Minerva Crafts Blogger Network – Sew Simple – High Waisted Pencil Skirt (#1188)

For February I decided to make something I can wear for Valentine’s Day. Dresses aren’t as convenient for me since I’m still nursing, so I went with a sleek pencil skirt. The pattern is from Simple Sew and is #1188 High Waisted Pencil Skirt.

I’ve never made anything from Simple Sew before but loved how the skirt looked on the front of the pattern. I couldn’t really find any other reviews either, so I went into this hoping for the best! Let’s talk about the packaging of the pattern first. The pattern paper is thicker and more like wax paper, I like this because it’s more durable. The instructions are simple and good. What I thought was great was that they give you these:

Typically I end up doing something similar to this on my own with just cut up pieces of paper. I loved that they included this. So far I haven’t seen any other pattern company do that.

Onto the pattern itself, I do like it a lot and I’ll use it again. But – I will size down a bit. When I made this my measurements were waist 31″ and hips 40″, so I choose a size 12 (30-40). After I had sewn everything up and tried it on, it was way too big for me. I took in each side 1/2″. So that’s a total of 1 inch taken in! Granted, I did use a slight stretch sateen – so keep that in mind. I like my pencil skirts to fit tight and I feel like this one needs to be a little tighter. Next time I think I’ll take in the bottom a bit more, so it looks more like the envelope.

The fabric is a stretch sateen from Minerva Crafts. I adore this fabric! It washed up really well and looks expensive. I think the print is really pretty too. I’m not huge on flowers but something about this print makes me feel happy. I’ll probably order this again and make a dress once I’m done nursing.

This pattern is a fantastic basic. I think making one in polka dots would look great too. If you can’t tell there are pleats on the bottom back. I’m a sucker for skirts with pleats! If you need dressy clothes for work, you should buy this pattern because you’ll use it over and over again. The pattern calls for: medium weight woven fabrics, tweed, bengaline, sateen, cotton, cord fabrics. So this really is versatile.

The pattern took me about 4 hours total. That includes cutting out the pattern paper all the way to the invisible zipper and hemming. I didn’t follow the directions about the zipper, I just inserted it the way I typically do on anything needing an invisible zip. I also didn’t slipstitch, because honestly – who has time for that?! Yep, I’m a lazy sewist.

Overall, I highly recommend this pattern. Let me know if you make it! Sorry there aren’t any pictures with the dog, but he got sprayed by a skunk a couple nights ago and if I pick him up I’ll stink all over again! Don’t worry, he has a grooming appointment tomorrow and hopefully will be back to normal!