#Green December Wool Blend Skirt

Bluegingerdoll Peggy Finished Object and Pattern Review

OK, I know that when I bought Bluegingerdoll’s Peggy skirt pattern I was stoked. But, lemme tell you, when I put this thing on,

BAM! SWOON!! All KINDS of LOVE!

This is my #Green December make for the Sewcialist Sewalong. Still plenty of time left in December, y’all, if you wanna sew along 🙂

Peggy is a high waist skirt that has cute little gaping pockets, fun little front pleats, three waitsbands to choose from, and a lapped back zipper with button closure.

I have been wanting to try my hand at a lapped zipper for some time now, and sewing something with button tabs on the waistband and a high waist skirt were already on my sewing list, so this pattern knocks out 3 sewing “to-dos” in one fell swoop!

Not too shabby for my first lapped zipper huh? I used Sunni’s method from her Mastering Zipper Tecniques class on Craftsy.

OK, pattern deets:

• I chose view A, the straight waistband with the cute button tabs (FYI: you can put the tabs on any of the views).
• I cut a 16 waist and graded to an 18 hips.
• I cut size 18 button tabs to give them the most visual impact possible
• I added 2″ of length to the center back and graded to 0 at the side seams to help cover my ample backside 🙂
• I used “deep emerald/multi tweed-look boucle wool blend suiting” from Fabricmart (a few yards still available if you want). It is pretty boss fabric. It is soft and drapey, and was a dream to sew. It has some blue and red and yellow threads running through it as well, so you could mix and match a lot of buttons, thread, etc., with it. It did fray a little of the edges, so I serged them before prewashing (delicate/handwash cycle, hung to dry).
• I lined the skirt with some black ambiance lining I had in the stash (bought locally at Jo-Ann’s) because, you know, wool and all.

I didn’t cut out the lining using the pattern pieces because I was planning on making a half slip with the fabric. I had already sewn it into a big tube ready to gather and attach to elastic when I decided to use it as a lining for this skirt instead. So, I lined up the side seams and then pleated out the extra fabric at the same spot the front and back darts on on the skirt. I then attached the lining in the waistband. It was a short cut, but worked out nicely.

What I love about this pattern:

• Adorable gaping pockets, so cute!
• Love the button tabs (I think i may have mentioned that already, yes??)
• The pleats at the front pocket give just enough oomph to grace over my mummy tummy
• The directions were pretty easy to follow, but if you have any issues Abby hosted a sewalong on her blog a couple weeks back.
• I am so in love with the high waisted skirt right now. I have a short torso and it is much smaller higher up, so most skirts I wear ride up to where the Peggy skirt sits naturally. She’s cute there since she is designed to be there. Other skirts, not so much, so there is a lot of tugging them back down to the “proper” waist position.

What I DON’T love about this pattern:

• the pockets are too shallow, at least for me. You see the pic above? That is as far as I can get my hand in those adorable little pockets. No worries, though, because that is a simple fix I will remedy on my next Peggy. Oh yes, there will be others!!! 🙂
• the directions say to topstitch the waistband, pockets, and button tabs at 1/2″, but that is too wide for me, so I did 1/4″ on the waistband and tabs. I actually did the 1/2″ on the pockets and it looks cute. FYI – so if you want your topstitching closer to the edge you may want to mark your pattern

I didn’t do any hand sewing on my lining, if you were wondering. My hand sewing skills are really terrible, so I try to skip it if I can. To attach the lining I folded under the seam allowance, pinned and pressed how I wanted it, and stitched over the same stitches I used to install the zipper to the wool. It’s not perfect, but it is pretty close and much better looking than I would have done by hand.

If I hemmed per the directions the skirt was going to be a tad shorter than I wanted, so instead of turning under 1/2″ and then 1″ to hem I did 1/4″ and 3/4″.

I also promptly ran out of thread as soon as the hem was finished. No lie, I have about 2 inches of thread left!

All in all, I am quite pleased with this skirt. I will wear her to pieces this winter. I have some khaki poplin in the stash for the next one – perfect for the warmer months.

Happy Sewing!

PS: I apologize for the photos, there are not the best, but whatcha gonna do when it’s winter and raining outside??