Finished Project: Wool and Leather skirt

I first saw the inspiration for this project on Bee Made's blog here
Actually, this wasn't so much an inspiration as me flat-out copying this garment (which was also a knock-off from a RTW pattern). But I felt it was ok to be a copy-cat as she actually provides a tutorial to put this skirt together :)

I'd never sewn with leather, so I was quite excited to get started, I had already visited Lonsdale Leather, a gold mine for leather, and I was itching to have an excuse to come out of there with something. So this was a great opportunity.

I purchased a full lamb hide of light weight black leather, about 9 square feet. 

For the pattern, I used skirt 115 from BWOF 09-2012. The base is the same as this skirt, (without the pleat) for which I'd already figured out the fit, so it seemed like a good option.

I didn't actually follow the tutorial - by the time I got around to making the skirt, I actually forgot it was even there, so I just made up my own pattern piece for the wrap portion. I didn't want a real wrap skirt, so I added the asymetrical panel on top of the rest of the normal skirt. In hindsight that might not have been the best thing, because it adds quite a bit of bulk to the side seam and I couldn't get a nice smooth side seam.

Anyways, I made a muslin to figure out the dimensions and orientation of the asymetrical panel, then I cut my leather and fabric.  Working with leather wasn't so bad. I used paper clips to keep the leather pieces together (instead of pins). I also used leather tape, after seeing this tutorial, to finish the hem, and it worked perfectly!

I'm a little on the fence about the result. I love the idea of this skirt, and I've been wearing it a lot, but I only wish the side seams laid a little flatter and smoother. No matter how much pressing I did, it doesn't look quite right. Oh well, I'm still happy with it and the opportunity to work with leather, and now I'm dreaming of a little pouch to use my left-over leather.

Finished Project: The 3-hour Skirt

After making this skirt for my friend Judy, I couldn't help but make one for myself.

It's such a simple pattern, but I really like the 70's vibe of the style, so when I found a dark blue wool remnant at Fabricana, I knew I was going to make myself a version.

Pattern is 116B from September 2012. Burda tagged it as "easy" and it definitely is, starting with the fact that it only has two pattern pieces (4 pieces to cut with the lining), front and back, both cut on the fold. There are 2 darts in the back, two in the front and an inverted pleat at CF, which is the main design detail. Simple but classic. 

 

Back when I made a muslin for Judy's skirt, it appeared that she didn't need the front darts (it added puckering more than anything else), so I felt confident I wouldn't need them either and removed them right off the bat, using this simple tutorial.

For my version, I didn't bother making a muslin, instead I took measurements on myself and transferred them to the pattern. The pattern doesn't have a waistband, but instructions specify that the top edge should sit 3cm below the natural waist. So I took my measurement 3cm below my waist and transfered it to the top edge with an additional 1cm on each side seam for ease. I also measured around my hips and transferred that number to the pattern, with the same ease. I think I could have done without the ease as in the end it feels like the skirt sits a little lower than intended, but I'm fine with that. Another change I made was to add 5cm to the length.

I didn't have quite enough fabric to do a proper hem at the length I wanted, so instead I used twill tape that I sewed to the bottom edge of the skirt, then folded to the inside and slip stitched by hand (similar to this technique). I didn't have dark blue tape on hand, and because I wanted to get this skirt finished right away, I just went with the next available option: baby pink twill tape. It doesn't look as neat on the inside as it could have but for once I put my endless quest for perfection to the side and just went with it. I'm 100% happy that I did.

This project was all about making something fast (took me about 3 hours, cutting included) and having the instant gratification of wearing it to work the next day (which I did!). And it turns out I really love this skirt, it's everything I had pictured and I know it's already a perfect addition to my everyday wardrobe.

My only comment would be that the fabric I used might not have been totally ideal. It's a medium weight 100% wool, and althoug it's a woven, it has almost a knit-like quality to it, with a bit of stretch. It's a bit too drape-y and light, and if you look closely the pleat isn't as neat as it was on the version I made for Judy. I would definitely recommend a thicker fabric for this particular skirt, but I have to say, my version is really comfortable so I hope it holds up well with time...

Dump post: Miscellanious sewing and planning

Although I haven't been reporting much, I have been sewing quite a bit lately. I was on vacation for ten days in October and visited my family in Montreal. I made a shirt and a skirt for my step-brother's girlfriend. It was my first time sewing for somebody else, and I very much enjoyed it - so much easier to check the fit and figure out proper alterations!

I added one of Adrienne's lovely label to really finish off the shirt.

