Burda Style For people who sew

Description

I love pencil skirts. And pencil skirts are so so trendy this fall. J.Crew is all over them. and I love J.Crew. I only had one, and it was in a black sateen cotton, but I really wanted one in some sort of color. My original vision for this skirt was to be a simple pencil skirt with a wide curved waistband that hit around the natural waist. I wanted to make a peplum top out of the same material that would make it look like I was wearing a dress when there were actually two pieces…..but as you can see, this skirt has pleats.

This skirt was drafted and sewn together before I tried it on – a mistake I won’t make again! It looked just awful when I got it on, partially due to a drafting error but mostly because it appeared to be ~ 2 sizes too large! I was confused – I had used my basic pattern block that had worked for the past three years, so I thought I had made a bigger drafting mistake than just in the waistband. But no. I grabbed my trusty tape measure and apparently I’ve lost 2" on my hips! My teacher made me write the hip measurement I used on my patten block, and there it was 2 1/4" larger at the hip line…..

so, to rescue this skirt, I just wore it in front of the mirror and pinched the fabric together until I had taken up the excess (about 3 1/4" in all) in some pleats that looked moderately okay. It does pull a little funny to me, but I’m just glad I was marginally able to rescue this skirt from being tossed in the trash!

If the zipper looks familier, it is from my {metropolis} project (video here!) and it only goes up to the waistband, where the skirt is closed with snaps. The skirt does zip completely open….
there are two pleats in the back that you can’t really see, but they mirror the ones in the front. The material is a bottom-weight twill-like slightly-stretchy cotton I originally bought for a military-esque coat that I never got around to creating. (jackets are one thing I have never drafted from scratch) I’m trying to use up my stash and not buy new fabric, so I repurposed it into this skirt! I love the olive color and may make a pair of cropped pants out of the remaining material!

also – isn’t Seattle just lovely in the fall??!! And check out my blog for more pictures – there are some fun ones that don’t fit as well here :)

Material Notes

cotton bottom-weight twill polyester lining

Categories

Season

Fall, Spring

For

Women

Garment Type

Skirt

Style

Classic

Material

Cotton, Blends, Polyester