The Cadillac of Skirts

The great thing about sewing your own clothing (apart from discarding all size labels) is that when observing a garment on someone else that you like you can go off and recreate one for yourself. Which is precisely where this Grainline Moss skirt in green pleather comes from. 

For anyone who doesn't know pleather is plastic leather. Now although I'm not against the concept of leather altogether I'd rather not sew with it if it doesn't feel necessary. This fabric is and ebay purchase and is intended to be used to make car seats hence it is the Cadillac of skirts. I'll be honest when I set out to do this I really didn't know how it was going to go. When I pre-washed the fabric it felt very stiff and I was concerned it'd be like trying to make a skirt out of a cardboard box. None the the less I persisted.

Lovely Liberty Isle of Wight cotton to line the waistband.

Stitching it actually came together a lot easier than I thought it might. I used scraps of fabric for the pocket bags and the waistband facing. The fly zipper was the only place where I got in to difficulties. It's serviceable but not terribly neat but to be honest I stitched a skirt out of something intended to be used in cars; I'm gonna cut me some slack. My machine didn't particularly have any trouble handling the fabric while using a leather needle (a needle with a specific tip for piercing leather rather than one made of leather) apart from making the button hole. She did not like doing that. 

Look how terrible it is! It's not so bad from a distance though so I not gonna get bogged down in it.

As is fairly standard for the Moss skirt I added about 3" to the bottom as I don't like my skirts too short and I didn't really want the addition of an extra panel.

From a colleague to me in a slip of a needle. Ain't sewing grand?