This is Burda 124-02-2010, made up out of the leftover fabric from my red dress project. I had just enough thread, fashion fabric, and lining left to make this skirt, and I already had the magazine the pattern came from, so all I needed to buy was the zip!

It’s a basic pencil skirt pattern. The only interest comes from the use of insets instead of darts for shaping.

These were fiddly to sew and the result gets lost in the textured fabric, so I might as well have used a pattern with darts and not had the aggravation of sewing the insets. You can barely see them in a full length view. However I think they’d look nice in a smoother fabric, maybe with top stitching.

The waist has creased quite a bit, but when these photos were taken I’d been wearing it for a few hours hunched over my marking so that was probably inevitable.

This was my first attempt at altering a petite pattern to fit me, and I think I overlooked something. I added length between the waist and hip lines to make the pattern match my hip depth, but I didn’t take anything off the length below the hip line. I could hardly walk in my version when hemmed just above the knee. This pattern is very fitted and doesn’t include any vents or slits for walking ease. That might have been OK on someone petite, although I have my doubts, but I ended up cutting a lot off.

I really need a long-sleeved black top to wear with this though. The weather’s much too cold for short sleeves!

I haven’t sewed for over a week (if you don’t count replacing the hook and eye on my 70s dress, incidentally managing to stab myself with a seam ripper and get blood on the fabric). Probably won’t be sewing much this week either. Starting to wonder if I’ll ever get the pleated dress finished! And after that there are lots of other things I want to sew, but so little time to sew in. Maybe things will quietened down in July.

One very exciting thing coming up: it’s my birthday soon and I am getting a dressform! Everyone says it makes sewing so much easier so I can’t wait!

This is my first attempt at sewing from a vintage pattern, Simplicity 5349, which I bought from the lovelySewVintageNow on Etsy on a whim a few months ago. There are four views but the one I like the most is view 3, in black on the envelope

I wasn’t sure what to make it up in. For a while I had a clear vision in my head of blue and white zebra print cotton, but couldn’t find any. Then I decided I probably wanted black and white.

Last time I visited Birmingham I discovered the Fancy Silk Store, three floors packed with wonderful fabrics. They didn’t have anything that corresponded to what I was looking for, but instead there was a cotton sateen with a very bold black and white floral print. I bought 4m in order that I’d be able to match the pattern across the seams.

After a muslin and a few modifications to the fit I am really pleased with the finished result. Unfortunately I don’t have the Charlie’s Angels hair or platform shoes in the illustration on the pattern envelope! Although maybe love beads and bare feet are more achievable.

I also wrote a pattern review.