FINISHED! My Bel Rowley Tartan Charlotte Skirt

Have you seen The Hour? I loved it! Watch it if you haven't. Bel Rowley (played by Romala Garai) always looked so fabulous in those tight pencil skirts! How did she ever sit down in them?!  I was so disappointed that they didn't bring out a Season 3, that when I saw the pink colour way to my New York Cape wool from  Addicted to Fabric I dreamt of living a season 3 in my very own Bel Rowley tartan skirt.

So I made one. The colour is pink although it comes up red in a lot of the photos.  Of course the pattern is the By Hand London Charlotte skirt, of which I am no stranger to given this is now my third.  That should have meant that the make went together easily, but not this time. Some things seem to come together easily and others don't.

The good news is that I'm happy with my pattern matching - I'm particularly pleased with my invisible zip on the back!

Sadly,  I made a mess of my invisible zipper the first time, so had to resew it.  I also sewed the waist band with the inside on the outside (on purpose) but decided that it didn't look right the way I had it, so unpicked it and resewed it the other way around.  There also remains a lot of bulk on the waistband which maybe I should have trimmed further.

The biggest problem is the linining. The wool is lovely and soft on the inside and I nearly didn't line it.  I almost wish I hadn't.  I took hours hand sewing it up beautifully and was very proud of my efforts.  Every time I tried it on, I felt super great in it.

I took some photos this morning before work and felt good and was even thinking how much better this lining is to my first attempt.  On my walk from the car to work this morning I felt the skirt grab at the left side of the pleat and by the time I had got to work I realised there was something wrong.   So disappointing.  Lesson - always check and check the drape!


I got home and unpicked the lining on the left side and let it hang. The result is the photo.  The lining skews off to one side, almost like the lining is cut smaller.  It's obvious now why the skirt was pulling . But because I had sewn it up by pinning it flat I hadn't noticed. But why? How did this happen? I tried and tried to get it to hang properly on that side - suggestions welcome!  But in the end I did the dodgiest thing and just cut the lining above the pleat so that it can just hang rather than attaching to the skirt.  Dodgey yes, but at least the skirt now works and sits perfectly.

This photo which I took obliviously this morning, shows a crease on the bottom which wasn't usually there but I now think was probably also a lining issue. If you look closely you can see the way the pleat is pulling a bit on the left.   Oh well, all fixed now and you know what, it's still a damn sexy skirt and I can't wait to wear it again, now that I won't be fixated on the lining.

And well, why not finish it all tartan'd up!  Tartan on tartan!!