Vogue 1170 Skirt

Taking a day off from knits (get ready, tomorrow is when you finally get to practice!) here’s a regular old woven skirt but I like it so much that it needs to be shared…

This pattern is one of those that remind you why you need to make a muslin (or two).

I saw someone at a sewing group who made this pattern and I fell in love. The skirt in the pattern picture is so dark that you cannot tell that the design is anything special so I passed over it in the store.

Luckily that other sewer recommended some changes like adding to the length and discarding the tiny pockets.

I made two muslin to perfect the fit. The first one I cut was a straight 14 but it was a little tight in the hips but perfect in the waist.

I also shortened the waistband as it was one wide rectangle and gaped too much.

I added three inches to the overall length and trimmed the hem with bias tape instead of the facing piece included in the pattern (honestly, after lengthening the skirt I didn’t have enough fabric left for the facing piece).

The hardest part was grading all the pieces from a size 14 at the waist to a 16 at the waist but the fit is much better.

What I love most about this skirt is the fabric. It is a poly suede with a bit of stretch in the crossgrain. It is loose and drapey which work great with this fabric. I serged all my seams and topstitched some of the seams and the hem with a twin needle (an idea I got from reading pattern reviews).

Maybe the only downside to the fabric is sometimes I get draglines depending on how I stand but I’m not going to give into the overfitting monster and try to fix that. I’m sure underlining those back and side pieces would have helped.

The only complaint I had with the pattern itself was in the cutting layouts for 45″ wide they say to lay the waistband piece on the grainline but on the 60″ wide they have it laid crossgrain which is a big difference when you have a fabric with a little stretch in the crossgrain. The pattern piece itself says to go grainline so I trusted that.

Also, the waistband piece was slightly short in length when I paired it to the skirt. I had this problem with my muslin, too, but I though I just made a mistake. I had to sew my hook an eye a little different to get it to fit.

I’ve never worked with this fabric but I love it because it is black but not so dark that you cannot see the great seaming design.

Has anyone else worked with suede or faux suede before and want to offer some tips?