HSF Challenge 14 Paisley & Plaid

What is this, me doing an HSF challenge, shouldn't I be busy sewing a wedding gown. The thing is when I first read about this challenge I was sure that I was going to skip it since I'm not a fan of either patterns. Then when I cleared out my stash in the winter I found that I still had a remnant blue/brown plaid wool. This is actually the oldes remnant in my stash, I originally bought this fabric back in 1995, when I was 13, and I made a skirt and a jacket out of it. I got a lot of help from my sister, but still it was the first time I did something I could wear. I loved the skirt and had it for many years, the jacket didn't get much use though. When I found this remnant I realized that it was just about enough to make a fitted skirt from it, and that made me really want to do this challenge

Also the pattern I've used for the skirt was me testing a pattern that I want to make a skirt for myself for the wedding, so it didn't feel like I was wasting time doing a challenge. Lastly it's actually been really relaxing to make a simple pattern in fabrics that behave nicely, and it was a good thing to make me remember the pure fun of sewing.

I didn't have enough fabric to make a very wide skirt, and even though the pencil skirt would come later than 1945, the cut-off date for HSF, there are examples of slim skirts from the 1940's

McCall 1940, it's even plaid

Du Barry, 1945

McCall's, 1945

Having found enough references to fitted skirts with darts I was happy to be able to make that kind of skirt for the challenge. The last McCall's pattern was the one closest to what I was going for, I put the tiny slit in the back and eliminated the center front seam though.

The Challenge: 14 Paisley & Plaid
Fabric: 70 cm blue/brown plaid wool, 70 cm poly lining, 5 cm brown wool blend (waistband)

Pattern: Butterick 4451

Year: 1945
Notions: regular sewing thread, zipper

How historically accurate is it? I really don't know, since I've never really researched vintage sewing techniques. The lining is poly, but except for that everything should be period correct, so maybe 80%

Hours to complete: Two evenings

First worn: Not yet, we are in the middle of a heat wave so not really the best weather for a wool skirt

Total cost: The lining, $6, the rest from the stash, the wool would probably have been quite expensive back in the days though so I'm not counting this as under $10.


What I learnt with this projcet
This project was a simple one, but now I've found a skirt pattern that I really like so I'm pretty sure I'm going to use it for more skirts in the future.

Future plans
I probably have enough of the brown wool I used for the waistband to make a jacket, I've also saved the scraps from the plaid fabric so I would really like to do a matching jacket with plaid details, I'm not sure if I'm going for a vintage style or more modern style for that though.

I'm definitely going to use this skirt for work as soon as the weather gets colder.