THE SKIRT

I know by now that whenever I make a midi skirt, it's going to get a lot of wear... high heels, flip flops, leather jackets, tee shirts - I love that I can pair it with almost anything...

but, sometimes I need something a little more formal, so this top and skirt work perfectly as my version of a fit and flare dress.

However, while my generously cut one yard of D&G Alençon lace would have been perfect for a regular skirt or shift dress, it was a little more tricky to make into a full five panel skirt (and top)....

Thankfully, at 60" this lace was wide, but I was so limited by how the flowers could be used as they ran in one continuous cluster through the middle of the fabric.

But, after some playing around, I was able to squeeze in four skirt panels and all of the top pattern (albeit only on the plain lace) while strategically leaving as many flowers and large areas of plain lace as possible by completely ignoring the grain line!

It didn't make a huge amount of difference to do this, as the lace is in essence being carried by the organza, so as long as those panels are cut precisely on grain, they will do the work for both fabrics.

But I was still short a fifth panel......so with lots and lots of scraps and hours and hours of hand sewing I made one, which of course was the fun part!

This lace was seriously amazing, because as long as I cut just outside of the embroidery, there was no fraying or instability as each flower is thick, substantial and layered.... definitely one of the unsung benefits of paying more for this kind of lace and buying less if you have the time!

POCKETS

Pockets, for me, are an absolute must but they were a little tricky here as I had decided not to line either garment.... wanting to preserve the lace detail and slight transparency.

So, I thought it might be a fun opportunity to try making some organza pockets - and they rock, I swear! Lightweight, easy to sew, and by adding a second line of stitching to the actual pocket bag - super strong...

And from there, I basted the skirt panels together, so I could see how obvious the embroidery continuity was. The flowers stop and start so definitively at the side seams because it's impossible not to hack through them while cutting the panels unfortunately.

So, I re-opened the skirt to a round, and started stealing some of the more individual embroidery clusters replacing the holes with plain black lace..

and then back the flowers went, on seams, added to other clusters and in larger spaces...

and once everything looked a little more cohesive, I joined the panels again, added a strip of selvedged Organza to both sides of the zipper seam for strength and hand picked an all purpose zipper in..

Matching as much of the lace design as possible..

and then it was back to the next fun part - hand sewing all the remaining scraps onto the waist band!

Before finally hemming... As you can see each panel is sewn individually and the seams remain unpressed which helps the skirt to remain supple and soft.

THE DRAPED TOP

As I had such a scant amount of lace, I thought a very simple shift top would work well...so I draped the easiest of patterns.

I added a fairly deep bust dart to the front as I wanted this top tight so it could be worn to look like a dress, and used both a fisheye dart and a shoulder dart on the back so I could really get some substantial shaping there.

and as it was tight, I added a full center back zipper so I could get it on easily.

I left just a single flower on the top, so that it joins the outfit together when worn but is super subtle when paired with other items.

So, business as usual going forward, I have lots of unblogged sewing to catch up on, and I'm very excited to be flying home to London this weekend for a Master Class with Thomas Von Nordheim which starts the 31st. Four whole days of Couture tailoring and two on pockets...heaven!!

I'll put pictures up throughout the week on Instagram and if Thomas agrees, I'll write a post when I get home.

I hope you like the look of this new, simpler site. I think it's going to be much easier to navigate., but do let me know if you are having issues...

and in the meantime, all of the old posts are slowly being bought over from the other blog, but as it's such a long and arduous job, it will take a while, so I'll leave the other one live over at Typepad for the time.

Very happy to be back, wishing everyone a lovely week!

Leisa :-)