What could be better than a red knit pencil skirt?

So, it seems most sewists on the interwebs are very stoked about the Mabel pattern. Something about it just doesn't look like it would work very well on me. It appears to be designed more for folks who are rather straight through the lower body. I'm really not. I also dislike the lack of elastic or fasteners, and I've seen a couple reviews noting that this can lead to an overly baggy or overly tight skirt, depending on which direction things go. Neither is really ideal.
The Wiggle Skirt pattern, however, looked much more promising, despite no reviews on patternreview. I also figured that if I was going to pay that much for a pencil skirt pattern, it should be something special.
I had hoped that those slash lines along the side panels were for slash pockets, but alas, they're not. I've gone ahead and made this up without trying to finagle pockets into there, but I imagine if when I make this pattern again, I will. (And it should be easy right? Draft a facing and a pocket bag, and there you go, right? Except, where does a pocket go in relation to the lining?)

 

And I just saw this image. I had not even considered color-blocking prospects, but there are some excellent ideas here.  

I went ahead and left the back pocket flaps off, since they're not covering actual pockets.

The fabric is a red ponte from Girl Charlee (yes, I get a lot of my knits there). The lining is just a cheap nylon lining fabric. (This reminds me - whatever happened to tricot? The chain fabric stores don't seem to carry it anymore, and online searches for tricot fabric find me something quite sheer that doesn't match up to my recollection of tricot.) The pattern calls for .92 yards of 60" wide fabric. I suspect that's about right, but who knows, since I don't know of a world in which one could buy such an amount. I made the size 8, and while I had leftover fabric from the yard I started with, I'm a little suspicious that the pattern calls for the same amount no matter the size. All of the long panels fit across one width of the fabric, with a little bit of fabric left. At a bigger size, I'm not sure you could get them all across like that, and 1 yard isn't long enough to stack them.

The pattern is well drafted with different pieces for the lining. There are quite a few waistband pieces, giving a nicely curved waistband with a number of places one could tweak it. (Next time I will take some darts out of the back pieces before cutting so it will be more curved for a better fit.)

It seems like this took no time at all to cut, which doesn't really make sense given how many pieces there are.

Things got substantially slower when I got to the step to attach the lining. The procedure is similar to that used for the Cambie (i.e., no hand sewing). Somehow it seemed less confusing for the Cambie though. I was silly enough to do the understitching with a straight stitch, which did not work out well. I unpicked it and topstitched it instead with a triple stretch stitch. (It seems like understitching with a lightning sttch would be oddly bulky, wouldn't it?)

And I finished this months and months ago, but haven't gotten around to photographing it. It is very comfortable, looks great, and gets quite a bit of wear (for a skirt in my wardrobe anyway). More will be made! In the end I very much feel that I got my money's worth from this pattern. The directoons and drafting are both excellent.