Finished project: Colette 1029 - Mabel skirt

I just made up the new Mabel skirt from Colette patterns, and I kinda love it:

Colette Mabel skirt - Version 3 (pencil skirt)

The Mabel and Moneta dress were officially released on Tuesday, but I pre-ordered a pattern bundle (along with the Colette Guide to Sewing Knits) and actually received my patterns on Saturday. The Mabel is a simple skirt designed for stable knits and has three views:

• Simple mini-skirt
• Mini-skirt with faux placket embellishment
• Seamed pencil skirt (with kick pleat in back)

Mabel envelope cover with line drawings

I lacked any pencil skirts in my wardrobe. I know that they're a classic and a wardrobe staple for most women and that they're supposed to be flattering on all figure types. Unfortunately, with my own insecurity about my figure, I couldn't get past the curve-hugging nature of the pencil skirt and had avoided them in favor of fuller skirt silhouettes. However, I've been wanting to dress in more body conscious clothing; I think that (well) fitted clothing generally looks better than oversized clothing, and I love how well-fitted body conscious clothing looks on other women. I think this skirt might be a baby step in the right direction for me.

The rear view is surprisingly not-horrifying:

Colette Mabel rear view with kick pleat

Here's the lowdown on fit, sizing, and constructing this skirt:

• I made Version 3, the seamed pencil skirt.
• My skirt took ~1 yard of fabric.
• For fabric, I used a black ponte knit that I'd bought six yards of back when it was FabricMart's "one crazy priced fabric" a few months back.  I think this was a good choice for this pattern.
• The pattern envelope calls this a one-hour skirt. I suspect that's the case for the most basic view. The pencil skirt has a few more seams/details. Once I had the pattern and fabric cut out, this skirt took me two hours to construct.
• My measurements put me squarely as a 2X on Colette's size chart. With this being my first pass at this pattern and having no pattern equivalent to compare the pattern pieces to, I sewed a 2X straight out of the envelope. The skirt that you see in those photos? I made ZERO fitting adjustments.
• I've been seeing some concerns online about the skirt fit being too tight on the lovely plus sized model on the Colette web site. Somewhere in Sarai's blog most, she mentions that the model is a 2X. You can see on me that while the skirt is curve-hugging, it's not overly tight, and I went by the size chart.
• For hem length reference, I'm 5'2". I made no adjustments to the skirt length because I wanted a skirt that hit me just below the knee, which this skirt does.
• The waistband does crunch down a little on me in front--I suspect that this has to do with me being short/short-waisted. I'd never tuck a blouse into this skirt, so that doesn't bother me, but other short sewists who do tuck might want to check the waistband height on their figures.
• Construction is pretty simple:
1. Construct the waistband, which has no elastic.
2. Sew the skirt back/kick pleat.
3. Sew the skirt front.
4. Attach the waistband.
5. Hem.
• The kick pleat does lay flat nicely. These photos were taken after having worn the skirt all day.

I will definitely try the other views, albeit probably lengthened a tad for wearability. I think that the faux placket detail is cute and can add interest to a solid color whereas the simplest version (Verison 1) would be great for a print.

If you're on the fence about ordering/making this pattern, I hope that I answered some of your questions. If you have any other questions/concerns, please post them in the comments and I'll answer them honestly.

Gratuitous daughter shot

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