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.

Happy Earth Day Dress

Well, I had it ready in time to go out to the Big Shanty Festival to see my son's choir sing, but then it turns out it was cancelled due to "too many student schedule conflicts".  So I was all like ok, well, we'll go see the parade and then head down to the Dogwood festival.

smile, or something

And then it rained us out.  Leh Sigh.  So, instead, my kids stayed at the Grand's place and went to the aquatic center to go swimming instead. Indoor pool on a rainy day with Grandma (mother-in-law, my Dad now lives on the downstairs floor apartment, hence "The Grands" place).  And I went to bed, then went out for "breakfast" with my husband in my newly finished dress.  I got lots of stares, and the greeter said my dress was pretty.  That's always a plus.

Somewhat blurry back detail, but YAY pattern placement!

 My favorite part is the lace hem treatment.  I bought this lace three years ago at the Sewing Expo from a company from Amsterdam. Cotton Lace, check them out as they are nice people.  This is a rayon, i think? I bought the last of what they had there in the hopes of making a Gothic like Steampunk costume. Then I discovered I had a serious personality conflict with a few people on the Atlanta "scene". They've since moved on, as I was not an isolated incident, but my enthusiasm had been lost by then.

Pretty lace detail

 The lace is sewn on with tiny zigzag stitches using my Mom's Viking machine. Her machine plays much nicer with these things than mine does.  Mine still works best with knits combined with the serger, so that's cool. Oh, and I got to use my new duckbill scissors from this year's Sewing Expo purchase. What a difference it makes.

Right, moving along,  when we got back I set up the tripod and had my husband snap the photos. I always feel like he's somewhat annoyed when I ask him to do this, so I usually end up taking less photos.So the one twirly shot I was making goofy face. Oh well.

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE!!

All in all, I think this is probably my most favorite thing so far.  I definitely need a waist-stay and some shoulder strap holders.  I'll put those in while watching reruns of Dr Who or something.  Oh, yeah, bonus portrait shot!

What did you make this weekend?