1915 skirt out of black wool

I have two nice wool walking skirts but they both are kind of heavy. My linen skirt is permanently wrinkled beyond all belief and I desperately needed a lightweight wool skirt that would be suitable for warm autumn weather. I got this Italian suiting fabric from Eurokangas factory remnant bins and decided to make another test for the pattern from my 1915 book “Kukin oma ompelijansa” (Translated from German Ich kann Schneider from the year 1909.). This is the same pattern I used for my Edwardian linen skirt, except that I now left out the flounce.

I also made this 1915 skirt a bit shorter than previously, 5 cm from the floor to be exact. This makes the skirt more practical as I have to walk up the stairs quite a lot. The skirt has a placket closure at the centre back and a pocket hidden in the right front seam. In the picture below, you can see how I have supported the pocket from the waistband with a piece of black ribbon. This prevents the pocket from ruining the line of the skirt.

The skirt itself is unlined to keep it light. In 1915, lining in the skirts was optional. The hem is faced with bias cut wool strips that were leftover from an older skirt project and I sewed a fold-over wool tape to the hem to protect it from wear.

To take the photos, we went to the Hvitträsk mansion that I had never visited before. The national romantic mansion complex was built at the beginning to the 20th century to be a studio home for the famous architects of Gesellius, Lindgren and Saarinen. Nowadays it is a popular museum.

Every detail in the house, from the walls all the way to the embroidery on the curtains was designed by Saarinen. Many of the motifs and techniques were traditional Finnish ones that I appreciated. Otherwise, I think that the national romantic style is too heavy and dark to my taste. Thus, my favourite place was the garden outside the house.

I combined the 1915 skirt with the Victoria blouse I made earlier and threw on the Juneberry shawl I knitted some years ago. The picture below shows the back of the skirt a bit better. I just wished I had worn a shorter petticoat!

One more picture of me sitting at the Vitträsk lake, in quite a national romantic style!

I am really happy how this skirt project turned out. I have basically been living in this skirt since I finished it. Often, like today, I combine it with a modern t-shirt. As the skirt is really plain, it is easy to dress up or down.

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Katja