Here is a skirt I made last week in San Francisco. I was inspired by a Max Mara skirt in the May Vogue Magazine, although that skirt is really more ornate than mine and is made from a more summery tweed.
I purchased the feather trim at MJ trim in NYC and also bought the matching ribbon trim. The feathers and trim are deep brown with a deep violet/purple/fuschia color. The color of the wool is much more fuschia/navy than it appears in this photo, giving the overall cast of the skirt a deeper, red-purple hue.
The feather trim came sewn to a tape which inserted between the bottom of the skirt and a hem facing. The ribbon trim is machine sewn to the skirt, anchoring he hem in place. The skirt is lined and has a petersham ribbon faced waist with no band.
My next project was not as successful. I was working with this silk fabric from EmmaOneSock.com. I have never worked with a laminated fabric like this and thought it would be an interesting project. The fabric was part of a bundle I purchased and although I think it is quite pretty there is no great emotional investment here.
I decided to use this pattern: 
which is still available from Vogue Patterns.
Everything went together well but I was just not sure I actually liked the garment. My friend Mary says it looked very good from the back but in front it looked like it just didn’t fit, almost unfinished like it was buttoned in one place because there was not enough room although I actually had lots of extra ease in the front of the garment. I was thinking that the silk was just too light. I had originally thought of lining it but had not felt like adapting the pattern to that or doing the extra work. I am not yet sure what I think, I packed it up and sent it home. We are going to Knoxville next weekend so it will be at least anothe week before I get it out and take another look. I think that I like the pattern and I like the fabric, but it was not a good marriage between the two.
Saturday is shopping day for the Power Sewers and Sandra’s husband Dan spent the day driving 9 eager shoppers around the bay area. We went to STone Mountain and Daughter in Berkley and Thai Silks in Los Altos and I purchased fabric at both places. Those packages were sent home and I will share the goodies when they arrive.
We also went to Poppy in Oakland. Poppy has great trim and great upholstery and home dec fabric and a few other unusual things. I bought a bolt of fabric to upholster the conversation pit in my living room there a couple of years ago. This time I was very moderate and only bought once piece of trim, shown below:
It is really just a piece of flat binding with buttons sewn down the center. Each button is topped with a tiny bead. I think I will use it as trim on a jacket but it also inspires me with ideas of how to use old buttons, old pieces of bias binding and many other things.