The shirt pattern is the same one I used for my ugly shirt, and the skirt is from the Burda October issue of this year. I made muslins for both. The shirt is what took me the most time, although by now I'm quite familiar with the step by step and how to put it together. I don't think that I used the seam ripper more than once this time! The skirt was really easy to sew. As a matter of fact I put it all together (except for the hem) in a few hours on my last day there. I actually really like this pattern, it's simple (no waistband) but very stylish and requires very little fabric (less then a meter). A perfect pattern for one of those end-of roll pieces that hang on the sales rack at Gala Farbics....

I don't have a picture of the finished garment, but it pretty much looked the same as rhis, in a dark green wool fabric

Speaking of fabric, the one for the shirt is from a store called Effiloché, on rue St Hubert in Montreal. It's a very cute yarn and fabric store, which also offers classes for both knitting and sewing. They only carry quilting fabrics, but they have a great selection of them and this one was perfect for this shirt. They also have a selection of gorgeous Liberty of London prints including this one, which was made up into a Sorbetto top on one of their dress-forms (drool...)

The skirt fabric is from C&M Textiles, another store on rue St Hubert, which carries a lot of quality fabric at reasonable prices. The wool was 17.00 a meter. We were helped by two older italian ladies who evidentally knew what they were talking about and gave us great service. If you are in Montreal or ever visiting the area, I would really recommend these two stores for fabric shopping...

Since I've been back, I have had quite a few projects lined up, and I am trying to figure out waht to start next:
Another, modified version of my ugly shirt pattern is in the midst of being put together. It has gathers at the shoulder yoke, and a hidden button placket.

I also want to make my first array into knit-fabric land, with a simple Renfrew top in a grey jersey...

... and this will be the perfect practice for another knit project, a dress made out of rayon fabric found at Gala Fabric in Victoria, BC

I'm actually hesitating between 2 patterns:

The first one is dress 101 from June 2009, to which I photoshoped long sleeves, and the second one is from February 2008, both from Burda Magazine...I might make muslins for both and decide after...I'm really longing for winter dresses, something comfortable and easy to wear but not too casual looking so I may end up making both.
Other projects in the cue are a faux-fur vest (the one I didn't get around to making last year) - I'm thinking a removable collar would make it more versatile.

I'd also like to make Sewaholic's Alma Blouse in a winter version with a light wool-type fabric.

Oh, and I almost forgot. A friend of mine is having a MadMen-themed cocktail party for her b-day on December 15th. As soon as she mentioned it, this dress popped into my head.

1950's inspired cocktail dress, BWOF 107-11-2007

It's not quite the right decade (more 50's than 60's) but it has a retro feel, while still feeling modern, and I could easily wear it on other occasions like office christmas party and such. I've already made a muslin for the bodice and it doesn't look too bad. I just have to find the right fabric for it. I'd love to be able to sew-up a little jacket in a matching fabric. I found this one in a thrift store recently and thought it would be the perfect shape. I might try to copy it...

That's it for now, my sewing list for fall/winter...

Vote for my skirt on Carfthours!

My high-waisted skirt has made it to the top ten of A-line skirts in the Skirt Week 2012 contest on Crafthours!
Check it out and vote for me here.

I very much like Pharmgal22's Nautical Stripes pleated skirt and Mie's skirt with snaps and pockets...

Finished Project: High-Waisted Franken-skirt

I had an amazingly productive week-end. For once I wasn’t feeling frustrated on Sunday night, having to put down my unfinished sewing, knowing I wouldn’t pick it up until the next week-end (maybe). This time Sunday night came and I had managed to accomplish everything I had planned and even a bit more!
The fact that I didn’t look at Pinterest or my blog roll at all might have helped a little :P…

At the top of the accomplishment list: I finished my skirt, Yeah! Only took me what, 3 months? (hum, more like 6...)

The final button went on, then I put it on and did a little dance…and started singing every one of my words instead of speaking them. Then Brice looked at me half-amused half-worried and I stopped. But the party was still going on in my head, believe me!

The main fabric is a silk/wool blend bought at Designer Fabrics in Vancouver. I had it steam-shrunk at my local dry-cleaner. It drapes beautifully and when I first bought it I knew I was going to make a long skirt out of it. I only had $1.30 meters of it, so I cut everything on the crosswise grain, to be able to fit all the pieces.
The lining is 100% rayon found at Dressew. It's funny because when I started the muslin for this skirt I had a very specific idea of what I wanted the lining to look like, and when I saw this fabric in the store, I thought right away "This is exactly what I had in mind!"
Rayon is great because it doesn’t have any static so it’s not at all clingy. I wouldn’t use it for a top (with sleeves anyway) because I’m not certain of its “breezing” potential, but for a skirt lining it’s great.

I am calling it a Franken-skirt because it’s made out of two patterns: the skirt part is from a vintage McCall 5192 pattern and the waistband is from BWOF 2009-01-109.

