Burda Style For people who sew

Description

I bought some utterly luscious grey leather when I was in New York in September, and I’d thought about a few different patterns (even going so far as muslining one I never showed you), but I finally settled on the long, slim pencil skirt from the August 2010 Burda magazine (#128).

Since we’re talking about leather here and you cannot unpick any stitches once they’re sewn, I made a muslin, which revealed a few minor fitting issues which needed fixing in the final skirt. Other than that, I shortened the length to make it above the knee (which also eliminated the back vent) and removed the centre front seam to improve the look.

Luckily, this Burda pattern called for lapped seams (perfect for leather!), so I took a few ideas from their instructions and lapped mine as well. Rather than confuse myself later, I chose to cut all my leather pieces using my muslin, so seam allowances were included everywhere, and only trim away the top piece’s seam allowance when I was ready to sew. I then edgestitched the top piece, and then about 1/4” away to make a nice, sturdy seam.

In general, I opted to favour the top and centre pieces when lapping the seams, so the waistband is lapped over the yoke, which is lapped over the lower skirt (and in the back, the central yoke and skirt pieces are lapped over the side pieces).

It wasn’t the easiest to sew accurately, seeing as how I couldn’t pin it, and my usual leather trick of using plastic “prawn” clips from men’s shirts wouldn’t work, either! But a bit of chalk on my seamlines did help to keep me on track, especially on those curved back seams.

See way more over at FehrTrade.com!

Material Notes

Soft grey leather bought at Global Leathers in NYC

Difficulty

Advanced

Categories

Season

Fall, Winter

For

Women

Garment Type

Skirt

Style

Classic, Bohemian, Mod, Rock, Steampunk

Material

Leather/Fur

Credits

Pattern

Burda magazine 08/2010 #128