I seem to be following a theme with my recent makes.  Staple pattern, silk fabric, black and ivory design… check, check, and check.  The upside to this theme is that it means I’m working on a coordinating handmade wardrobe. Yay! Oh yeah, and one more tick box – it’s another long-wanted item that I’m thrilled to finally add to my closet! 🙂

As soon as I saw this fabric on the Cali Fabrics website, I knew I had to have it!  I’ve wanted a classic bouclé skirt since before I knew much of anything about sewing or fabric.  And when I received it, it was even better than expected.  The description wasn’t kidding about the soft hand!  It has serious grown-up security blanket potential.  Of course, security blankets don’t exactly scream ‘fitted pencil skirt’.  Enter my good friend, cotton lawn.  A little underlining can go a long way to transform a fabric and in this case, made this beautiful bouclé an absolute dream. The combination of the bouclé and the lawn underlining gives the illusion that it is made of very substantial material, which from an outside point of view (well, my fiancé’s anyway), gives it a “high-end” look.

For the pattern, I used everyone’s favorite, Simplicity 2154. I love its classic silhouette and the double darts, front and back, for a superior fit. Aside from personal fitting adjustments, the only change I made was to substitute a contoured waistband for the pattern’s straight one.  As a “pear”, I’ve started using this band on all of my skirts to encourage them to stay put.  But to be honest, for this skirt, I wish I had stuck with the pattern’s straight band so the plaid would have flowed better with the rest of the skirt.  And speaking of the plaid, that brings me to the only downside of this fabric: my need to pattern-match every seam was really put to the test because the silk content plus the looped bouclé texture makes this some seriously shifty stuff! To help alleviate that, I hand-basted every seam, making sure to insert my needle carefully at each line. It takes a little extra time and care, but it passes quickly with a bit of television or a podcast, and it’s always worth the effort.

For the icing on the cake, or rather the filling, I selected another lovely silk habotai.  Surprisingly, this is my first time using a habotai lining or a printed lining and I can definitely see the appeal!  It’s so comfortable and such a fun feature, even if only I see it.

So basically, this is the most luxurious skirt I own and I actually felt pretty confident while wearing it. Take that, you stick-straight J.Crew No. 2s! ;P

For more construction details, or the details on my handmade top, visit my blog at msjennyhomemaker.blogspot.com