I managed to force myself to finally finish my Delphine skirt – which I gave you a peek at in a previous post.
It is a really cute skirt, I just love the colourful stripes of the fabric (which I bought in Ikea many moons ago). The fabric is quite heavy canvas, and not really dressmaking quality, but I thought the exaggerated lines of the Delphine would work with it. And it does, but, as you can see from the photos, it’s quite hard to iron (yes, this skirt WAS ironed before I took these photos!).
The Delphine skirt is the first garment I have made from Tilly’s book, Love At First Stitch: Demystifying Dressmaking (I’m not counting the head scarf because really that is just a rectangle!), and I must admit the book is very well written and easy to follow, so well done to Tilly for that. I didn’t make any changes to the pattern, but ,as you will see in the photos at the end of the post, there are a few fit issues. I really enjoyed the pattern matching at the sides and centre back (nearly matching on the zip – the iron might be able to fix that), so even though I’m not going to be wearing this skirt very much (more on that in a second), I had fun in the creative process of making the skirt, so that is at least one positive! Plus it’s just lovely to look at – maybe I could just hang in on my bedroom wall?!
It’s a nice, easy to make a-line skirt which would definitely be a great first or second sewing project, as the book intends, but unfortunately it just isn’t right for me, style-wise.
So, I’ve shown you the skirt neatly hanging on the wall, let’s see it on me (my head has been cropped today because the wee man was napping long enough for me to take the photos, but I really didn’t have time to faff with make-up and hair!!):
Oh, hello – this is a very cute skirt, and I think it looks rather lovely on me! But photos can be deceptive, and quite often (probably 99% of the time I would imagine) people will pick the best, most flattering photos to showcase their makes. Nothing wrong with that. However, I want to be real here and talk about why I’m just not going to wear this skirt very much. This is part of my journey in discovering the right style for my body shape (which is my caveat to say that this skirt may very well look lovely on YOUR body shape!). So, the photo above shows off a very cute stripy skirt as I take the classic sewing blogger pose – hands on hips!
My first issue with my skirt is my poor invisible zip insertion, so nothing to do with the style for now. I showed you a shot of the zip while the skirt is on the hanger – pretty invisible right? Well once it is on me, you can see that it’s really not that invisible at all (but how lovely are those black and white stripes – PERFECT matching!). This would imply that (apart from needing to buy an invisible zip foot…which I have now done after making this skirt!) the skirt is too tight for me on the hips. But actually, I have excess fabric on either side at the hips, due to the exaggerated a-line shape of the Delphine. It’s my bum that needs a bit more shaping I think, so maybe some waist darts would have helped me here? What do you think?
The above shot is to try and show you that there is gapping at the waistband. It is unfortunately doing a poor job of it, because I think the skirt has maybe slipped down a bit while taking the photos. I think that (if I were to pull the skirt up a bit to my true waist) I just don’t suit waistbands that cut me straight across my middle because personally I think they make me look rather short-waisted and it’s not the most flattering (hard to see in this styling because of all the black). I think, therefore, that I would suit a more fitted, tapered waistband that sits a little lower than my actual waist.
And finally, here is the most unflattering photo of me ever on my blog! URGH! This is me in resting pose. Oh my goodness, I actually had no idea (*puts biscuit down and reaches for the celery), but I suppose I did recently have a baby so I’ll not be too hard on myself. Anyway, I wanted to share this photo to show you that this is the main reason why I won’t be wearing this skirt – it may look really cute from the front, but from the side it is just not flattering for me at all! You can see that the zip sticks out a bit (which I didn’t even know until I took this photo!), implying there is definitely a fit issue, plus you can see it’s a bit tight on my belly below the waistband, so perhaps I should have picked a larger size? But, as I said before, there is excess fabric on the hips. So I’m putting it down to not really being the right shape for me. It’s strange really because I have always been a ‘pear’ shape so I would have thought that this exaggerated a-line skirt would work really well for me, but since having Luke I seem to now be both a pear and an ‘apple’ shape – making choosing flattering shapes a lot harder. Any tips or suggestions on that?
So there you go guys, the brutal truth! It’s a shame, because I really do like the skirt! I may try wearing it during the Summer, with a loose top over it, rather than tucked in, and see if that works. I’ll share some shots if it does!
Have you made the Delphine? Did the style work for you? Did you make any alterations to the fit to help? Have you ever made anything that has really opened your eyes to a style that doesn’t suit you?
