Black Faux Suede Midi Skirt

I’ve been feeling like trying out some skirts lately and introducing a couple more into my wardrobe. Since the post about my black trousers, I’ve also been interested in adding small amounts of black into my wardrobe. So, enter my latest make a black faux suede midi skirt (maybe a bit longer than a midi…midaxi perhaps?).

I discovered this skirt pattern when I was browsing Instagram. I came across a new-to-me Instagrammer called Tina (@twilly.by.tina). She’s a German sewist with a cool, casual style, and on her grid, I saw her wearing the Sleekwich skirt in faux suede. Sleekwich is by a German designer who goes by the name of Frau Marzi. I was instantly intrigued by the pattern, which is designed for leather or faux leather but works well in most mid-weight fabrics with a little stretch.

I ordered the e-book of the skirt pattern, which is only available in German. I didn’t find that a problem, though, because Google Translate rapidly became my best friend 🙂 . This method worked really well, and I soon deciphered the instructions.

Finding the correct weight of faux suede was a bit trickier, and I ended up ordering this black fabric from Minerva. When it came, I realised it wasn’t as sturdy as I had hoped for, though it’s still a nice quality. My solution was to add a stretchy knit jersey lining for added body, and this proved a good move because the wrong side of the fabric would have stuck to any socks or hosiery.

The skirt’s made of three horizontal panels, there are two hip pockets, and the waistline is finished with decorative elastic. You create the pockets first on the top front panel, and after that, you stitch the horizontal seams, topstitch them and then sew the sides afterwards. The elastic goes on last.

Making a lining, of course, added an extra step to the whole process. I cut my own pattern, which is basically an ‘A’ line shape cut out by simply laying the finished skirt shape onto my lining fabric and drawing around it. Easy peasy!

By the way, this faux suede doesn’t fray at all, so I didn’t need to neaten any seam allowances and the hem is simply cut around very neatly and left raw.

My fancy elastic is an Aliexpress purchase. It’s of nice quality, but not quite as firm in its stretchiness as I wanted. It came in a 2m length, so I simply cut two pieces and sandwiched the skirt and lining between the two. It’s zig-zag stitched in place. The double layer makes a big difference.

I really like my new make, and I like this sweater/boot combination, but I’ll be honest and say that, as someone who doesn’t tend to wear skirts much, I need to work on creating more outfits and think about shoe combinations. I’m also still working out what length of skirt I like best to suit my body proportions. Ooh, which reminds me, I forgot to say what size I made up. This skirt is a size 38, and I added 1cm in length to each panel. I’m about 5’31/2″, and my hips are 38″. (I just realised that I always think of height in feet and inches, yet I use metric measurements for fabric lengths…confused much? Lol!)

Thanks for reading! I still have two new makes to feature in a post before the year is out, and then I’m doing the obligatory recap post in the new year 🙂

Hope you’ll stop by next time, till then…See you soon!