I was waiting for DH to take official pictures before posting the beauty. Christmas is coming and our weekends are very busy, no time during the day to take nice shots of me wearing the amazing piece of clothes. I may sound a little imbued of my self, but my enthusiasm comes with the love of this skirt so much !!!

As I mentioned before, the fabric is a gift from my friend Annette. The minute I had the piece of fabric in my hands, I new I would make a skirt with it. I sat with my box of pattern and my Burda magazine and finally set my choice on the Burda Magazine 2010-11-113. I felted the fabric in the washing machine using a short hot water cycle and that was enough to enrich the already amazing texture of the wool. I liked this country chic look that the two dramatic pleats add to the design.

This is a very easy pattern to sew. I shall post a tutorial for the pleats since their instructions are not that clear. (see picture with a close-up) The rest is very easy. This pattern did not include pieces for the lining. I simply folded the pleats to have a flat front piece (picture coming in a future post). Annette also gave me a neat pink charmeuse for the lining. I had a hard time hemming it. :-( It was so sliky. I will buy lace and refinish it since I am not fully satisfied with the internal finished look.

The front hem of the skirt is done with a facing. The back pieces have a regular turned in hem. Follow Elisabeth's (my favourite sewing instructor) instruction, I did not press the waist band to give it a more Couture look, nor did I press the hem. The final result is wonderful ... at least in my opinion.

Now I want to find a dark burgundy or dark olive mohair sweater or tween set. If you have see any online, please tell me so. It is lovely with fushia but a little too loud. It looks great with a dark purple turtle neck I have and a dark purple-brown tailor shaped leather jacket I have.

Real nice pictures are coming up.

********

Yesterday I drew a knock-off this Marie St-Pierre dress. Since I made a wearable muslin using my pattern and I do not want two black dresses with the same tapered trapeze bottom line, the muslin will have a simple a line skirt. I used black slinky for the muslin using my new Baby Lock Enlighten. A charm to work with. Both sleeves and skirt hem will be finished use my new Baby Lock cover stitch, again a charm to use.

For the top part, I used my Jalie 2805 pattern and the pattern is from me looking at one or two empire waist dress patterns I have.

This dress in slinky is more then comfortable. For the "real" one, I am using a beautiful black wool knit bought at Emma one sock. the skirt will be lined with a poly knit to give it more body and to avoid static. I am not certain I will make the pockets. I breaks the line.What do you think ? The bottom of the skirt will have cut angles so that the last 15 cm will become narrower with a strait angle. Does it make sens?