MAGAM Challenge : April Plans McCall's 3830

I've been wanting a brocade pencil skirt for a while. So this month for my challenge garment, I'm finally going to get one. I like this fabric so much, I accidentally bought it twice. So I probably have a total of 5-6 yards of this. Not sure what I'll do with the rest of it.

I'm going to line it using this "European Turned Underlining Technique" I first read about here.  I had never heard of this technique before so I did a Google search and basically every one of the few resources I found all called it something different. Anyways it underlines the garment and produces a hong kong looking finish on the seams. Seems very promising so I'm looking forward to trying that.

But first I need to make a muslin as I made a slight alteration to the pattern. I've made this pattern up before but ended up tapering it in at the bottom to produce more of a pencil look. Well I finally found the magic just the other day. I read someplace (sorry I don't remember exactly where. I'm always reading) that the bottom of a pencil skirt should be 4 inches smaller than the hip. So I took an inch off of the side seams on both the front and back pattern pieces. I'll be making a test garment before cutting my fabulous brocade. Stay tuned for pics of the test garment.

Happy sewing!