The pencil skirt project

I am so brain dead after making this skirt, I can't even think what to write. Pencil skirts, yay.

The idea of wearing a pencil skirt didn't even vaguely occur to me until I picked up a book called The Body Shape Bible, written by those two wonderful women Trinny & Susannah. Despite knowing that pencil skirts suit me, I have a tendency to go for full skirted dresses or circle skirts, because they're just so much fun to twirl around in. But when I put one on the other day and made the mistake of viewing myself from behind, I decided to give the pencil skirt a go.

I don't have an actual pattern for a pencil skirt but I was pretty sure I could improvise one. Vogue has a lovely high-waist pencil skirt pattern which I will buy one day, but for now, here is my own version. It's a work in progress and I was planning on making another one in pink, but my eyes will fall out of my head if I do any more sewing today, so it can wait.


The pattern I used was Simplicity 4273. It's a great pattern because it has one of everything and they're all fairly easy to adjust. As you can see, the skirt is made up of panels and sits mid-waist, fitted through the hip and kicks out at the bottom with a flare. I decided the panels could easily be converted into a pencil skirt. I made an experimental version first which is far too ugly to show anyone. First I added a seam allowance because I had cut the skirt out a while ago and I thought it would be too small. I was wrong. So I took the seam allowances back in.

Then I simply sewed all the seams straight down from the hip. Strangely, it still flared out. So I tapered them right in, taking about 10 inches or more off the original hem. This looked much better, but walking around in the damn thing had now become a problem.

Usually, a pencil skirt has a back vent or split up the back seam. I got around this by adding 2 splits in the two back seams. It works! (And I can walk around in it!)


There are still a few adjustments to make before it's perfect, such as adding an inch to the length for total knee coverage. My aim is to perfect the pattern before making it in tartan. A tartan pencil skirt is my dream. This one, despite being imperfect, is perfectly wearable and suits my hourglass shape perfectly.