But first, this skirt

It's still pretty cold here so it does not seem at all ridiculous to have just finished this nice warm wool skirt in the first half of May.

It's #104 from the March 2009 issue of Burda Style (which I have made before).

The fabric is from stash (natch). I picked it up at the Fabric Flea Market so I do not know the exact composition, but am guessing there is a good amount of cashmere mixed with the wool. It is a light coating weight and has a napped surface with a bit of a sheen on which every crease and wrinkle stands right out. But oh how lovely it is! My favourite shade of teal. In fact, it coordinates perfectly with the top and cardigan I just finished.

The colour is truer to life in the photo at right.

I love how the lines of the shaped waistband flow into the pocket openings.

The Sewing Lawyer's latest lawyer's suit

It's not so much that a sewing slump has hit The Sewing Lawyer; but the output has slowed to a crawl as she compulsively knits away the evenings.

So, I am thrilled to announce that the skirt to match my jacket is now finished.  As predicted, with temperatures in the low 20's (C) during the day, this outfit will have to wait until fall to be really enjoyed.   But I put it on to take some low-light pictures.

Does this look like a lawyer's suit to you?

I need some interesting tops to wear with it.  I like the red colour with the suit, but this top is pretty old.











I've already given you all the interesting construction details.  There's not much more to say about this skirt.  It is straightforwardly lined to the top edge.  I did not do anything fancy to justify the extreme amount of time it took to finish it.  There is no inner corset, and no boning.  This fabric is so soft and cushy and I didn't want to interfere with that.  Besides, it's a little stretchy, always a good quality in a pencil skirt with a high waist.  The skirt should be very comfortable.

I also got lazy in relation to the back walking vent.  Instead of making a concealed vent, properly lined (as per my tutorial here - the most-visited page on this blog, by far), I just folded the vent facings back at the seam line and tacked it invisibly by hand to the facing, leaving a little extra length for ease above the top of the vent.  I mitered the hem and facings for a clean finish but it's practically invisible in this fabric.    

And that is that.

Piping!

I love sewing with cushy textured wool.  It's so forgiving!  This fabric is so thick and resilient that I decided it needed minimal interfacing on the under collar and stand, the front edge of the jacket, and the skirt waistband pieces.  I'm using Pam Erny's Pro-Weft fusible.  It stabilizes the fabric (which has quite a bit of natural give) without changing its hand appreciably.    

I quickly assembled the jacket fronts and backs, and then paused since I'm planning to make three bound buttonholes.  One has to fortify oneself for bound buttonholes, although I'm confident that in this fabric, I could make many mistakes and no one would ever notice.

In the meantime I decided to test out the piping on the skirt.  This caused me to stop and ponder sewing order.  Burda instructs sewing the lower front skirt (with pockets) first, then the lower back (which has no CB seam).  The right side seam is sewn.  Then the waistband is constructed, except for the left side seam (which has the zipper).  The entire waistband is then sewn in one pass, and the left side seam with zipper is constructed last.

Phooey to that I say!  First, I find it easier to insert the zipper in the relatively straight CB so I made a seam there.  This also allows me to make a back vent, for walking ease.

A brief word on fitting:  This pattern is meant for quite stretchy cotton/lycra twill and as designed it has almost no ease.  All the PR reviews showed it was very tight.  Based on flat pattern measurement, I added a 1cm strip down the CF and CB (4cm or 1.5").  This gives about the right amount of ease.  Then all I had to do was fine tune the shape of the side seams.

Back to construction.  I like to put in the zipper flat, then sew the side seams last.  This allows me to do fine changes to improve the fit as I sew.  Normally I would make the front starting with the pockets, then apply the waistband in one pass, as illustrated in green at right.

However, I'm piping the seams shown in pink at left.   I wanted a continuous line of piping which would be impossible if I sewed the waistband seam last.

So I changed the sewing order.  It isn't all that hard.

First I sewed the CB waistband to the lower skirt front (the curved waistband seam between the lines of piping).  Then I piped the edges in a continuous line.

Then I attached the pocket facing piece, but stopped sewing at the waistband seam.

Next, I attached the side waistband at the piped seam, again stopping sewing at the waistband seam.  Ideally there is no more than a tiny gap between the two.

Finally, I attached the side piece, which forms the back of the pocket.  I sewed the top seam first, again stopping at that point (or as close as I could get to it) where all the seams meet.  After that it was an easy task to sew the pocket bag.

The last step was to anchor the waistband seam through all layers by stitching in the ditch (did I say this fabric is very forgiving?) for a centimetre or so.  It's invisible.

For piping and the pocket facings, I'm using left over black wool fabric from these pants. I'll do the bound buttonholes in this too, as narrow and unobtrusive as I can make them.  Later.

In progress

The overwhelming consensus is that it is not just not a bad thing but actually a good thing to re-visit and re-use a pattern already made.  (I thought so too.)

I finished cutting out the jacket and skirt last night and the biggest left-over bit of my 2m of fabric is about 35 x 45 cm (maybe 1 sq.ft.).  I sure hope I didn't make any mistakes!

I am going to insert black piping at the curved line formed by the pocket edge and front waistband seams, just for fun and because the detail of this line is really rather beautiful but would completely disappear if I didn't do something to make it pop in my dark and textured fabric.  To unite the two pieces, I'll continue the piping at the CF, collar and lapel edges in the jacket.  Or maybe at the horizontal seam...

Here, as a reminder, are the line drawings:


Where do you think piping would best be inserted?