After my Givre dress, let me introduce my version of the Azara skirt, the second pattern of the new Deer&Doe collection, which I sewed shortly after the release.

Azara is a midi skirt fitted from the waist to the hips and flaring slightly from the hips down, thanks to angled style lines on the front and back of the skirt which replace darts. The pattern contains two variations: one buttoned in the front, and another one with an invisible zipper in the back. I’m a big fan of buttoned skirts so I went with this one.

The fabric is a cotton lawn named “Cachette” from Atelier Brunette, which I got from Jones & Vandermeer. I was afraid at first I would get tired of the pattern, since it was everywhere on the French sewing blogosphere a while ago, but I’ve found that it works really well on a midi skirt: the combination of the small scale, black background, and the length of the skirt gives it a bit of the 90’s look that I’m very much into.

Speaking of midi length, I wanted to show what the skirt looked like “in real life”, where I wear it with flats. Though I love heels and I think that the styling is super flattering on the shop’s pictures, I only wear ballet flats in my day-to-day life, because one I work from home and comfort is king, and two when I wear heels I’m taller than my husband and that annoys me (I know, I know, it’s silly). Anyway I find that this skirt length is still really elegant worn with flats, and this is actually one of my favorite skirt lengths on me (I still wear my midi-length Burda skirt really often!).

This pattern is recommended for intermediate sewers (level 4/5), mainly due to the piecing on the front that requires precision and patience. It’s not actually this hard to assemble: each half-front is sewed in two steps, so there’s no need to notch and turn with the needle down, and the corners are reinforced with interfacing so the fabric doesn’t fray. What requires patience, in reality, is that this project is on the longer side, with the piecing on the front, back, plus the lining.

However if you like beautiful finishing touches, you’ll enjoy this: I usually love basting and using old-school “couture” techniques, so I had a blast with this one, from the hand-stitched hem to the twill tape used to reinforce the waistband.

For a lighter and/or quicker skirt, you can skip the lining, but that was out of question for me for a lawn skirt. With this fabric opacity wasn’t an issue, but it was too thin for me to stay unlined: I don’t like very lightweight bottoms that feel like you’re not wearing anything. I made the lining out of Bemberg (= cupro rayon), which has the added advantage of avoiding static. And personally, I love lined skirts. I know a lot of people feel that they’re overkill (and actually several of the reviewers for Azara chose to skip the lining) but for me they’re well worth the effort and time: they’re more comfortable, soft, they slide on the legs, the inside looks super neat and it just feels so luxurious to wear that it makes me proud of making my clothes!

That’s it for now on the new collection! I had also made a Bleuet dress during the testing phase, the one with the cap sleeves, but it had some fit issues (that have been fixed since! the whole point of testing after all) so I won’t be showing it here. Let me just tell you that I had made it out of an Andover Fabrics chambray and that this fabric was just perfect for the pattern, but you’ll just have to take my word for it 😉


Azara Skirt
Azara – Deer&Doe
Size 36 1/2 – 38 1/2
Atelier Brunette Lawn – Jones & Vandermeer
Bemberg Lining – Fabric.com

Sewing

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