Mini-Wardrobe Item One: Wool Skirt (B4859)

Yesterday evening I completed the first item of my mini-wardrobe.  A wool, camel colored skirt made from Butterick 4859.  This fitted skirt with a bias cut front and flirty fishtail hem seems to be out of print.  Pity for those of you who don't have it in thier stash because this skirt fits perfectly.  I made a completely unaltered size 20 and it fits gorgously.  Also it only took a few hours and the majority of the time commitment was hand-stitching the hem!

 

As stated above, the front is cut on the bias so it drapes beautifully without doing that weird crease over the lower abdomen thing that my fitted skirts usually do.

 



 

The back has princess seams (hard to see in the photo) which are incredibly flattering and the added feminine swish of the hem makes this a little more flattering than your average pencil skirt. 

As I was pulling solely from my stash for this project, the lining is some generic synthetic lining from JoAnns that I picked up for another project.  I also didn't have any zippers in appropriate colors so I used a navy zipper to tie in the color scheme with the rest of the "collection."

I also have to recommend this Shetland wool.  It's currently $18.00 per yard but I bought it in several colors from Fabric Mart when it went on sale in the spring (for something in the $5-7 range) and I'm likely to buy quite a bit more this year if it goes on sale again.  It is a perfect weight for either outerwear or classic winter garments such as this skirt or a lined sheath dress.  It presses beautifully and is an absolute dream to sew.  For those of you who can afford such extravagances as $18 fabric, please buy lots...and share with me?

 



 

I also can fully vouch for the fact that this is a flattering and comfortable garment as I wore it all day at work with my purple sweater set and looked just as polished at 5:00 as I did at 8:00.  (Probably a lie... my hair was likely frizzy and my lipstick smeared, but my clothing remained impecable.)



 

Also it gave me an excuse to wear these new shoes which are the prettiest in the whole world!  Who said you can't wear white after Labor Day!