Nothing too groundbreaking about the skirt style, but oh! the fabric. It is so gorgeous. It's one of the pieces I bought in January from Tessuti during their sale - a cotton with slight stretch in a dark floral print on a black background with white mini polka dots:
Because the fabric is rather busy, what with the polka dots and a floral pattern, I decided to keep the pattern relatively simple. I say 'relatively' because even though the pattern is a simple shape, it needed quite a lot of fitting changes to make. I used a pattern from a 2007 Burda magazine, one of the random issues I used to buy purely because I really liked the patterns before I started subscribing in 2009 and took the good issues with the bad. Being such an old pattern it's not available for download on the Burda Style site, but for reference it's skirt #128 from 9/2007 which looks like this:
The thing is though, that this skirt is actually a plus size pattern and is mid calf length with a godet at the back, so I basically grafted the bits I liked - the wide waistband and pockets - onto another pencil skirt that I had made recently (this one here). It took a bit of fiddling to get the fit right, and even a muslin (yes I do make them sometimes) but in the end I think it's turned out great.
I love those pockets, they sit really flat against the body without gaping open but aren't too deep either that causes funny lines or extra bulk in the pelvis region.
The pattern for the side hip piece extends all the way across the front of the skirt, which helps keep the front flat and stops those pocket pieces flapping about or folding back on themselves. This is an excellent feature that Burda patterns quite often incorporate but not always:
Even though the skirt is quite straight and not as pegged as I made my last pencil skirt (here), it's still a close fit and looks quite flattering from the side view. This is probably dodgy pattern making on my part, but I usually angle the seam line in below the zip towards the hem line so that it sits close to the body without making it too tight overall. I put in a walking vent so it's still comfortable to walk in. As I said, it's probably all sorts wrong but it works for me.
So if you're wondering about the grey tshirt I'm wearing in some of those photos above, the explanation is that I was trying to be cool like a Pinterest worthy fashion blogger. These are my inspiration photos:
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| credits l-r: uberchicforcheap.com; pursuitofshoes.com; bittersweetcolours.com |
Not quite as cool. In fact I quickly realised that I'm a middle aged mother of two working in a government job taking photos in my sewing room and not a cool fashion blogger running about town with a photographer boyfriend in tow to scout out quirky locations for a public photo shoot! So my reality is I probably won't wear a slouchy grey t-shirt with this skirt because it just looks like I forgot to take off a tshirt I wore to bed when I got dressed in the morning, and instead I'll wear it with a tailored cotton shell top (made here) and more than likely with a black blazer on top because it's really cold in my office:
So overall - really happy with this project despite my cranky face in some of these photos!
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