Burda 03-2011-122: tropical wool pencil skirt with pleats

Sorry for the recent radio silence: last month my husband found a job in the same town I work in and we are in the throes of buying our first home.  What an undertaking.  I found the offer contract confusing, the negotiation process stressful, and the post-inspection bartering antagonistic.  And I'm an attorney. 

Really, I'm thrilled, as the quality of my regular and sewing life will improve ten fold with this move: my commute will drop from over an hour each way to ten minutes (more sewing time!), I will finally have a dishwasher (more sewing time!), a washer/dryer (easy preshinking!), and a dedicated sewing room (self-explanatory).  The appraisal was yesterday, and now we are waiting to set a closing date with the mortgage lender.  So if my posting is a little spotty over the rest of the summer, my apologies ahead of time.

While I've been away for a few weeks, I have the most exciting project to show you (are you getting my e-sarcasm?): a beige pencil skirt.  Wah wah.  It is a terribly boring garment, but as well all know, these utilitarian pieces are wear twice-a-week, wardrobe staples.

The pattern is from the Burda March 2011 issue.  The pleats in place of darts add a bit of interest beyond the usual pencil skirt.

I wore the skirt to work yesterday with a JCrew knit cardigan and S2599,

one of my favorite homespun pieces.  The glasses are the Japhy by Warby Parker.

Burda 3-2011-122

Pleats aren't always a hippy girl's best friend: I sewed this in a size 40, with a 3/4" seam allowance, because the pleats gaped slightly on my size 38 muslin.

The fabric is a lightweight tropical wool with a bit of stretch purchased at Paron's Annex on my recent trip to the Garment District.  I picked this fabric for trouses, but was able to make this skirt with the fabric as Paron's generously gave me at least an extra yard  - perhaps more - gratis becaues it was the end of the bolt. 

I'm proud of the finishing I did on this garment: following instructions in Marcy Titlton's Easy Guide to Sewing Skirts, I added a French vent in place of the slit (which I've read don't hold up well). 

After basting the lining to the skirt wrong sides together, but before attaching the waistband, I flipped the skirt inside out and used the zipper foot to attach the lining to the seam allowance around the invisible zipper. 

I stitched-in-the-ditch to attach the waistband, and for the first time ever uniformly caught the waistband on the inside.

I'm officially a Burda devotee: this skirt solved a long-standing issue I've had with the Big 4 patterns: skirt dumpy butt (such an elegant description, no?).   Have you experienced this?  I feel that the backs of the Big 4 skirt patterns are shaped too wide, and don't curve in to hug a woman's shape.  But this Burda skirt cuts in under the bum and mimics RTW skirts in a way that the Big 4 don't.  Burda, j'taime.  Thank you to you readers who suggested that I move on to Burda.  I'm so glad that I did.