I wear what I sew part 2: maroon wool skirt suit

Monday 26 May 2008
So continuing on with the experiment of seeing how many of the clothes I make I wear each week, last Tuesday I wore a skirt suit I had made, with a cotton shell top that I also made, so now it is six from six, still a 100%. Yay for me!

I made this suit in 2005, and it is practically my favourite suit out of all my RTW and self made suits, even if the collar style is a little dated. It just fits so well and the fabric is absolutely lovely.

The jacket is made from a 1981 Simplicity 9839 pattern, purchased from an op shop for the princely sum of 50c (which is the most I will pay for a pattern from an op shop by the way!). It has princess seams which result in a well fitting body and a very 1980s style wing collar. The sleeves also have a dart at the elbows for wearing ease. It also has a waistband facing that extends from the front facing around to the back, which gives a nice, curved finish to the hem.

The only thing I dislike about this pattern is that it is for an unlined jacket, and stupidly (plus a bit of laziness) that is how I made it. I finished the seams with bias binding, but since this is a wool suit made to wear in winter, I should have made a lining, and I plan to do so soon.

The skirt is just a pencil skirt which I can’t even remember which pattern I used, but there is nothing fancy or special about it.

The fabric I purchased some time ago from a garage sale, where a lovely old Italian woman invited me in to her lounge room which had fabric draped over every available surface. She made me a cup of tea and told me about a lot of the fabric and picked out bits and pieces for me, and I ended up buying quite a bit of her fabric for a very reasonable price. This fabric has a small scale white and maroon check and was so easy to sew with because it pressed nicely and generally did what I wanted with it!

On Tuesday I wore this to work with a white textured cotton shell top, made a few years ago from Vogue 1826, which also has princess seams and a rear centre back closure, which I used a line of buttons instead of a zipper (and as a result requires contortionist moves to do it up!). You can only see the top of it peeking out in this photo, but I'm sure it will make another appearance sooner or later because I wear it a lot - it fits superbly and goes with practically everything. The shoes are very tall heels to make up for Monday’s sensibility, in a beige linen with brown leather straps and buckle.

3 comments:

  1. Very nice suit! I didn't know that collar style was dated. I've always thought it a very pretty detail, different from the run-of-the-mill notched collar.

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  2. What a wonderful suit! I am enjoying this journey and can't wait to see what's next!

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  3. Gorgeous suit! I recently (well last year) bought a Marfy pattern that has the same collar. So it must be the height of fashion, no?

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