Love at First Stitch Delphine skirt.

I have been meaning to make the Delphine skirt for ages, having bought Tilly's book when it was first released.  I don't wear skirts all that often, but its good to have a couple of faithfuls to fall back on.  I wanted a warm winter weight skirt to fit into my wardrobe, most of the wool fabrics I might have fancied were rather pricey, so I settled for a this wool and viscose fabric fabric from dittofabrics.

Delphine skirt with velour Grainline Scout tee.

The fabric on the website is called burgundy, but in my book it's more of a fuchsia colour. (really nice)  It's quite thick, a bit like a boiled wool and could be used in the same way, as in the edges don't fray, so you could just leave the raw edges.  It's easy to cut and work with and would be great for jackets and cosy dresses too.

The Delphine skirt is a simple A-line skirt with facing and an invisible zip on the back.  Love at First Stitch is a great book and would be ideal for anyone starting to sew for themselves, as there are different techniques to try with every projects.  The photographs are excellent and the instructions are brilliant, it has been extremely well thought out and planned, sort of like a 'let me take you by the hand' approach, which is great.

As my fabric is 50% wool/50% viscose I thought there might be an itch factor, so I decided to line it.  As I have never added a lining to a skirt, it was great that Tilly had a post on how to sew a skirt lining. It made it a very simple process.

As the main fabric is quite thick I decided not to hem it in the normal way, instead I made some Liberty bias binding (same as the facing fabric, Tresco left from my Josephine blouse) and used it to bind the hem.  The lining is a little bit shorter because there was no length taken off the main skirt, but it's not a big deal.  The lining fabric is pretty cheap standard lining fabric bought locally (£2.50).  The length is perfect on me (I am 5' 5"), I think if I had hemmed it, it might have been a bit short for me.

So a great pattern and a cosy skirt, which I think I could get a lot of wear out of.

Not long to Christmas now, so nearly time to review the year, decide on hits and misses and, of course, there has to be a plan made for next year. Better get cracking on that!