Ah, lovely Simplicity 2451! Gorgeous incarnations of this pattern have been popping up on my radar for years - here, here, here and here - the last one even uses leather rescued from one of my old skirts! Despite admiring the skirt greatly, I always disregarded it as a pattern to wear myself as I didn't think the tulip shape and front pleats were really me. Wrong! After making my Anna 6696 dress last year and having to add waist gathers out of necessity, I've since become a convert to a bit of extra room in the front! So when I was in need of a simple, easy-to-wear summer skirt, this pattern came calling.
![]()
![]()
For fabric I used some lovely Andover Chambray in Indigo from The Village Haberdashery. I can't link to it I'm afraid as I bought it as a bolt end. The piece was 115cms long and it was just enough for this skirt. The chambray is lightweight but still crisp enough to hold a pleat and was very nice to work with. It's also a great neutral colour and matches almost everything I own - which is handy!
For fabric I used some lovely Andover Chambray in Indigo from The Village Haberdashery. I can't link to it I'm afraid as I bought it as a bolt end. The piece was 115cms long and it was just enough for this skirt. The chambray is lightweight but still crisp enough to hold a pleat and was very nice to work with. It's also a great neutral colour and matches almost everything I own - which is handy!
The pattern includes some interesting design details such as a curved waistband, pleats to the front and slash side pockets.
![]()
These details add a bit of interest to the skirt but it's still relatively easy to sew together. The instructions were perfectly clear and I sewed it up in an afternoon. The only two changes I made were to substitute a lapped zip for an invisible one and to eliminate the back vent. Based on feedback from other reviewers I went down a size from my actual measurements, cutting a size 12 of view C. This turned out to be a wise move and the fit is great - it sits lower on the waist than I'm used to which makes it super comfortable to wear.
![]()
I'm mightily impressed with this pattern, in fact this is the pattern I should have used when I made my herringbone skirt. Instead of faffing around like a halfwit, trying to convert the Kelly skirt into something it wasn't. Ah well, I'll know better next time. And there will definitely be a next time - I'm already thinking of a shorter wool version for autumn…. x
I'm mightily impressed with this pattern, in fact this is the pattern I should have used when I made my herringbone skirt. Instead of faffing around like a halfwit, trying to convert the Kelly skirt into something it wasn't. Ah well, I'll know better next time. And there will definitely be a next time - I'm already thinking of a shorter wool version for autumn…. x