What a flattering pencil skirt, Vogue 1656 by Donna Karan

After the heartache of a shattered pleather that marinated too long in my stash, I immediately took mental inventory of what other fragile fabrics in my stash might be deteriorating as we speak. One of the first fabrics to pop into my mind at that moment was this lovely pleather with a flower print.

Nothing like panic to focus the mind, eh? This fabric has only been sitting in my stash for 3 years but I don't want to blink and find myself 10 years later with another crumbling fabric in my hands... So I immediately picked a pattern and got to work and this is what came out:

My awkward pose notwithstanding, this is a very flattering skirt. The skirt pattern is from 1995 and from the pattern envelope you don't even notice the skirt. But it is by Donna Karan so we know we must look at the tech drawing. Indeed, then you see that the skirt has princess seams and a yoke, all working to produce that trademark flattering fit that Karan is well known for.

Unfortunately, this pattern comes in single sizes only! Was that the norm back in the 90's? I know that some people complain about too many lines on a pattern sheet, but my waist and hips don't share the same size so I really appreciate, no, need multiple sizes. My pattern for this skirt is size 14 only, so I had to add 0.5cm to each seam (princess seams as well as side seams) to bring the hips to my size. Easy enough to do, but I'm just saying, I like having multiple sizes right there on each pattern piece...

I do not dare to iron pleather, especially this one that is so thin. Instead, I used a gadget I bought recently to flatten real leather seams. The cylinder is really heavy and it worked very well on this pleather. I used it as if it was an iron, flattening each seam after it was sewn: first flat, then to one side and finally flattening the topstitching to "blend" the stitches with the fabric. And presto! all seams lay very nicely flat.

The skirt has a very tapered shape, but there are two kick pleats at back, one on each princess seam. They provide plenty of room for walking, so the skirt is very comfortable.

Here is a 360° view of the skirt. That weird pose in the middle photo is me trying to show you the skirt yoke... sigh! I didn't do a review at Pattern Review because there isn't much to say about this skirt, it's a classic design and it went together with no special efforts required.

I'm quite pleased with this skirt and I am especially pleased that I "saved" this fabric from withering to dust in my stash!

Now, before I go I want to show you something: my prize patterns from Eva Dress have arrived!

Actually, they got here some 3 weeks ago, but I've been traveling quite heavily for work, coming home just long enough to do a load of laundry and pack again. So only now I had time to take them out of the envelope. I think I know which one I want to make first...

Thanks again Eva Dress for this very generous prize!

A skirt for my knitted poncho

Hi, I am Lucia, I am a fabricholic.
I still buy and buy but a sewn wardrobe is beginning to materialize, yay! Here is to keeping that up!

I can't believe that in my 2012 inventory I forgot to mention the garments I knitted last year! Granted it was only one poncho and one purse. The poncho is a copy of Laura Biagiotti's Fall 2010 white poncho and I looooove mine! So much so that I made a skirt just so that I could wear it exactly as in the knitting pattern photo.

The skirt is Burda 08-2007-113, but without the beautiful draping at front.

I know, I know, that is precisely what makes this skirt special. Well, the original plan was to make it with that bit. Then I forgot to lengthen the draping piece by the same 4cm that I had lengthened the other 3 skirt pieces. Argh! I only realized my mistake when the side seam came up short. See that at bottom right on the in-progress photo? Yup that's it...

I still had enough fabric to cut another front, but not another draped front. Then I happily decided that I was better off with just a plain skirt because
(1) the hem on the draped portion was not going to look very nice with the reverse side showing and (2) the draped bit was too fussy for under the poncho as intended.

And you know what? I really am very happy with the plain skirt! It is a great basic.

Here is how I wore it today to work. That green jacket is a vintage find I bought in my grad school days and it was always impossible to wear with anything except jeans. Voila! Perfect with my new basic skirt.

Please do ignore that overextended blob at the right back. I ride a bike to the train station on my daily commute and the skirt got a bit stretched from the bike seat.

