corduroy kelly

I've had my eye on Megan Nielsen's Kelly skirt pattern for a while now, but had been forcing myself to hold off on buying any new patterns until after my holiday in October (a little destructive to the old bank account - look at me, I'm learning to budget!) Finally, a few days before October's payday when I just couldn't wait any longer, I allowed myself to buy the pattern. It arrived the very next day. Yay! I couldn't wait to get started...

And then I moved house. My new sewing room (*happy sigh*) was filled with boxes and I didn't have a spare minute inbetween the cleaning, furniture-buying, and unpacking, to actually shop for fabric... until last weekend. On Saturday morning I wandered down to Masons (now just 5 minutes' walk from our new flat!) and found a lovely dark emerald green corduroy for my kelly. It was the end of the bolt and there was just 1 metre and 10 centimetres left, but despite the fact that the envelope calls for 1.4m for a size M, I risked it. I was clearly feeling a little delirious, but the risk paid off, as it was more than enough. Note to self for future - Megan Nielsen patterns are quite generous with their fabric requirements!

The instructions for the skirt are an absolute joy - so easy to follow, with the cleasest diagrams I've ever seen, and such helpful tips along the way. The pattern pieces are all printed on lovely sturdy paper, and whilst I traced all my pieces anyway, this certainly made them less messy to store. The main part of the skirt is unlined so it sews together really quickly - I think the whole process, from tracing my pattern pieces to sewing on the last button, took about 6 hours.

Due to the thickness of the corduroy I decided not to use it for my pocket linings, and instead used a gorgeous multicoloured Japanese-print silk I have set aside for another skirt (coming soon!) I love the feeling of the silk every time I put my hands in my pockets.

I've had a fair bit of practise with the 4-step buttonhole feature on my sewing machine by now, so the buttonholes went in without any problems.

Terrible indoor lighting!

I raised the hem of the skirt by about 2 inches in the end, mainly because I'm a short-arse, but also because I find it so much easier to wear skirts that are just on the knee. I must apologise for the awful photography by the way - it's a struggle to find a free hour of daylight in the middle of the week!

Ah, that's better. I took this this morning in natural light - such an improvement!

The one part of the skirt that lets the rest of it down is the back view - those pleats are not so pretty on someone with a generous bottom! I don't even dare show you the back photos of me wearing it. I'm roadtesting the skirt to work today and feel fairly confident about it, but only because I'm wearing a cardi that skims my widest part. I imagine the skirt will get a bit of wear, but perhaps not as much as I'd hoped.

Oh well, you live and learn! I'm tempted to try Colette's Beignet next, as those seams look more flattering for a pear-shaped girl.

What do you think?

Elena x