When I spotted this beautiful cobalt blue 2-way stretch fabric at G Street that reminds me of a flexible, lighter neoprene I immediately fell in love. So you can only imagine the rush of excitement I received when I discovered it was less than $3.00 per yard. It cuts and sews beautifully and feels very luxe. Because it came from the clearance table I have no clue what the fabric consists of but at this price it didn’t matter. What was even better than the price was that fact I was able to snag 5 yards which only means there is more cobalt in my future. Because I LOVE pencil skirts and I receive quite a few questions on obtaining the perfect fit, I wanted to share a way to make your own pencil skirt shell which you can use to make a number of pencil skirt designs to fit your body perfectly.
For the top I used McCall pattern M6355 view C with the following pattern alterations:
-Removed 7 inches from the bottom of the pattern
-Cut 2 pieces of the back pattern instead of cutting on the fold and added a key hole
-Added a 1″ curved neckline
-Added the sleeves from Butterick pattern B5211 view C (added 5″ to the width)
Skirt Instructions:
Tools: Pin
Marker
Kraft paper
Tailor’s chalk
9″ zipper
-Measure your hips and the length you would like the skirt
-Cut 2 pieces of fabric according to the above dimensions
-With the right sides together, and using a 5/8″ seam allowance, sew the left and right side of the skirt.
-With the skirt inside out, try the skirt on and pin to your body, making sure you pin the skirt the way you want it to fit minus 1/2″ seam allowance.
-Carefully remove the skirt and using tailors chalk, trace the track of the pins. Remove the pins and sew, using the chalk line as the edge of the fabric and sew using a 1/2″ seam allowance.
Trim the edges leaving 1/2″
-Using a marker, trace the outline of the skirt, cut the traced pattern (use this shell for future pencil skirts)
-On the right side of the skirt, open the seam from the top, 4″ down (done to install zipper)
-Lay the skirt flat and measure the waist of the skirt
-Cut a piece of fabric for the waist 5″wide by the number above
-Starting on the right side of the opening of the zipper, pin one end of the waist band to the edge of the skirt. Using a 5/8″ seam allowance, attach the waist band to the skirt.
-Fold the top half of the waist band to the inside of the skirt and hand stitch to the inside seam.
-Insert the zipper
-Top stitch the waist band seam
-Hem the bottom of the skirt using a 1/2″ hem
