Pencil Skirt Obsession: Lace and Leather Edition

Vogue 8697

Well, we've already established that I like high-waist pencil skirts.  And I also like to have a corseting action going on in the waist, too.  I think this might combine those two quite nicely. I only include the technical drawings because all of the fashion samples were fugly. BLEH. In fact, for a while there I questioned my motives in buying this pattern in the first place. I blame JoAnn's sale. So there.

Moving right along...  I had one of those brilliant ideas you get when driving home in the car. I know the PERFECT fabric combo for this, and I already own everything I need to make it! I even remembered to write it down, nay, TAKE A PICTURE! when I got home.  Bully for me. Wanna see?

So here we have Egyptian cotton in Pepto Bismol, knock-off Chantilly lace, and a black deer hide.  Before you get upset about deer hide, please understand that there are many in my family that hunt, or know people that hunt, and my Aunt buys leather from local businesses that dress and carve deer to make moccasins for charity. At least, that's usually how she gets it.  Other methods can be read about here. Lets just say my family has its own share of quirks, and one of them is if we'll eat it, we'll use other parts of the body too. Enough about that.

So, yes, I have a deer hide in my fabric stash, originally it was sent to me with the idea of using it as the bottom of a purse, but I couldn't bring myself to use it for that purpose.  So back to my skirt idea.  I want to use the black leather for the waistband, with a lining that has horse-hair and boning to keep it upright.  I think it would also be good as an accent for the top of the two side panels, those sort of chevron pieces.  The Egyptian cotton I had bought thinking it would be the lining to my Earth Day dress, but I then realized it was much too heavy for that.  I've learned a lot about fabric qualities in the last year. Of course I'll use the black lace over the pink, I think that, with the leather, will make it edgy and feminine at the same time, and possibly even on-trend for the runway.  And I still have my chiffon blouse with sparkly beaded embroidery in my closet from what a friend of mine dubbed my "corporate goth look" .  Add a black chemise underneath and VIOLA! Instant badass chic.

So, that's on my mind, along with finishing the fit on my bolero and starting to work on some TNT trousers and button down blouses. And if any of you have some good tips on working with leather in garment sewing, I'm all ears! Well, not really, cause that'd look weird.