Vogue 1203 - Fit and flare black w/ red polka dotted wool skirt

First I want to thank everyone who left a kind and heartfelt comment on my last post about baby Joshua. Your well wishes and encouragement really made my week. Adjusting to life as a family of six has definitely had its challenges (the laundry! packing!!) but I am gradually figuring it out.

Understandably there hasn't been a whole lot of sewing going on around here. I have managed to make a skirt out of some lovely Rebecca Taylor wool from Mood fabrics. I’ve been eying this fabric for awhile now but couldn’t quite envision what I wanted to make out of it. It’s been sitting in one of my many Mood boards just waiting patiently. I tend to go for bright/sparkly/interesting fabrics and this black wool is more quiet and subdued. But then I was checking through some of my boards hunting for fabrics that have sold out since I added them – as you do if you are as fabric obsessed as I am – and I saw that it was almost sold out. Ack! Into the cart it went, even though I still had no idea what I was going to do with it. And pretty much right after it arrived I knew exactly what I wanted to make.

This pattern is a Tracy Reese designer pattern that came out in 2010. Sadly it is now OOP, and I couldn't even find it on Vogue's website in their out-of-print area. (Though looking these patterns I see tons that I own and still plan to make. This is what happens when you let things marinate in your stash forever and a day.) One of the things I really love about this pattern is the shaped waistband. You can’t tell from the line drawing on the envelope, but the waistband flares out at the top, giving some nice breathing room to the wearer. I also adore the fit and flare shape. It's a nice change from the standard pencil or A-line that I normally go for.

Since my “print” was at such a small scale, I knew I could get away with a design with lots of pieces. However, I had to consider this fabric a stripe when cutting it out and stitching it up as I wanted all my dots to line up. Most of the work was done while laying it out on a single layer of fabric. I was also careful to pin the lines of dots as precisely as possible before running the seam through my machine.

Instead of the exposed metal zipper called for in the pattern I used an invisible black zipper. The envelope calls for a 9″ zipper but I didn’t paying attention and used my standard length zipper for a skirt which is 7″. Since this is a high waisted skirt I am sure I will have to wiggle into it. Next time I will use a longer zipper.

This wool pressed beautifully and was easy to work with. I would have been done with this skirt in record time but I at first thought I wanted to use the reverse side for the center front and center backs. It didn’t look as great as I thought it would so I took all the pieces apart and resewed them with the right sides facing out.

I tried really hard to line up my dots across the top of the skirt and waistband, and had to restitch this area several times. Also the waistband was abnormally large for a Vogue pattern. Normally I have to let this area out to accommodate my square shape but for this pattern I had to actually grade down for the waist.

The full lining was made in black ambiance from my stash. One thing to note is turning up the hem of the lining 1.5″ per the pattern instructions did not work very well with the flare of the bottom. I tried several different methods to make it work and finally had to cut off the excess fabric and do a simple 5/8″ double fold hem.

I am sure you are all tired of these dressform pictures. It's just not the same as seeing it on an actual body, right? Hopefully it won't be very much longer until I'm back in my pre-pregnancy clothing and am able to model my sewing creations. Yesterday for the first time I got a pair of skinny jeans on. (Never mind the muffin top covered by my loose blouse.)