For the Love of V1247

October 21, 2013 by sewruth 37 Comments

I don’t often know a pattern’s number off by heart but in this case I do, and it seems, so do most of you.

After The Jacket was eventually finished I made myself a little V1247 skirt with the leftover fabric and the pattern has stayed in the sewing room ever since. Actually, I’ve just made another 3 skirts. Each a little different from the last.

I love those slouchy front pockets: I love the subtle fitting of yoke to body and shaping across the hips: I love that you can make it any length you want very, very easily: I love it ’cause it can be dressy or relaxed, or as you will see below – even a little fun: I love that I can cut straight from pattern, sew and wear – no alterations or danger areas.

I only ever wear my V1247s in the autumn/winter. Showing off my lily white & cellulite speckled thighs in summer is just not on, so I always wear mine with opaque coloured tights and usually with boots. I feel much more comfortable with this styling and the unsuspecting public are not traumatised. The only problem with this look is the static electricity that builds up between skirt and tights: I am continually pulling the skirt down or straightening it out or fiddling with it in one way or another. The solution, of course, is simple, line the skirt. Then it merely glides over bestockinged legs and feels much more substantial when wearing too. Oh the hassle of lining, I hear you cry! Nay, my friends. Follow the easy steps below and you too can wear your V1247s with tights and never have to worry about skirt riding up syndrome.

I had previously made a navy twill V1247 (without lining) and I gave it away. I missed the navy version – so versatile. I found a bit of navy wool crepe in the box; I suspect left over from the gym slip dress and managed to get this one made. As always, lengthened way more than the original pattern: this one is lengthened by about 5″. This is easy to do, as you cut the lower skirt bits longer.

Not content with these two new skirts I raked up a bit more poly suiting and started manipulating the pattern.

First up the straight/pencil skirt version.

Lined in the same way as the navy. This one falls just below my knee. I straightened out the slight A-line of the lower skirt front and back pieces, matching the hip width to the hem width.

I was now becoming a little bored of ‘winter skirt colours’. So ventured off into embellishment land.

I suscribe to an online fabric retailer Chrysallis and every quarter I receive samples of the season’s latest fabrics. It’s good to feel and touch the fabrics before buying and testing the exact colours against existing clothes for co-ordination purposes. Having received three lots of samples, I now have a tonne of small 2″ squares and thought to put these to good use.

I selected a range of co-ordinating samples – pink/green – added in a few Linton tweed squares too and ironed all these to a lightweight fusible interfacing. !!Use a pressing cloth or the sticky stuff will get all over your iron!!!

These were then cut out from the interfacing, trimmed and set aside while I made another V1247 in another poly suiting.

This time I kept the A-line shape of the skirt but elongated the length to hit my knees. Here you can see how easy it is to lengthen this skirt – just draw a new length directly on the fabric. Bear in mind that the top of this skirt piece is at hip level and not waist.

And one of the best bits of this make was the piddly amount of leftover fabric …..

This one was lined as usual and then all the little samples of fabric were arranged around the hemline Boden-like and machine stitched in place.

This one looks great with knee length brown boots and and either a pink or green jumper on top to lighten the whole outfit – a little bit of colour on drab days.

Below, you can see the differences between all three skirts – flare and length.

Apologies for no modelling today as I’ve got a bug or something and I’m just happy to sit about wrapped in cosy cardigans and drink tea.

However, I’m not finished with V1247 yet… I have this sitting waiting to be cut out and toyed with. I bought it for the green but it looks just as good on the yellow side. Decisions, decisions and I haven’t decided how this one will be altered