Faux Dress Matching Set

Hi there!

I'm back with yet another Gertie Sews Vintage casual pencil skirt. This is a look ripped off from the vision I had for Josephine's matching set that I made last year, but instead of making one of the variations of the Sweetheart Top I went with the Pin-Up Sweater.

This outfit is a wearable muslin really as this project was just an extension of me getting to know my overlocker with some easy projects, so I used some fabric leftover from the Hackney Checks Lady Skater Dress, which is still very much a wardrobe staple of mine.

The pencil skirt of course came together pretty quickly and easily- this is the fourth time I've made this skirt now! The check matching is OK, but I think maybe I let the overlocker get control over me on one of the side seams, as if you were to compare you can tell by the check spacing it's not totally even. I don't really mind on a project like this as the stakes are low when you're playing with leftovers, and actually this skirt is a pretty snuggly and easy to wear winter basic. I did however manage to make sure the central check runs through from top to skirt, so that's a plus. 

The pin-up sweater is a go at one of the variations- the cropped seater, but I decided to add a neckband. The length hasn't turned out very cropped on me, so if I had a go again I might take off another inch or two, especially if it were to be worn with a flared skirt, but as this version is to go with a pencil skirt it looks OK if not ideal- the band falls on my widest rather than narrowest part! Fit-wise it's not great either, I reckon lowering the armholes and adding a little more room to the bust and to the sleeves would be a lot more flattering for a second version if I made it again, plus a swayback alteration. It being a bit tight and right up in my armpits is a little uncomfortable, but the stretch makes it just about wearable.

So, in some senses I like this combo – it's not exactly as chic as I was envisaging, but my boyfriend keeps thinking it's a dress which is kind of cool. There's something about ithe top that kind of reminds me of '70s gym wear, I think it's the tight sleeves and arm bands. I salvaged the ribbing for the arm bands from one of those foldover waistband skirts that were quite popular in the early noughties. I had a couple even though they're very unflattering on my figure and could easily be mistaken for maternity wear! Here's the original skirt- I've kept the floaty layers to potentially provide some kind of petticoat beneath a skirt or ethereal summer dress. We'll see!

All in all while not a total win on the wearability front, a worthwhile muslin in that it cost me nothing as all materials were in my stash or in the refashion pile. It also really helped with getting to grips with the overlocker- everything (even attaching the sleeves in the round!) was made on it, although there was a short period of grief when I snapped one of the needles trying to go through three layers at once to make the neckband (I attached the lazy way of just doubling over the band and sewing directly onto the raw edge as I didn't fancy messy around between two machines to do any topstitching with the twin needle). The replacing needle experience, plus changing the thread cones to replace the white thread that comes with the machine to black thread for this project has now fixed the sightly awkward order of threading in my mind (after a few hiccups!).

Hope you're having a good weekend!

Norseotter xxx