I love the name Arielle by the way. It’s like a prettier version of Ariel from The Little Mermaid which was always one of my favourite Disney films growing up…

But I digress.

I have finally finished my Arielle skirt from Tilly and the Buttons. I say finally, I did only start it a few days ago but I’ve been planning it for a while and the fabric and pattern has been sitting in my stash for forever!

  
I bought this beautiful fabric from Malhia Kent in Paris last May and had always planned to make a wrap skirt from it. If you haven’t been to Mahlia Kent before, let me enlighten you, it’s a drool worthy shop and definite worth a visit if you’re in Paris. They sell the most beautiful woven fabrics I have ever seen. They make all these crazy patterned wools for the couture houses and the founder used to work with Coco Chanel to give you an inkling of their concept. It’s amazeballs and I don’t use that term lightly… Anyway the Paris shop sells off cuts of fabric as well as off the roll but the offcuts are such good value for money. It’s about €10 a metre (from what I remember) and most pieces are about a metre long. 

So back to this beautiful fabric! Bright colours, stripes, some sort of dogtooth pattern and some shiny bits. Sounds crazy. And it is… Crazy beautiful! Haha.

So there was only enough fabric for a skirt. A long pencil skirt was always the plan and when I got the Arielle pattern last November everything just fell into place. I had just about enough fabric to make the long version! 

I made the skirt as a size 3 at the waist and graded out to a 4 at the hip and when I tried it on I realised that the hip size was way too big so that went back down to a 3. It was a lot shorter than I thought I would be looking at the sample in the photo though. For the facing I used a plain black polycotton and I chose not to line the skirt. I really really really should have but I was feeling lazy and didn’t have the heart to go out and buy more lining fabric! 

Here’s my Arielle!

   
   
I love the colours of it!

The pink bands at the top and bottom are woven slightly tighter and stronger and I placed the pattern here on purpose to help hold my tummy in!

I’m really annoyed that I wasn’t able to match up the stripes perfectly at the sides. I could unpick it and redo it but that just seems worse… Just for the record it was matched up properly to begin with but the fabric moved at bit when I took it in! Such a shame!

In terms of the pattern itself, it’s very straightforward to understand and construct. The only complicated bit looks to be the lining insertion but I skipped that bit!

Overall I love the shape and design of my Arielle skirt! I’d definitely try it again and will probably attempt the lining next time.