Simplicity Pencil Skirt

I am a lover of pencil skirts.  I love wearing them, and enjoy making them almost as much!  They are the perfect project- they aren’t too hard to make and they don’t take too long, and because they take only a small amount of fabric, you can go all out if you want to. I made this one in the fall, and it has been one of my favorites for the winter- honestly, it is hands-down the best fitting skirt that I own!

Skirt Front

I chose this particular pattern, Simplicity 1559, because I liked that the skirt was designed without a separate waistband, making for a very clean front.  I also liked that it had front darts- I have a bit of a belly, and skirts purchased off of the rack typically have a large gap at the waistband if they fit everywhere else- I knew that the darts could fix this.

I did deviate from the pattern a little- rather than using a folded vent at the back, I simply added a slit.  The fabric was a bit thick, and I think that the four layers of fabric that would have been involved once the layers of the vent were folded back on themselves would have been a bit bulky.

Skirt Back

The skirt fabric is an Anna Sui acrylic tweed, from Mood Fabrics. I like it because it is very textural and just a tiny bit wooly—perfect for our San Francisco Bay Area not-too-cold winters. I lined it with a coordinating china silk, and added petersham  (I love perersham!) at the waist for some extra support.  I hemmed it by hand- I am not the most confident of my silk machine-sewing skills!

Silk lining

Petersham Waistband

 Although pencil skirts are pretty quick and easy, this one did take a little extra time.  To match the pattern at the seams, everything had to be hand-basted together first, but because the threads making the fabric are so thick, it was easy to line up the pattern and make sure it was perfect by making each stitch between the same threads. And I got lucky on the pattern scale- it was just the right size that I could match it up perfectly on both sides of the skirt and at the back seam!

Side seam- lots of basting to get it to line up correctly!

Now that summer has arrived in Northern California (or at least it seems that way!) I need to get started on a summer version!

Also, a big shout out to anyone attending Pattern Review Weekend at the end of the month- I will see you there!

Lace Top, Finished (a long time ago...)

After many hours of hand-stitching, I finally finished the lace top that I started in Susan Khalje's Couture Sewing School in July... in November.  I made sure to have it ready to wear on Thanksgiving, but it was a bit chilly that day so I ended up wearing a different sewing project (more on that later). Since then I have worn it several times- it looks great dressed up or down, and can be worn year-round!

Front

You can see that there are no seams visible, even though there are seams at the sides, the shoulders, and around the neck and bottom where lace edging was applied. 

Back

Again, no seams are visible.  Here, lace edging has been applied to each side of the back opening.

Side

On the sides, the seam runs down where you see a solid strip of the floral motif.

Back closures

For the closures, after much thought I decided to go with the simplest option- snaps.  I covered them with matching silk to make sure that they were well concealed.

Inside neck

Here is the inside of the neck- you can see where the extra lace was cut away underneath the edging so that it didn't show through from the outside.

Hand stitching

Here is a close up of hand stitching on a part of the edging as applied to the back opening- the hand stitching is on the right hand edge of the floral motif (stitching it to the netting).  Because the cording on the lace is stitched on by hand when it is manufactured, the added hand stitching is not at all noticeable.

Since August I have been doing lots of other sewing, which I will share over the next few days!