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.

Pencil Skirt Obsession

Starburst Skirt Burda 05/2012

I'm not going to lie to you. Ever since I got this particular Burda in the mail I have been lusting after it heartily.     I even want it in this tangerine color. I probably won't, but STILL.  <3 I love high-waist anything now (full convert) and pencil skirts are my signature item at work.  I only have one very good one, and one passable green one.  Both are the same pattern, Vogue 8672 View E  but the green one was out of a ponte knit and I didn't take into account the amount of stretch needed or how much it shows tucked in clothing.

Which leads me back to the above skirt.  Its for stable knits and has no zipper drafted into the pattern. A thing I did not notice until my friend Ilanka said "Wow, that's a tight skirt!".  Uh... she was right. Ooooooh.  Its for knits.  Which led me to the conclusion that they must of photo-shopped out a lot of lumps and bumps cause that blouse is going to show through, I don't care how skinny you are.  Drat.  So it went on the back burner.

So, during long tedious nights at work I've defended myself but going to my happy place, sewing. I've been thinking about how to construct this skirt to make it as sculpted as it looks here but still retain its allure with tucked-in blouses, and not go OMG PANTY LINE! The only answer I've come up with is underlining.

Aaaah yes. Underlining. You are my new best friend. Its almost impossible for me to make a garment out of woven now without underlining it.  Or at least thinking about underlining it. But this would be the first time delving into the realm of underlining a knit of any type, though ponte knit would be the most sensible one to try first, me thinks. In this case it would need to be a fabric that has as much stretch as the ponte itself, and I would probably use make sure the waistline facing had ridgeline stays as well. I realized I could use a silk stretch charmeuse after hitting up the Dharma Trading Co. for my evening gown underlining. I didn't add the stretch charmeuse to my order. I may go back and get some more later in August, depending on how much I can get done on what I shall hence forth refer to as The Gown.

I still haven't done a full post on that yet. *sighs*  I shall. Very soon.

So what sewing challenges have you been puzzling over lately?