Red Scalloped High Waist Pencil Skirt

I added scallops to the pattern I made from Gertie’s New Book to make a red pencil skirt, just in time for Valentine’s Day. (Yes, I just posted this picture a few days ago, but that was about the blouse and this is about the skirt, so you get to see it again!) While I’m always drawn to patterns, I think that a solid colored pencil skirt (or a few!) will be a nice addition to my wardrobe as I can easily pair patterned tops with a solid bottom. And the scallops give it a bit of personality that it might otherwise lack.

Construction was quite similar to my previous pencil skirt, but not quite as perfect. I did face the waistband with hair canvas. However, when planning this skirt I had kind of forgotten that the fabric was cheap and not particularly deserving of perfection. So, I took a few shortcuts that I didn’t use on the previous skirt. One was that I didn’t add boning to the waistband. I think it stays up fine. Not as immaculately as with boning, but the hair canvas gives quite a bit of structure.

I inserted an invisible zipper by machine instead of hand-picking as the last skirt. I thought that the pink zipper I had in my stash would blend in more than it seems to in photos. Oops. Not worth it to replace it with another zipper. I think I made the back slit a bit shorter than preferable as well. Again, the more I worked with this fabric the more I regretted buying cheap fabric in the first place (oh, how many times I have said this) so I’ll call this a very wearable muslin and perhaps I will remake it again in the future. Perhaps.

To add the scallops to the bottom, I made a facing from a 6″ strip of fabric. I traced the scallops along the bottom, sewed them with right sides together, made copious notches in the seam allowances, and turned the facing to the inside. I underlined the skirt and hand stitched the facing to the underlining. I’m not thrilled with the shape of all of the scallops. I think I tried to make too many too small and in the future I will make them wider so they have a better chance of looking softer and less pointy.

I kept the increase in height from the side of the waistband to the center front which meant that the scallops are slightly different widths and heights, but I kind of like the effect. I think it looks a bit like a crown. Like the hem scallops, next time I think I’ll make fewer so they can be wider and a bit softer.