A Pencil Skirt, and My New Favorite Fabric

As I was sewing up blessing outfits and bow ties for Christmas, I started to wish that I had something new to wear to church.  After all, we all deserve to dress up a bit, don't we?

I have a simple black stretch pencil skirt that I've had for a few years now.  I love the way it fits, an I wear it all too often. I decided that I'd like to recreate the skirt in a different fabric, and make it just a little bit longer.


I was thrilled when I found a similar suiting fabric at Joann's...Bengaline.  Have you heard of Bengaline?  Have you sewn with it?  I hadn't, but I fell in love with it.  It is a suiting fabric that has micro ribs running perpendicular to the selvage edge (at least this particular fabric did).  The small ribs give the fabric a nice vertical stretch.  I needed a horizontal stretch, so I simply positioned my pattern pieces with the stretch running horizontally.

The fabric is great for skirts.  It lays well, only wrinkles slightly, and it doesn't cling like most knits do.  It was also really easy to work with.  I didn't have any issues cutting out the pattern pieces, or sewing it up.  If you are afraid of stretch fabrics, this is a great starting point. The fact that the fabric had so much stretch eliminated any need for a zipper-Wahoo! I believe that I probably could have eliminated the slit in the back as well.

As far as the skirt goes, I added about an inch and a half to the hem of the skirt, and brought up the waistband.  The waistband is long enough that I can wear it up on the waist, or fold it down and wear the skirt lower on my hips.  I have a feeling that this skirt will make a great early maternity skirt (don't worry...I'm not expecting again-just planning ahead).

Just an FYI- I bought 1.25 yards of fabric, but probably only used about a yard.  The fabric is 58" wide, so you have quite a bit of material to work with.  Also, if you want to make your own pencil skirt, but don't have a pattern or existing skirt to use as a guide, check out the tutorial on Cotton and Curls.