Straight after making my red cardigan I cut out the co-ordinating green and red plaid wool for a skirt. Now usually my skirts are about 3″ above my ankles, but just occasionally I push myself out of my comfort zone and make a short skirt. It’s got to be just above the knee, as knee length just doesn’t work on me. This fabric definitely wanted to be a short skirt!

I bought the fabric a couple of weeks ago from B&M Fabrics in Leeds, I seem to recall it was £5 per metre, I just bought one metre for a skirt to go with my cardigan.

My favourite pattern at the moment for straight skirts is Burda 8765, I’ve already used it twice in the last 12 months for a wool skirt and a heavy cotton summer skirt. It’s a good basic straight lined skirt with a kick pleat at the back. One advantage of writing a sewing blog is that it is a useful record of any problems encountered with patterns, this is only helpful if you’re patient enough to go back and read it…I just jumped straight in! Ooh, it’s cut to a size 12, well the skirt fits fine so that’s fine, size 12 cut! If I had read my entry I would have seen that in cotton the 12 was too small, I had to unpick and stitch a narrower seam!

By the skin of my teeth I’ve got away with it! The wool is a little snug but with the give available from wool, it’s comfortable. I stitched the lining with a narrower seam to give me a little ease, this seems to have worked!

I was very careful to match the pattern across the seams which has worked well, though I still haven’t mastered cutting out the back so the pattern matches both ways across the zip, I’m always very impressed when people do that!

It’s a very quick skirt to make, it went together very easily. I lined it in black, I have to confess that I couldn’t be bothered to change the thread to black from the dark red I was using for the wool. I decided the only place it would really be noticeable was the hem, so I used a pretty decorative stitch, so if anyone gets a peek of my lining, it looks like it’s meant to be red!

I’ve worn my skirt and cardigan combination a couple of times now, together with one of the shirts I made earlier, it is a nice feeling to know you’ve made your whole outfit.

I’ve now put a note on the outside of the pattern regarding the sizes! I’m just about to cut out another cardigan and I’ve got my eye on another skirt length in my stash which will co-ordinate nicely!