Completed: Simple Sew wiggle skirt

Hola! I hope you are all well? I'm fairing rather better than the other week - no minor house fires to report thankfully!! We did however rip out a rather awful looking wardrobe today revealing a right mess of the wall behind and it looks like we need to get a wallpaper steamer in. It looks like it was last painted around the time the house was built in 1965...  That however is a task that I can handle!

I thought that we could get the dying light - turns out it was a bit to dusky to get good photos :-(

Today i would like to share a project which is not a wearable (or otherwise) muslin or a shirt... Haha. This is a project which I have been planning for a while however never had an exact pattern in mind for. I had bought some fabric (100 % italian cotton, very lightweight around £6/m) a few weeks back just before I finished up at work with a pencil skirt in mind for my new job starting at the end of the month - I even bought a 9" invisible zip to accompany the fabric - all I needed was the pattern. Then last week NavyBlueThreads announced that she had a few patterns that she was giving away and all the pieces fell into place. One of the patterns that was on offer for those who would use it was this pencil skirt pattern!

Less than flattering gardening shot

The pattern in question is the Simple Sew Wiggle Skirt which originally came with Love Sewing Issue 10. There is a tie back pencil skirt and a regular option. I went with the pencil skirt option. I really like the finished skirt however I have to say that the instructions were lacking a bit... There is a size chart on the back of the pattern which gives measurements however it doesn't state if they are body or garment !measurements - cue hungover pen and paper calcs aided by the trusty tape measure. Even looking at my mismatch of units makes me cringe! So I determined that the supplied measurements were for the finished garment. Which was cool. I wonder if this was maybe explained in the magazine that the pattern originally came with?

My other gripe was with the instructions for the vent at the back. They just kind of left you hanging on that one so I did a bit of hoping for the best. The instructions called for you to "press open and topstitch" what I actually did was to press open then fold the extension back on itself then topstitch along the two long edges. This doesn't seem right but at the same time I couldn't fatholm what else to do?

So moaning over the instructions aside I think this is quite a good wee pattern when made up! Next time I hope to make this out of a nice heavy wool for a cozy weekend skirt or a smart office number and to have a look about for better instructions for the vent. But the sizing was pretty true to the printed measurements and I think it works really well. Actually for the first time in a long while I cut into the pattern pieces however only because I spent so long measuring up I knew it wouldn't be too small!

So thanks very much for the pattern Teresa it will definitely be used again! Now to find a top pattern to go with it!

Happy sewing all :-)

Jenn xx