This time each year I get the craving for a houndstooth something. I’ve bought it all throughout the years, but never tire of the crisp design. This year I decided to add a twist to my houndstooth garment.
I began with a wool houndstooth I bought during my first visit to Mood Fabrics in 2011, which I planned to sew using Vogue’s 8750 skirt pattern….
and ultimately decided to have some fun with both the fabric and the pattern!
My mother recently gave me a $1 thrift store leather skirt, and I thought the houndstooth pattern would nicely combine with leather.
After studying the pattern line drawing, I made a few copies and experimented with different color blocking options before making a decision.
Following a muslin, I cut the side and back waistbands, along with the back and front side insets from leather. The remaining pieces were cut from the wool houndstooth (seen above).
It came together well but the front houndstooth panel emphasized the abs a bit too much.
Mild panic set in until I reached a solution by extending the leather across the top of the front panel.
Here is the end result. Subtle from the front…
Subtle from the back…
and bold from the side!
In case you are new to sewing with leather like me, several helpful posts about sewing with leather are available on the Mood Sewciety Blog. I was pleasantly surprised at how easily the fabrics sewed together – even around the curves. The seams were a breeze to sew but hemming was a different story. I hemmed the wool and glued the leather, even along the waistband, for a clean finish and nice result. The blogs explains that gluing leather to hold hems, facings, seams and more in place is common and accepted practice. Leather cement or rubber cement is recommended.
A longer top tones it down by covering much of the contrast…
…but why would I want to do that?
Enjoy your weekend!
