The Eight Gore Skirt Revisited

Whew!, I need a break. I've been cleaning out my fabric closet today. When my mess begins to embarrass me just to look at it, it's time to clean it up (it's actually waaaay past time). As I pulled everything out and began to neatly fold it up and put it back, I thought, there has to be something better. Now, I don't know that it will be better, different for sure, but what I've decided to do is take a swatch from everything, measure it each piece, attach the measurement to the swatch and then put the swatches in a note book with double stick tape. This way I can pull them off the page and match them to other fabrics rather than pulling out the entire piece of fabric only to find out that there isn't enough or it doesn't match the way I would like for it to. At this point, I've only tackled the wools(I think I could start my own store). Once I get my notebook together, I'll let you know. It might be a while though.

What has been very interesting to me is that the post I did on drafting the 8-gore skirt has been the most visited post on my blog. Hopefully some of you have given it a try. It's really the easiest skirt to draft and the pattern lends itself to so many possibilities. Today I would like to show you an eight gore skirt of mine that is made from suede. I think it's my favorite skirt.

It looks more like a half circle skirt because of how the lace has been placed, but it's really an eight gore skirt. There are eight panels, the lace is only on four seamlines.

Once the skirt was sewn, the lace was laid over the seam and stitched down.

Once the lace was all in place, the suede was cut out, not all the way to the waistline, but up to about the hipline area.

 In this picture you see my favorite little red vintage slip. The red peeks through the cut out area and gives a real Spanish feel to the skirt. I feel a little like Carmen when I wear the red slip under the skirt (from the opera, Carmen).

I also wear a black slip under the skirt and sometimes even a white slip, just depends on my mood, or what I feel like wearing that day.
The hem of the skirt is finished off with another piece of lace.
If you've never worked with suede, it's a dream to sew. I highly recommend giving it a try. But this idea will work on a knit as well or any fabric that won't ravel.
I'll post a few more ideas in the upcoming week.
Happy Sewing.
Rhonda