Hand Smocked Faux Leather Skirt

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After I made my smocked jumper last month, I knew I couldn't let this be the end of my smocking adventure. There was something about it that was satisfying to both make and wear that I was hooked immediately, and spent the good part of an afternoon rummaging through my fabric stash, trying to determine which fabrics could pull off a bit of smocking. And then this pink PU coated scuba* remnant caught my eye. This was left over from a project* I did for Minerva last year and full disclosure, this fabric was provided to me free in exchange for that original post.

For those curious about the original project, here's a little sneak peak below - although I'm not sure if it counts as a sneak peak when I've already posted half a dozen photos of it on Instagram, but whatever, here it is in all it's glory - the No.5 One-Piece Petal Miniskirt from Drape Drape 2 by Hisako Sato.

Back to the project at hand, I had just about enough of this fabric to make another skirt, and after sketching out some ideas for smocking placement, it was time to draft a pattern. I won't go into how I did that here because I didn't take any photos of the process, but it was a relatively simply one to construct. The skirt consists of two front pieces - a smocked under layer and a flat over layer cut diagonally, as well as two basic back pieces, a front facing and two back facings. It closes with an invisible zipper down the centre back seam.

I made a little smock test square to check the sizing and whether I liked the look of this smocking style on this particular fabric (I did). By my calculations, this smocking seems to shrink the fabric down to roughly half its original width, meaning that when I was drafting out my skirt under layer (the portion to be smocked) I had to make sure the pattern was at least double that of my desired finished width. Because I was smocking side to side rather than up-down, the overall length wasn't affected by the smocking, so I didn't need to allow any extra fabric lengthwise.

With my pattern sorted, it was time to cut out the fabric and get sewing. Working with remnants can often feel like a game a tetris trying to get all the different pattern pieces to fit, but I made it work after a reasonable amount of fitting. In terms of sewing, I decided to start off with the smocking, just so I could make sure everything was going to fit the way I thought it would. This technique is entirely handsewn, so if you're not a fan of hand sewing, especially hand sewing through faux-leather, this probably won't be for you! I actually really enjoy hand sewing - it's a good excuse to relax and watch something, or in this case, sit in the garden and bask in the sunshine for an hour or two, without feeling guilty about not being productive enough.

Before I could start sewing though, I needed a grid to show what went where. I marked a 1" grid by pencil on the wrong side of my fabric - I've realised that the most effective and accurate way to do this is to use/make your own grid template - I traced over the inch squares on my cutting board using baking paper, stuck a pin through each intersection to make a pencil lead sized hole, lay it over the fabric, then penciled on the markings.

I know pencil isn't exactly the most "couture" tool to be using, but honestly, it's so much less of a phaff than chalk, which is just going to smudge off with a fabric like this. I'm hoping to get a smocking tutorial to you soon, so I won't go into the how-to's here - this definitely isn't something I can explain without pictures I didn't take for this.

So moving on, with the smocking complete, it was time to start sewing the pieces together. When using leather, faux leather, or any kind of PU coated material, you really want to be using a leather needle on your sewing machine. Anything else is likely either going to break or else make some really dodgy stitching. Unlike most materials, every single needle or pin hole is going to permanently puncture the fabric, so you want to use clips rather than pins to hold your fabric together before sewing, and when it comes to actually machine sewing, you want to take it quite slow to avoid making any mistakes and needing to unpick your stitching.

If you're working with a new pattern, I'd definitely recommend making a mock up before using your good fabric - you want to avoid the need for fitting/alterations on your leather type fabric, as any seams you need to take out are going to show on the final garment. I didn't exactly practice what I'm preaching here as I didn't bother with a mock up, but I was reasonably confident with my pattern and feeling lazy that day. Also, this fabric is stretchy, which does help when it comes to fitting a pattern that would otherwise be too small, since it can just stretch into shape. But actually, the skirt ended up fitting pretty well without needing to rely too much on its elasticity, so that was a plus.

Final thoughts, I couldn't be more pleased with how this turned out. There are a couple of imperfections in the sewing -  I managed to stretch out the waist seam when sewing on the facing, which made the skirt less snug on the waist then I'd like, and the invisible zip ended up a little bit wonky, but honestly, I'm so happy with the overall effect that these issues don't really bother me.

I apologise in advance if this blog just turns into an ode to smocking because I really do feel the addiction taking its hold over me. Especially in this smooth and springy fabric, it creates a really unusual texture that is so satisfying to the touch and really interesting to look at and I need so much more of it in my life. I feel like I need to do all the smockings now. There are just so many amazing patterns out there, and so far I've only really got to grips with one - this style is done the same way as the honeycomb smocking that I used on my jumper, just done on the other side of the fabric. So yeah, really happy with this one, and very much looking forward to experimenting with this technique more in the near future!