After trying out all these new (to me) patterns I felt confident enough to venture into drafting stuff myself again. I have this black high-waisted pencil skirt which fits me great. It was actually a hand-me-down from my mom, but I always get compliments on it when I wear it. I don’t wear much black and it’s getting a bit snug aynway (I guess my body’s starting to tell me I’m not eighteen anymore), so I wanted to try and copy it. Using this tutorial as a guide I traced the pattern onto paper and added the darts back in. And yes, I completely forgot to take photos of these steps or of the finished pattern.
I used the same blue flannel as for the Salme cropped blazer, which means I can wear them together as an ensemble.
It has two darts at the back and four at the front. Dark blue is really impossible to photograph. I lined it to prevent the flannel sticking to the tights and hand-picked the zipper (tutorial here). Making it up as I went along I got quite creative with the lining and the finishes.
It closes with both hooks and eyes and buttons with thread loops. The buttons were added as an afterthought, because the hooks kept coming undone but now I love the look and will definitely do buttons again for the next skirt. The buttons are just covered in fabric like this and there’s a great tutorial for simple thread loops over here.
little home by hand
little home by hand 
Love it – simple and flattering. You’re really making me want to learn to sew.
LikeLike
Haha, do! It’s a steep learning curve, but it’s soo worth it 🙂
LikeLike
It’s lovely! It’s great to draft your own pattern, isn’t it? It’s scary, but when it works it’s super exciting! Have a nice day, nice girl!
LikeLike
That’s exactly it! It can be really frustrating but also really fun when it works out well 🙂
LikeLike
Your skirt looks both warm and cozy, and smart to boot! I’ve been using Stephanie Lincecum’s book and ALi’s tutorial, as you did, but still haven’t worked out how to expand pleats or darts out of the existing piece of clothing. I have to confess I haven’t got beyond tracing out the pattern pieces onto paper and cutting them out yet, so I’ve not muslin’d the bodice of the knit dress I’m cloning yet, to see if my tracing works. Or is this where the two guidelines traced in at the start come in? i.e. the distance between the perpendicular of the grainline, and the guidelines we start by tracing teh garment off against?
What did you do? I’d be really interested to know!
LikeLike
It’s very easy really and I hope I can explain it in a simple way:
1. Trace the outline of the skirt on (patternmaking) paper.
2. Mark the position and length of the darts (at this point it will be just a straight line on the paper, just as you see the dart from the right side of the skirt)
3. Turn the original skirt inside out and look at the darts. Measure how wide they are at the waist (or the widest point otherwise).
4. Now comes the cool part: with scissors cut the dart line on your pattern paper all the way until the end of the dart. Spread the paper apart at the slash until you have your dart width at the top. Tape the gape in place (or tape new paper underneath).
5. Retrace your skirt and mark your darts.
Hope that helps and is clear enough 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks Kristina – that’s really useful – and wonderfully clear! With luck I will get back to that project this weekend.
LikeLike
Let me know how it works out 🙂
LikeLike
It looks great! Love how you styled it with the bronze top. Would love to see it with the matching jacket too.
LikeLike
Thanks, I’ll try to get a photo with the matching blazer some time!
LikeLike
I think you have made yourself a capsule wardrobe, your last 3 pieces are just meant to go together! That’s something I’m working towards, not just making scattered pieces that don’t go with much – congrats – and your skirt looks great!
LikeLike
Thanks Chloe! Yep, somehow they all ended up matching really well 🙂 I do try to make things that go with other clothes I already have but it never worked out so well before 🙂
LikeLike
Pingback: red button down skirt « tidytipsy.photography