Wintery Wool Colette Zinnia

I started this wool skirt a month ago in anticipation of the impending “winter wonderland,” then set it aside for some last-minute gifty stuff. At the end of December I traveled to Charleston with my family and the dog to visit my sister. It was so wonderful — basking in the warm sun, drinking good beer, eating great food, wearing a light jacket outside… The drive back up north slowly brought me back to reality.

And this past week’s single digit temperatures has really motivated me to finish this skirt.

This is a tan herringbone wool made up into the Colette Zinnia version 2, which I have made before in black linen, making them quite opposite.

As you can see, it is quite voluminous.

I remember in my early days of sewing and reading sewing blogs, a lot of bloggers sing of their love of “long skirts in summer, short skirts in winter,” and I would nod my head eagerly and make a short skirt to wear with my tights. That’s all fine and dandy for fall, but it didn’t take me long to realize that I need a lot of coverage in the winter. Yeah, this is my idea of a long skirt.

Actually, this is a bit higher on me than I expected. I guess the waistband of the linen skirt stretched out more than this one did, probably because I interfaced this waistband with hair canvas, which has no give (as opposed to fusible interfacing, which I previously used). Also, I did a lot of eating and drinking in Charleston, so there’s that.

The skirt is partially cut on the bias, and it must have grown a bit as I was pleating it, because it didn’t match up with the length of the waistband. I corrected that by adding a 1/4″ pleat on each back side piece. Why didn’t I just take in the side seams? I don’t know, I honestly thought of that just now. I should have staystitched the skirt.

Here is a close-up of the button.

And here are the guts.

Pretty strange combination of fabrics. The waistband is a scrap from this voile, and the skirt lining was intended to be a coordinating Liberty print that I had a sizable scrap of. Not sizable enough, it seems. So this is part of a duvet cover I bought from a thrift store a couple years ago with the intention of using it for linings. I think this is the first I’ve used of it! Every duvet gets its day.

Here’s to another winter!