Plaid Skirt

I am on holiday from work this week and next so have been having a nice relaxing time with some shopping, a lot of knitting, and finally, some sewing as well.

I am pleased that I've started sewing because I've missed it but on the other hand, the main reason I wasn't sewing was that I'd got the wardrobe pretty much sorted. I got five new tops from Primark on Tuesday and spent the rest of the day in York looking around the shops for ideas for this season's more fashion forward item.

Now, regular readers will know that I am very keen on my classic fashions. I feel I know what suits me and is comfortable and tend to stick with that. But I do try to add something that is more current, but still classic rather than cutting edge, each year. Whether that is sweaters in that year's colours, or different style of skirt, width of trouser leg, or current detail. I will admit I'm really quite bad at achieving this, but I do try.

I noted that the skirts this year are a little shorter, a couple of inches above the knee, and there was one I liked in Marks and Spencer which was a very cute blue plaid pattern fabric, and another with a pocket which appears on one of my Marfy skirt patterns so that would be easy to copy. That one also had buttons all the way down the front, and I noticed that button through skirts were quite common in the stores this year and I may take that as inspiration and make my own version of that look also.

I came home and attempted to recreate the vibe of the plaid skirt using stash. Its some kind of acrylic suiting or maybe very lightweight coating and I've got a huge piece. It was from a Fabric Mart mystery bundle some years ago.

The pattern is Vogue 9959 which I suspect may well be out of print as I think its one of the earliest patterns I bought for myself. The pattern is actually for a long straight skirt with a split but its not exactly hard to make it shorter. The skirt is a front and a back piece plus the waistband and has two sets of paired darts in the back and one dart each side on the front. I put an invisible zipper in the side seam, rather than in the back as the pattern suggested.

And here it is. Its not really worn with the most ideal sweater, I have some long fitted polo neck tops from Primark in red, black and cream, which will look better and give a more 60's vibe. I also intend to wear the skirt with thick tights and longer boots in the autumn. However, I was trying to get the photos done before the light went, so was in too much of a hurry to style it really properly. Overall, I am really pleased with how it came out.