Burda 9-2008-124 - Pleated ivory floral skirt in Chinese silk charmeuse

I've long been jealous of those bloggers who come home from exotic vacations with souvenirs of fabulous fabrics. Our vacations usually consist of hiking or beaches or visiting family members in small towns without fabric stores, so I never even go looking. I have asked a certain family member (who travels a great deal) to bring me home some fabric from her globe trotting but so far it hasn't happened. So, when my good friend Kelly went to China earlier this year, I asked her if she might bring me back some actual Chinese silk. When she got back from the trip, she called me up to tell me she had something for me. She said it was hard picking one she could see me in, and wasn't sure I'd like it, but I think it's just perfect!

Since the purple of the fabric matched my eggplant military jacket so well, I decided to make some sort of skirt. Picking the right pattern was hard. Silk charmeuse is relatively thin, so I knew I didn't want anything too fitted that might strain the seams. On the other hand, because of the linear layout of the "flowers", I couldn't do anything too draped or with a lot of seams. Most pleated skirt pattern require more fabric because the pleats run around the entire skirt, but I only had 2 meters of 44" fabric to work with. I finally settled on a design from the September 2008 issue of Burda because the pleats are only centered in the front and the back, and I could get each panel out of a crosscut of the fabric. I still have enough fabric left over to make a sleeveless top, which I just may do in the summer for a dress version.

What you can't see in these still shots is that when I move around, the pleats unfold and the print is really on display. I usually hate indoor shots in my house because of lighting issues, but it is stinking cold outside and raining. We tried to find the lightest spot to take these. For some reason they were uploading on blogger very muted, so I went back and saturated the photos with more color. The colors are kelly green and eggplant in real life, sorry if they appear bright and fluorescent on your monitor.

I made a straight size 38 and only had to play around a bit with the waistband, which is a usual occurrence for me and my square shape. I also added a full lining with some off-white ambiance I had in my stash. The lining took some thinking about because I wanted it to hang free from the skirt at the side seams but be sewn with the pleats of the outer fabric to cut down on bulk. To do this I first sewed both fabrics together when making the pleats, then separated them for the side seams and hems.

It is gray and dreary here at the moment, and all of my usual dress form pictures were blurry and dark. Only the lining shot above turned out.

We are off school this week for Thanksgiving, and will be out of town with family for most of that time. Happy Thanksgiving to all my USA readers, and I'll be back again soon with a sweet little dress for Miss Rachel.