A 1950's Charcoal Grey Skirt

One of my recent makes this winter is a lovely basic, yet not so basic, charcoal grey skirt.

This wool blend fabric was a plague in my sewing room. It was previously a failed garment of mine, Simplicity 3313 – the green jumper on the left.

Darling pattern right?!

My first attempt at Simplicity 3313 was a major fail:

Sighting a poor match between pattern & fabric, I attempted making it second time in that dark charcoal wool. It was much more stable wool fabric, I was certain it would work, being a better fabric match and all.

But it didn’t work. At all. :( It looked just as frumpy as the first time I made it.

Despite being the cutest pattern, Simplicity 3313 & I weren’t meant to be. Instead, I sent it off to a new home and attempted to unpick my stitched jumper to reuse the fabric as something else.

I’ve been longing to make Simplicity 4083 skirt and it seemed like a great match with this wool blend fabric.

I settled on View #1 with those wonderful triangle pockets – and will most certainly make view 2 & 3 in the future.

This wool blend fabric feels like a very thin felt. It’s a dense weave fabric that holds it shape quite well. It must be the addition of poly that helps the wool stay crisp.

I paired this skirt with a 60’s creamy taupe cashmere cardigan that I recently bought.

I think it works well despite the era mismatch.

I’m so glad I used this fabric with this pattern. I am not even wearing a crinoline nor do I have horsehair braid sewn in. The hem just stays nice and full, all on its own.

My only regret is that I should have gone with a darker thread, so that the triangle pockets were more visible. Ahh well.

Modifications:

The skirt was labeled for a 32″ waist – a bit too large for me. It was easy to reduce the side seams of the skirt and make the waistband a bit smaller to fit.