Thursday, January 3, 2013

With Every Mistake, A Lesson Learned

The pleated leather skirt is finally finished. 
When I started this blog, I vowed to document all of my projects – my successes and my failures.  This skirt certainly falls within the second category.

Where to start?  Compliment before critique right?  Ok, let’s start with what I actually liked about this project.

I LOVE the design!  The pleats turned out beautifully and give the skirt a gorgeous shape.  And let’s not forget that I learned a new pleating technique to produce those perfectly uniform little folds.  (Checking off Sewing Goal #3 for the month!)

Another perk is that I’ve realized once I re-make the skirt in a better fabric, I will actually wear it!  It sounds obvious, but I often become obsessed with fashion ideas that I’m never able to incorporate into my daily life.  I assumed this would be one of those wasted efforts.  But this skirt is fun, flirty, slightly edgy – just my style!

So, just what makes this such an epic failure?  The fabric. 
Everything that is wrong with this skirt comes down to the fact that I used a horrible fabric.  To be fair, I knew that this material was a long shot, but I let the clearance price fool me into believing I could make it work.  (Lesson learned – no matter how inexpensive, bad fabric will always be a waste of time!!)
Once I started pleating, I realized that the material was just too thick and stiff to work.  The skirt literally stands on its own!   While the rigidity makes for cute pictures, the first time I tried to sit down, it would probably stick straight up like an old-fashioned hoop skirt.  Not exactly the look one wants to achieve in a mini!

Although the actual finished product was a bust, I appreciate the experience that I gained by making this skirt.  Besides the new pleating technique, I improved on my waistband construction, and I have a great new skirt design that I can’t wait to use again!

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