The skirt is made in a medium weight Ponte knit and because it is stretchy I eliminated the back zipper. Since Ponte doesn't ravel I didn't finish the seam edges.

Even though I had to redo the front piece it still took me only 2 days to make, which for me is lightning speed. Mmmh... I wonder if I can make another skirt like this in a single day? That would be a first for me!

My review of Burda 08-2007-113 is at Pattern Review.

My fourth pencil skirt!

I am Lucia, I am a fabricholic. I buy and I buy and I never make anything. Here is to changing that.

Oh dear, I am falling behind again on my blog-writing! My mantra needs to include "must blog once per week!" Anyway...

First up in the what-I-sewed-this-summer series: a cobalt blue pencil skirt and a short sleeved white cotton blouse. 

Skirt pattern Burda 01-2009-128 by Laurel and blouse pattern Vogue 1915 by Anne Klein

The skirt pattern is Burda 01-2009-128. This is one of their designer patterns, by a German company called Laurèl. I must admit I had never heard of this company before, but I loved the fit of this skirt so I went to the Laurel website and I did like a lot of what they make. This skirt pattern has a matching jacket, in raincoat style, which I also like a lot. Unfortunately I only had barely enough fabric for a skirt, so the full set will have to wait for another day. 

Skirt pattern Burda 01-2009-128 by Laurel

The skirt is relatively easy to sew: princess seams at front and back and a mock waist band. The curves of the mock waist band at front were a bit of a challenge because my fabric has a touch of lycra which invited waves any time I sewed at cross-grain.  But I practiced a bit on fabric scraps and I quickly improved my handling technique to minimize the waving. At the beginning I wondered if I would have to drop the topstitching, but my confidence grew with each seam and in the end I am very happy with how my topstitching came out. Of course most of the credit goes to my favorite new presser foot: a Bernina #10 edgestitch foot. A-mazing how easy it makes keeping your stitching parallel to the seam. 

Skirt pattern Burda 01-2009-128

My review of skirt pattern Burda 01-2009-128 is at Pattern Review but here I have to show you a photo of the skirt where you can see the mock waistband and the buttons. These buttons are "left overs" from the ones that my son chose himself for his 3-year old sweater. They are vintage glass buttons and they are a bit too heavy for his tiny sweater, but I couldn't say no to him. He chose them himself and carried the button card in his own hand the entire trip home from the flea market, plus he got the color spot on, good eye! So I was very happy when the two left over buttons matched perfectly the color of my skirt.

Now on to the blouse pattern, it is Vogue 1915 by Anne Klein from 1997 and now OOP. Mine is view A which has a peplum and a wonderfully angled side piece that flatters the waist. But now I have to make a confession. This blouse is a major disaster! I began sewing it sometime ca. 2001 and as happens too often with me, I was 95% done and then I stopped. I had forgotten why I had stopped but it was fairly obvious when I pulled it out of the box: I made it in the softest cotton voile but underlined it with an iron-on underlining that is too heavy. This resulted in a texture closer to popelin and, worse yet, the underlining shows through the thin voile... argh! This is why they always say to test first on a scrap!!!

Blouse pattern Vogue 1915 by Anne Klein

So yes, I thought quite a bit about whether to even bother finishing it. In the end I decided to do it just for the practice and to have the chance to model it for the blog, but it is not really wearable. I must say that I am quite happy for the extra practice, which I definitely needed. Since it is self-lined I topstitched all the edges which turned out very nice, even the sleeve hems and especially the peplum.  I must try to remember that self-lining blouses does provide a very nice finishing and is done (almost) all by machine!

As you can see in the photo the style of this blouse is quite flattering. I did shorten the peplum by a good 8cm as this is a more flattering length for my body shape. I am also happy to report that there is no gaping at all at the button closing and the flap underneath is wide enough for full modesty.
So despite my major screw-up, I loved the pattern and plan to make it again. My review of Vogue 1915 by Anne Klein is at Pattern Review.
Ah, glad to be back at blogging! Now I'll head over to see what you all have been busy with...