This is the skirt I meant to share with you all over a month ago. I like to call it The Desk Set skirt. It’s a lined wool pencil skirt made from the pencil skirt pattern in Gertie’s New Book for Better Sewing. I bought the wool in Seattle, where I fell in love with its soft hand and shape-shifting color at a cute little fabric store called Stitches. I spent a lot more on this fabric than I normally do (100% Italian wool!), so I took extra care to make this skirt well.

This is the first lined skirt I’ve ever made, and some parts of the lining process were a little baffling to me. Like, what do you do with the lining around the zipper opening? Hm. I’m pretty sure I didn’t do mine right, but at least it’s on the inside.

I sewing a blind hem on this bad boy by hand. Took forever, but was totally worth it.

The only visible goof on this skirt is on the back of the waistband. My first buttonhole was too far toward the end of the waistband, causing the skirt to gap. I made another buttonhole, and it fits better, but I haven’t quite figured out how to get rid of the original hole. However, the button I found for this skirt is SO BEAUTIFUL that I hope it distracts from the extra buttonhole (ok, not quite, but a girl can pretend).

My favorite thing about this skirt is that the color of the wool is kind of indeterminate. In these pictures it looks closer to black (and the button looks blue), but in some lights, the skirt is more of an olive, and in some, it’s more grey. The button also is somewhere between green, blue, and grey. Such a lovely color.

Here’s the skirt on Bessie (geez, she’s kinda frumpy looking).

And here’s another picture of the skirt on me, yesterday. Yes, this fabric wrinkles terribly; I did iron it before I put it on.

This has quickly become my favorite thing in my wardrobe. It makes me feel pulled together and professional and classy. It might be retired for the summer (wool in July just feels wrong), but I think it’ll be around for many years to come.