I've finished my latest sewing challenge from my sewing group Stitch Once, Rip Twice. The challenge was to make a pencil skirt by July 1st.

With my travelling to England and having family over, I didn't have time or much money to make a pencil skirt from scratch. Instead I bought two skirts and turned them into pencil skirts. I hope that these two skirts that I half worked on will count as having completed the challenge (1/2 + 1/2 = 1 ...lol).

I picked up two skirts from a local used store. I was able to find two wool skirts that were made in Canada for only a dollar each. Score! They both fit me in the waist, but had a lot of extra fabric in other places.

The first skirt is a good quality, vintage pencil skirt.

Before

It didn't need much work to turn this navy blue wool skirt into a pencil skirt that fit me. All it needed was to bring the hips in a little (funny enough, I discovered I wasn't the first to do this alteration to the skirt - another woman had done the exact same thing before me).

After

Here is the skirt after the alteration and with a nice top and belt.

I tried a couple of different tops to see what looked best. Because I have a bit of a swayback and a small chest, the skirt definitely looks better from the front than the sides. But, the bright belt helps give me a waist.

After v.2

I wasn't sure pencil skirts were for me, but after trying on a pencil skirt that actually fits me, I think I might actually start wearing them.

The second skirt needed a lot more work. It is not as good quality, even though it is wool. And it started out as a large maxi skirt.

Before

It wasn't very flattering. I'm not even sure if such a skirt was ever in fashion. Maybe it was in the 90's - people wore a lot of bad fitting clothes then.

For this skirt, I needed to bring in the hips and shorten the hem. On the plus side, I now have extra wool fabric for making a tailor's ham.

After

At first, I brought in the hips too much and then it made my swayback look worse. It seemed as if I was sticking my gut out! I let the hips back out a little bit and it now looks ok. I don't like the grey skirt as much as the blue one, but I think it gets a pass. It would probably look better if I wore a belt with it, as well.

Sadly, it is now way too hot to wear these skirts. Yesterday, I was sweating while trying to sew by hand - it's so much harder to hold a needle with swollen, sweaty fingers! Today is supposed to be 38'C outside (about 99'F). Too hot for wool! But, they will be ready for later on in the summer.

I only spent $2 on materials, so I definitely recommend other sewers should check out the used stores for skirts that can be made into pencil skirts.