Pencil skirts, slit or kick pleat?

[Laura Chase]

Hi Ladies,

I'm currently working on making my own pattern for a vintage pencil skirt and I'm simply not sure how to make the slit... How long it should be, how much the two sides should overlap, and so forth... Or should it perhaps be a kick pleat in stead?

I have been searching for patterns but it's difficult to get a proper idea from just seeing the pictures, like here.

Is there a difference between a slit and a kick pleat? I just noticed that the description of this reVamp skirt says that the skirt has a "kick pleat". I'm guessing that a kick pleat looks like this:

Whereas a slit is more just a slit, so open, which makes the leg more visible, thus making the skirt less modest and more sexy. For practical and comfort reasons, I prefer the kick pleat, but how authentic is it?

I hope some of you know a lot more about pencil skirt fashion than I do, and I'd also love to hear about how the pencil skirt fashion changed in the different decades, 30's, 40's, 50's. I mostly know that the length changed, but lack knowledge about the details.

And! If any of you know of a great pencil skirt pattern, I'd love to hear about that too.

 

[lyburnum]

The vintage patterns I've used vary. Some have been kick pleats and some slits. The slits I've found more common in pencil dresses, and kick pleats in pencil skirts.

Also, I've used Simplicity 4047 and that has a kick pleat in it.

 

[KittyT]

kick pleats were very common in 40s skirts. I prefer them for a couple of reasons. First, for winter months they are less prone to drafts. They are more modest for work. Also, I find that skirts with slits seem to get tension in the slit, especially if the skirt is snug, and the pieces tend to pull apart at the slit as there are fewer seams in that area to take the force on the stitching.

 

[Vintage Betty]

My 1940's suit skirts, which are A-line (A-frame) are kick pleats and fall below my knee.

My 1950's suit skirts are generally slit and fall at the knee and are generally but not always pencil skirts.

I agree with the previous comment about stress on the stiching of the slit area of the skirt.

VB

 

[Miss 1929]

Slits are authentic!

Gloria Swanson had them in all her long slim skirts in the early 30s! And she was the designing force behind the "Forever Young" dress label in the 50s. So they must have still been done, if not preferred. They don't have to be to high up, in the pictures I have seen, Gloria's typically went from hem to knee to allow movement.

 

[Laura Chase]

Thank you very much for your replies, ladies.

Offhand, I would say that the definition of a pencil skirt is that it tapers towards the hem, but that does not make sense when you consider that it is called a pencil skirt. A pencil is straight down, so I'd also think that a pencil skirt is simply a skirt that goes straight all the way down, as opposed to an A-skirt which becomes wider on the hem, in order to create an A shape... But I am not sure. What would you then call the type of skirt that tapers towards the hem, like this one:

ReVamp calls it a pencil skirt...

Were pencil skirts common all the way during the 30's-50's, or when did they emerge?

 

[KittyT]

A pencil skirt is a skirt that tapers toward the hem. Forget the logic of it

They were common in the 50s. I am not aware of them existing in the 30s or 40s, but I'm no expert either.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The tight pencil skirt is definitely a 50s innovation -- while there were some types of straight skirts in the early thirties, they weren't anywhere near as hip hugging as the later sort.

One good way to describe the difference is that a pencil skirt can be made from a single piece of fabric -- it's basically a cylinder with darts or tucks at the waistline. The sort of skirt worn most commonly from the late thirties thru the forties was gored -- pieced together from multiple segments, usually four or six, sometimes eight.

 

[kamikat]

I have several vintage 50's pencil skirt patterns and they all have pleats, rather than slits. I prefer the pleat to a slit mainly for modesty reasons. I prefer to have a slip that comes close to the end and if there is a slit, my slip shows to the world with every step. Also, all the vintage patterns I have are straight, not tapered, but when using a stretch woven, I will taper them slightly to the hem.