Vogue 1247

Life has been quite stressful and busy these last few weeks; at work I’ve been finishing up a contract and whilst at home we’ve been coping with burst heating pipes, floor boards up in every room, builders and all manner of other expenses. On Thursday I had a rare day of peace and solitude and decided I really needed to do some sewing; nothing too complicated just something quick and fulfilling.

Having had no particular plan in place I dug out some black moleskin left over from making my ginger skirt earlier in the year. For some reason Colette patterns always ask for about twice the amount of fabric required and so I had enough left to make another skirt. I bought the fabric on the Internet; it’s quite thick and stiff despite being very stretchy.  Also being moleskin and black it’s next to impossible to photograph it in any way that shows the details – I promise the two photos are different (front and back!) and that there are pockets on the front!

Vogue 1247

The pattern I chose was Vogue 1247, a Rachel Comey design, which seems to have been very popular this year.   Carolyn has made several lovely versions of this skirt as have Karen and Lizzy. As you can see the model and I are doppelgängers so I expected it to look perfect! My original plan was to make it out of denim but I’ve never found the right piece of fabric, denims in the shop are usually too light weight and too “new” looking for my taste. I’d be interested to hear if you’ve found a good source and whether you do anything to age it or not.

Unfortunately finding some fabric to make the bias binding would have meant leaving the house so I decided not to finish the seams in the way the pattern suggested, although I do love a good finish so next time I’ll be better prepared. The pattern is for a very short skirt (38cm) so I lengthened it by 10cm which comes to a few centimetres above my knees. This looks about right on me, not too short but also not long enough that it spoils the overall view of the skirt. I’ve seen a couple of knee length and longer versions but these look a little unbalanced to my eye.

The skirt was satisfyingly quick to make and fitted with no alterations. I’ve always enjoyed wearing shortish, denim or cord skirts as a casual alternative to jeans so I know I’ll get a lot of wear out of it and probably make the pattern up several more times in the future.  I’m also planning to make the blouse that comes with the skirt – I just need to find the right bit of fabric.

Incidentally I also made the cardigan I am wearing in the photograph at the top.  It’s a design from the German knitting magazine “Rebecca” and knitted out of Rowan felted tweed in a silver grey colour which is unfortunately no longer available.

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