2012 #122) was easy, but a little boring.  There were a few nice patterns in this issue, but none really fit with my current stay at home lifestyle so I went with this simple A-line skirt pattern with somewhat bizarre darts:

I couldn't figure out the purpose of those darts at all.  They are horizontal darts coming in from he side seam like a bust dart, except no one that I know has a bosom so low hanging that they require darts for their bosom at hip level! But I had nothing really to lose except a bit of fabric, so I decided to make the skirt as per the pattern to see what Burda was trying to achieve.

And frankly, I still don't see the purpose of those darts.  The skirt as made was way too loose at the waist (to be expected since the waistband was not pinched in) and the front stuck out where those darts ended.  So in the end to make the skirt work I also inserted two vertical darts in the front and back at the waistline, but since I was too lazy to remove those horizontal darts there is a bit of fabric bulging there at the dart point still but I can live with it.  Hopefully in a few months time I'll have lost the last of my baby weight and this skirt will no longer fit anyway, so I'm not stressing about getting a perfect fit.

I made the skirt from a deep plum coloured fine wale corduroy I bought at the beginning of the year on sale at Spotlight, which is a beautiful colour and I was smart enough to cut all the pieces with the nap in the correct direction (phew!).  And here is the finished product, rugged up for a sunny winter day with tights and a woollen roll neck jumper:






































Funnily enough all the colour combinations I put together for the red pants a few posts ago also work for this colour too.  I even found a short beige trenchcoat in the back of my wardrobe that goes with it as well, and is just right to be smart casual but not overdressed:

So in review, I cannot recommend this pattern at all - there are far better designed a-line skirt patterns out there, and no fabric deserves a fate like this!