The alteration to make the two pieces work together was actually very easy. I overlaid both patterns, lining up the waist mark, then re-cut the bottom part in the right place to match the waistband...

The fit of the waistband was actually pretty good right off the bat. I made my now-usual sway back adjustment, then I chopped off about 2 cm at the top (basically one-button worth), because it felt like it was coming up a bit too high.

I interfaced the waistband with muslin, and added boning to make it nice and sturdy. I followed Tasia’s tutorial (which is for a bodice but the principal is basically the same). I debated about facing the waistband with self-fabric but in the end I lined it – with all the construction layers it felt more right that way…

Another alteration I made was to take the sides in a bit at the seams as I didn’t like the way they originally “stuck out”.

I usually insist on having pockets in my skirts but in this case it didn’t work out. Looking back at it I realized I should have altered the pattern in the muslin stage to make slanted pockets but I was too focused on the waistband to think about it then. So I tried adding pockets afterwards but none of my experiment turned out satisfying.
First I tried big patch pockets (similar to this) but it made the skirt too stiff and killed the drape....and didn't look right. Then I tried in-seam side pockets but the opening just gaped awkwardly... So in the end I went back to the original pattern and added the flaps below the waistband. I actually like it a lot that way…

For the buttonholes, I didn’t trust my machine to be consistent so I went to Spool of Threads and used their machine. The result is a super neat buttonhole that I am really happy with. Totally worth the $8 I paid for an-hour rental!
The buttons are from Button Button as always... I always find the right buttons in that store. different. I think they were $1.25 or $1.50 a piece. I think buttons can really make or break a garment. So I’m willing to pay a little bit more for quality buttons. These ones are real horn, but they look a bit more modern that the usual horn button you can find. I think they work really well on this skirt.

I realized after opening them that the pattern called for horizontal buttonholes and I made them vertical (I didn’t even think about it at the time).
I guess horizontal would better prevent buttons from opening on their own when there’s tension but in this case there’s enough ease that this shouldn’t happen.
In doubt I also looked at Sunni’s gorgeous shirt dress and it seems that the buttonholes on hers are vertical all the way down . I guess on a shirt it’s standard to do them vertical and it would look weird if halfway down their orientation changed. But that just reassured me as for a moment there I wondered if I’d broken some Golden Rule of Sewing or something…

I omitted the belt loops from the original burda pattern as they didn’t look quite right, and I’m not sure I should wear a belt with this skirt. I think it would just create a visual break.

I hand-hemmed the skirt with a blind stitch then attached the lining to the hem facing, also by hand.

I really, really like this skirt, it has a bit of that 70’s flare that I am very much found of. The length is a tricky one ( a little lower than below the knee) but I think it works with boots.

The sweater I’m wearing here is one of my first (and rare) purchases from Anthropology (they opened their first Vancouver store last May, a block away from my apartment!)
The boots are a consignment store find. I never buy boots new, as in current styles the shaft is always to wide for my calves (I’m a size 8.5 but my calves fit a size 6…). But I’ve lucked out on a couple occasions in consignment stores. I’m really glad I found these ones as my previous pair is falling apart from being worn to death…

Next on the sewing agenda, I should probably start thinking about spring clothes, but I recently finalized a muslin for a wool vest so I think I’ll work on that next…then maybe pants...

Making Progress.

I'm so happy to be making some progress on my WIP garments, I wanted to share!

The skirt is nearing the end. Construction is finished. I now have to hand sew the skirt and lining hems, plus finish the topstitching on the button placket and finally add buttonholes and buttons.
Buttonholes were my biggest worry as my machine doesn't seem to be able to sew two clean buttonholes in a row. The first one will come out right but there's a 70% chance the next one will be all messed up...I was even considering taking my skirt to a professionnal seamstress to get the buttonholes made.

Then, a couple weeks ago I joined the Vancouver sewing Meet-up at Spool of Thread. It was nice to meet other local home-sewers and get advice from them. I also took the opportunity to try the lounge's machine's buttonhole foot.
Well, I liked it. A Lot. Take a look:

I love how neat and finished this (fake) pocket flap looks, with the topstitching and buttonhole. I haven't openned the hole yet but I'm so happy this solution is working out. I will most definitely go back to Spool of Thread to make the other 6 or 8 buttonholes in the front of the skirt.

