Faux leather fun for Fall

After a bunch of head scratching, pattern hacking, self-drafted projects- I decided I needed a straightforward- out of the envelope make.  For this project- I went totally auto pilot.  I liked the styling of this Cynthia Rowley Simplicity 1314 pattern view so much, I absolutely (shamelessly) copied it- down to the shoes.

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 Armed with my leftover faux leather and this pattern, I made the exact dress; exactly out of the envelope; in exactly one size; in exactly the same suggested fabric.  But there you go- I like it and I’m glad I did.

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I think this dress pattern is super flattering and the fit is perfect. I will definitely re-visit it again- perhaps with a more creative mind!

Because I made absolutely no modifications and the pattern is straightforward - all I really need to talk about is the ease of working with faux leather- if you haven’t before- and also give a shout out the fabulous quality of this particularly beautiful faux leather from Emma One Sock.

Can an imitation be better than the real deal? Faux literally means fake or imitation- not super appealing.  But, after working with this, I am a faux fan.  When I wore this dress last week, a friend asked if it was real leather.  Well-I guess that’s the goal.

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The only extra step I took was to change my sewing machine needle to a leather needle.  Other than that- everything was straight forward.  This leather has the tiniest bit of stretch so it works perfectly with the black ponte I paired it with- also from Emma One Sock.

 Similar to ponte- the faux leather does not fray and is very stable. 

I am typically careful pressing ponte- I (almost) always press on the wrong side- and use a press cloth on the right side.  This faux leather is viscose backed- so you can feel safe pressing on the back side.  And I used a press cloth on the front with the faux leather- the manufacturer notes you can use a medium heat iron on this fabric.

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My other faux leather project this month is this super simple bomber jacket.

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This jacket was meant to be fast and easy.  The jacket is unlined because the viscose back on this fabric is surprisingly comfortable.  And I didn’t need to finish the seams because the simple cut edges on the faux leather are so sharp and clean.

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Unlike the easy out-of-the envelope dress- this simple looking bomber is actually a hack of three patterns.  I had a jewel neck raglan jacket pattern– but the sleeves were too full- so I fiddled with those and modified a piece from another pattern.  Last, I used a collar and facing pattern piece from a traditional bomber pattern.  The ribbing gets five stars for really pulling this all together.

The only notable thing I did on this jacket is hand hemming.  I didn’t have enough ribbing to finish the bottom of the jacket- like a typical bomber- so I opted for a straight hem.  I experimented with topstitching on this fabric but I didn’t like how it looked.  So I attached seam binding on the hem for a little extra length- and sewed it up by hand. In the end, I really prefer this straight finish over a ribbed trim finish.

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