Art Deco Needle Cord Skirt

Fabric: Libre Needlecord in olive from Fabric Godmother

Pattern: By Hand London’s Charlotte Skirt

February seems to have decided to end on a high note with beautiful clear sunny days (albeit also very cold). Dare I say that it’s even beginning to feel a bit Spring like with snowdrops out and crocuses pushing through. As I think most people are, I’m heartily sick of winter, so this little glimpse of Spring and brighter months to come is most welcome. It’s been a busy old few weeks – I’ve been working in a tweed shop, which fits in nicely around my private cooking work, and I’ve also been finishing off two paintings which are being exhibited in Edinburgh in March. We delivered the paintings on Monday so now the countdown has properly started for the opening night this coming Friday (to which I will be wearing a me-made skirt..).

Home is kind of beautiful! Early spring sunshine this week.

I made this particular skirt a couple of weeks ago, using fabric I bought a couple of months back from Fabric Godmother. You would be forgiven for thinking that such fabric is really quite ugly – I understand – I can see were you’d be coming from. Olive green and beige matched with an Art Deco style print on needlecord fabric is hardly everyone’s idea of a beautiful print, but, on this, and in this fabrics case, I beg to differ. For is it not simply lovely!

Excuse the wavy looking waistband – it’s straight in real life without a jumper hastily tucked in! 

Just look at that glorious print!

I love the pattern and colour of it and, while I concede a dress would probably have been a bit much, as a skirt, and specifically a short pencil skirt, it is perfect. Incidentally, my mum has bought two metres of the mocha colourway to make a dress and it is entirely suited to this; once the green is removed from the equation it really becomes rather lovely dress (as well as skirt) fabric.

This is my second Charlotte skirt (the first is unblogged) and, once again, the fit is exactly how I want it to be, straight from the pattern pieces, no tweaking required. The only variation I took from BHL’s directions was to skip out the hook and eye fastening at the top of the waistband and instead attach the waistband before the zip, bringing the zip right up to the top of the waistband. I think it gives a cleaner line (besides attaching hook and eye fastenings neatly aren’t my strongest point). As well as the fit, I am most pleased with the flawless (if I do say so myself) pattern matching I’ve achieved below the zip. This was not without much painstaking pattern placement, cutting and measuring, but I have to admit, it’s so worth it. It would have looked completely wrong had it not matched up. I’ve been less particular about matching the sides seams – besides ensuring that the lines sort of kind of match and run right round the skirt – it seems kind of impossible to match precisely the curved seams of a pencil skirt. That’s at least my excuse because looking at this photo I’ve not even done that great a job of running the lines round evenly.. Oh well!

I’ve already worn this skirt quite a lot – to work as well as just generally out and about, dressed down with a slouchy jumper. I really love the softness of the needle cord and foresee many more similar such skirts.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now!

Hannah x