A colourful first skirt

Weirdly enough I only made one skirt until now, and it was for a friend. I don’t wear skirts often and I think I only have two in my wardrobe (now three!). A couple of months ago, while I was planning my spring-summer makes, I stumble upon this fabric on Minerva. It’s a royal blue cotton lawn, with red and white sailing boats. It’s not a subtle print for sure, but it was love at first sight. Now…it happened to me in the past to love a fabric that ended up not being good for my existing wardrobe or that I couldn’t imagine wearing. This is my mental check list to avoid past mistakes:

do I like the fabric content?
do I imagine myself wearing a dress with this print? is the fabric dress appropriate? In this case I also do a mental shoes check. Do I have shoes/accessories to pair it with? Both to dress it up or down?
For a separate: can I pair it with several items that I already have in my wardrobe? both colorwise and material wise. And of course, shoes check 🙂

In this case I couldn’t see myself wearing this fabric as a dress. While I love the print it seemed a little too big for a dress. I thought about a separate, but a shirt/top seemed also not very me in this pattern, and I couldn’t imagine a pair of pants…and skirt it was!

But which pattern? At this point I was already scrolling pinterest and instagram looking for inspiration and ideas, and a yellow polka dot skirt made by Kate @timetosew caught my eyes. Time to order the fabric (I used 1.5 meters of 55” wide fabric for my size 40)!

The pattern

The pattern is from Just Patterns and it’s the Stephanie Skirt. I had very good experiences with Just Patterns recently so I decided to buy the pattern, and I confirm my impression for this brand. I really like the finishing details, the classic shape and the fit. I made a size 40 and it fits perfectly with no adjustment needed. The cotton lawn works well with the pleats detail, and I’d recommend it as a material for summer versions.

The design is fitted on the waist with a wide waist band, and flared on the hips. The shape is given by three inverted pleats both in the front and back of the skirt. The closure is on the back with an invisible zipper and a hook and bar closure on the waistband. It has pockets!!

I can see myself using this pattern for different projects. Delphine (Just Patterns founder and designer) made a stunning version in white broderie anglaise for example, but it could also be used as base for a dress, and why not a midi/maxi version for a very fancy occasion. And here’s the result!

Back to my check list:

fabric content: cotton lawn for summer (I mean this week we had 30 C – 85 F here) ? Yes please! The skirt is comfortable and definitely weather appropriate. We’ll see for the creasing after one day sat working on my computer, but I don’t really care too much if I’m being honest (mom close your ears).
pairing wise: I think it looks very nice with a white top and I have a couple of them, but also light blue or red (I might have a mini leftover from the Red Tatjana trousers that I could use for a top).
shoes: well…I love shoes, so let’s say that I might have a couple of pairings available. Red sandals, white trainers, espadrilles, but also silver and gold.

After I finished it I tried on a couple of options that I think works well with it. I always do it because I want to make clothes that I’m able to pair with as much as possible with what I own already, but this time I took some pictures too. On the left I paired it with a white tank top (Blomma Tank, free pattern from Paradise Patterns if you subscribe to the newsletter) and white trainers, on the right with a RTW light blue linen shirt and espadrilles.