McCall's 6402 - Leather + Wool black mini skirt

If you will recall, mixed material clothing was item #5 in my fall/winter must haves list. First I made the Johathan Saunders knock-off dress in leather and wool. Now I've completed my second garment in that category, a leather and wool mini skirt:

It was super bright outside when we were taking these photos!

This is my third time to use leather, and I am definitely gaining confidence with it! I was able to squeeze the pieces for this skirt out of that same skin I used for the above mentioned dress as well as the accents for this jacket. With my second black skin I plan to make some leather shorts. (Not sure if I'll get to those this winter or not.)

I liked this pattern for the interesting side pieces and the idea of doing them in leather. (Although on their example they used pleather.) I used my TNT waistband and did only minor adjustments to the muslin. This was a pretty easy garment except for the intersecting sides where the leather points all meet. THAT was no picnic. I had to use pins, people. On leather. But I only pinned in the seam allowances so none of the puncture marks show on the outside. It worked out well in the end.

I hemmed the bottom wool gabardine by hand and used some leather glue for the leather. BTW, both the leather and the wool gab were purchased from Fabricmartfabrics.com. They have excellent sales on skins from time to time and I now have a few different colors in my stash.

The back invisible zipper was no fun to put in either. This skirt is snug, and for some reason the zipper was poking out at the bottom giving me a tail bump. I'm sure you've all experienced that from time to time while putting in a zipper. I'm telling you, I could not find a solution. Easing in the fabric did not correct the problem. I thought about moving the zipper to the side seam, but could not fathom trying to get the sides to match up again with the added issues of an invisible zipper. After a few days of feeling sad every time I passed it on my dressform, I thought to take out the extra fabric in the back at the center bottom of the leather panels. (I took out 3/8" of the wool gab at the center back tapering to nothing a few inches towards the sides.) Don't ask me why this worked but the tail bump went away. AND I figured out that it can be helpful to hand baste in an invisible zipper if it is being particularly difficult.

Here is the envelope picture:

I did add a full lining in black Ambiance which I didn't take a picture of since we are having a string of overcast days. For the lining, I was able to use the back of view D, but had to use the pieces from view A for the front.

I'm very happy with this skirt. It gives textural interest to a basic black bottom pairing and is a fun trend to participate in.

Spring Vogues!

I've been stalking the Vogue website waiting anxiously for these. The posing for this set of designs is a little weird and kind of obscures the clothing in certain pictures. Is Vogue consulting with Burda now?!

V1280 - Donna Karen

Very interesting neckline and seaming details that are hard to see in this black. Donna Karen always knows how to dress the female body flatteringly.

V1281 - Donna Karen

This is another fitted Donna Karen dress with interesting neckline and draping details. The colorblocking isn't my favorite and makes the front neckline look strange to my eye. I'll probably make it in a solid color.

V1285 - Tracy Reese

What a cute little wrap dress with fun notched collar, inverted darts and sleeve bands. The description says there's a lining which must be something like a slip. 

V1286 - Tracy Reese

I love the fitted shape of this dress and all the banding. The back neckline is just gorgeous. However, that is a whole lot of boobage in the front. Which I do not have a problem with on other people, but on me, well, let's just say it won't look the same. Perhaps I can figure out a way to alter the front neckline to cover the girls a little more and allow me to wear a push up. 

V1287 - DKNY

I just adore all the pleating on this design and the fact that it's a pull-over dress. With pockets. The design is lost in that busy print they used, though, so I included the line drawing so you can see what's happening.

V1296 - Bellville Sassoon

Can I just have the whole outfit, please? WHAT a neckline! Wow!

What do you think? Anyone else excited by these new offerings?

I do have some FO to blog about if I can get moving on actually photographing them.

February Burda picks

This month's magazine has some truly awesome dresses among the offerings so I had to purchase another single issue.

Up first is tunic 108 A. It's a typical Burda design that I've seen before, but the thing that caught my eye was that little inset of contrasting fabric at the sleeve hem. It looks particularly pretty done in a shiny silk charmeuse as well.

Dress 110A I wasn't sold on until I saw it in person. It is so on trend with all the color-blocking you see these days. Plus I adore how they used the same hue for the top and the same for the bottom, but one side is shiny and the other is matte. Fabulous! I am thinking of doing it in hot pink and red or maybe red and orange.

Dress 111 is the reason I bought the magazine this month. It is a modern take on a traditional Asian style and I especially loved the black with yellow bands they made it up in. Love the neckline. Love the hemline. Love the little cap sleeves. Did I mention how much I love this dress?!

Dress 117B is another awesome design totally in line with the color-blocking trend and the neon color trend. Check out those design lines! Check out that back exposed zipper that goes from the neckline to the hemline. The only thing that gives me pause is that this dress is made for stretch jersey, and I am imagining some problems with getting the zipper to behave in such a stretchy fabric. It might need to be a doubleknit instead. Oh, and I'm not sure the seam across the left bust is going to be all that flattering. But it's an awesome dress non the less.

 Some of the little girl dresses from this issue are nice and I can see the maternity designs being very popular too. I liked the colorblocked jacket 122 but it has no shape to it and I'm not a lover of boxy jackets. I thought skirt 123B was going to be really cute but it turned out to be just a square with belt loops.

How about you - did I miss any of your absolute favorites?