In the olden days, when I was an art college student, I wore ridiculous clothes. I strode the streets of Brighton decked in flowing home-made robes cut from vintage velvet curtains and old bits of funky fabric, sewn with beads and jewels, topped off with fabric-covered DIY cardboard hats. These days my crazy non-fashion sense has calmed down a bit. But Istill love making my own clothes.

Sadly I am completely and totally incapable of using a pattern or following instructions. I can’t resist straying off the path, adding bits and cutting corners. So most of my DIY clothes efforts are fairly crap, although I’m a dab hand at the decorating side of things.

But one thing always works a dream and after many years in the fashion dustbin, it’s back in fashion. It’s the wool knit pencil skirt, flattering and sexy, slimming and sophisticated.

Here’s how to make lovely wool  pencil skirts for pennies. Or, if you don’t have any spare woolly jumpers hanging around, just a few quid.

  • take one long, thick, woolly jumper. Real wool is always best and charity shops are full of them
  • cut the sleeves off and cut a straight line across the top where the sleeves meet the shoulders, cutting off the shoulders and neck to create a rectangle
  • decide how long or short you want it and cut to size from the top, so your bottom hem is the jumper’s hem
  • sew up the open sides at the top where the sleeves were, turn over and sew the waistband 1cm and thread elastic through to make an elasticated waistline
  • you can line your skirts so they hang better, using the skirt itself as a rough pattern so the lining fits properly. Just sew it to your waistband and you’re off
  • … and that’s it. A bang-on-trend pencil skirt, softly gathered at the waistline
  • wear cinched in with a wide belt or wear a loose top over it, tucked in and bagged over for that classic ’80s look