Pattern: Vogue 1132

Fabric: Plaid rayon/poly suiting from Denver Fabrics, still available here.

Notions: 22″ black invisible zipper (cut down to a shorter length,) nonwoven sew-in interfacing in a very light weight.

Notes: This pattern was super easy – with almost no effort the skirt made itself!  I did have a few problems starting out.  First of all, my fabric was not 60″ wide, although it wasn’t the 44 Denver fabrics is claiming either – it was actually about 54″.  The skirt pattern used almost the whole 60″, so I had to shorten it.  I did this by taking a fold where you attach the skirt extension, removing about 3 inches.  As it turns out, this skirt is pretty long, so I would have had to shorten it anyway.

This was my first time installing an invisible zipper, and it was much easier than I thought!  I watched a few videos on youtube, basted in the zip, and then went for it with my invisible zipper foot.  The Bernina zipper foot is great – it rides along the zipper track and sews a perfectly close line.  I switched to the regular zipper foot to close off the bottom, and the zipper is invisible, with no rippling.

I love long skirts – they’re dramatic, and in the winter they’re warm (I will wear a sweater over this when I’m outside!)  I had trouble figuring out how to style this.  One of my blog readers suggested a victorian style shirt – thank you so much, that’s perfect!  I have several shirts similar to this, as apparently I love frilly, faintly gothic things.  I have a long sleeved version, but it’s in the wash right now.  The belt I bought at Forever 21  (I really hate going in that store, but their belts are dirt cheap and small enough for me.)

At some point I would like to make the whole skirt suit out of a different fabric – the jacket is really cute too!  But for now this will fill the “long plaid skirt” place in my closet.  Highly recommended for beginners (just the skirt.)