On the jacket front, I'm also have progress to report!
I recently contacted the people at Masterstroke Canada, after finding out that they had quite a nice online selection of ribbons and trims (plus ordering in Canada makes a big difference in shipping cost). I had decided that I actually needed twill tape to finish my jacket, as the texture and aspect will best match my fabric.
They have a good color selection but dont'offer the option of purchasing swatch cards as other on-line store would. So I emailed them about it and they offered to send me swatches of the colors I was interested in - free of charge!
That's what I did and look what I got in the mail today:

How nice! I love that it is hand written, and that they took the time to do it (thank you Steven!). I'm feeling pretty good about #38 (I will have to look at it in natural light), although I could probably go with a couple more options here for more contrast. We'll see.
But after searching for the right ribbon quite extensively locally and on-line, and not finding anything, I'm really excited about this. This jacket will be ready for spring!

I have traced the pattern for my Furryliscious vest but haven't had the courage to cut the fabric yet, which makes me think it might not get worn until next winter...oh well.

And finally, I've just started a "knit-along" with a friend of mine. We're both making this sweater, in similar colors (I'm using Lion Brand Yarn Wool-Ease Thick and Quick in Oatmeal and she's using the same yarn in Wheat).
This week-end we're going on a ski trip and I'm almost more excited about getting some knitting/chatting time with my friend than about the skiing...

Future project: the skirt i woke up thinking of...

This morning I woke up thinking about a very specific burda skirt from a few years ago.

This winter I've been wearing a lot more skirts than the years before - or at least a lot more frequently, as I tend to wear the same 2 over and over again. I've come to the conclusion that the style I'm comfortable in is a rather hip-fitting skirt which stays on the casual side with details that keeps it from looking too "corporate pencil skirt" if you see what I mean...

*update* this is skirt 109 from Burda magasine January 2009, sorry I forgot to mention it before

Now I've gotta be a tiny bit obsessed if I wake up thinking about clothes but oh well, I won't over-anaylse it. In any case, this skirt definitely fits the bill, with its "jeans-like" front zip and it's unusual seam lines and in-seam pockets. So It's now officially on my "spring sewing" log.

Actually as I'm writing this, another pattern comes to mind, that I would also see myself wearing: :

BOWF 109 August 2010.

But back to the skirt I woke up to, I just so happened to go to Gala Fabrics this afternoon, and found a very nice chocolate brown strech cotton with very fine ribbing and a bit of shine. I thought it would be perfect for it. It was on the sale's rack (which is the only place I ever look for fabric in the store - they have tons of gorgeous stuff, but most of it is pretty expensive, over $15 a meter and way higher...). This 1,40m piece was marked $12 but it was an additionnal 50% off. Sold !

So... I wake up thinking about this very specific skirt and end up finding the right fabric for it on that very same day. Does this mean this skirt is meant to be or what ?

Finished Project: the "Summer-isn't-over-yet" Skirt

aka the 4 hours-20 minute-skirt (sigh)...

Even though progress on my dress had already slowed down to a stall, I decided to "whip up" a fast and easy skirt on my next sewing opportunity. I'd acquired the end of the roll of the fabric that my friend Marysol purchased back when we had our "cutting workshop" and I thought the 20-minute skirt would be a great project for it.

As mentioned above, it took me more than 20 minutes (but given my record, I figure 4 hours isn't bad at all), but mostly because I made some addition to the basic tutorial: I wanted to add pockets, and I just happened to come across Just Chic's tutorial, which was very helpful. I also wanted to add a design detail. Marysol was going to do a simple sheath dress with her piece of the fabric and have an exposed yellow zipper down the back. I liked the idea of having some pop of yellow to match the flower detail so I decided to add yellow piping below the elastic waistband.

I first bought some ready-made piping at Dressew. But as I walked out the door with my 98c worth piping, only then did I realize I'd just bought woven (as in no stretch whatsoever ), which basically defeated the whole purpose of having an elastic waistband. So the next morning (how convenient that Dressew is on my way to work), I went back and purchased some elastic cord as well as a piece of stretchy yellow polyester (good thing it was a remnant for only $1.59, cause I now have a good meter of bright yellow stretchy polyester that I really don't see myself wearing in any way, even though it does have a pretty nice drape...)

The piping was a breeze to make and it worked out great with the waistband elasticity. I also added a lining to the skirt, in white cotton broadcloth. I sewed the skirt and lining together at the top, then I basted and gathered the two layers as one and sewed them to the waistband+piping. The sum of all the allowances at the top (skirt+lining+piping+waistband) is a bit bulky, especially with all the pleats, so I turned all the allowances up into the waistband to avoid any "parasol effect" at the hips.

I'm really pleased with the result !



While we're supposed to be getting rain for the rest of the week, Monday was warm and sunny so I was able to wear it to work. We took the photographs Sunday evening, while the sun was going down, a perfect image of the "last bit of summer sunshine" feeling I had while sewing the skirt....

photos: Brice Ferre