Alright, so in my last small post about this jacket, I alluded to the fact that this project was on a deadline. I was contacted by organiccottonplus.com a little over a month ago and asked if I wanted free fabric in return for a fair and honest review of their product (and they wanted a review within a month, hence the deadline). Count me in, hello! Who doesn’t want free fabric? After looking at their offerings, I decided on probably the most boring piece imaginable. A simple navy blue cotton sateen. It wasn’t for lack of their offerings, but I had my heart set on either another pair of pants or a jacket and since the jacket won out in my head, I went with navy blue, though admittedly the pink and green were seriously calling my name. But as someone who doesn’t have very many jackets, I thought I should go conservative and easy to wear and pair since I tend to make fabric purchases based on the eye candy quality instead of actual reality quality. Yup, I’ve got a mountain of fabric with frosting written all over it.

So I asked for enough fabric (and a little extra just in case) for this jacket and set to work getting the pattern ready for when the fabric arrived. Admittedly when the fabric did arrive (very quick shipping by the way) I found that this cotton sateen was a little on the thin side – at least that’s what I thought at the time. I forged on. I wanted this jacket specifically for spring and early summer and after I started getting the jacket put together, I found that the fabric did just fine and really is the perfect weight for my spring time fancy. The key thing to keep in mind I think, with jackets and coats is the layering factor. You sometimes have several layers in different areas, not to mention interfacing, shoulder pads, sleeve heads and lining. So when all was said and done, this is seriously, the perfect jacket for spring and early summer. Not too lightweight and not too heavyweight.

The fabric itself is quite soft, something I’ve actually noticed about organic fabrics in general. It takes shaping quite well – though I didn’t go to the trouble of hand tailoring this jacket, just fusibles which I think fares better anyway on fabric with a smooth face and makes for better collar popping and I’m nothing if not a notable collar popper. It also fuses wonderfully to fusible interfacing (I used this from Fashion Sewing Supply) which is a problem I’ve been encountering with a lot of fusible interfacing lately, even the good stuff. This fabric is also made with sustainability in mind. This friends, is becoming increasingly more important to me these days. Have to say, I give this fabric my full endorsement! Seriously good stuff here. Additionally, I want to point out that they have not only cotton sateen (is it weird to anyone else how hard this is becoming to find?) but cotton twills and 100% cotton batiste – this is the gold mine right here. Batiste!!!! It’s hard enough to find the cotton/poly crap these days, but actual 100% cotton batiste is like, next to impossible to get your hands on. Ask me how I know! They’ve also got some pretty great cotton prints and knits – KNITS! Wait, there’s more. Check out these laces – pretty right? And these fabrics are quite reasonably priced for being organic too. Just sayin, this is kind of a little goldmine of an online fabric shop for cottons. Go ahead, treat yourself to a little organic goodness today.

Let’s see, what else. Let me give you a few more details on the jacket now. I lined the body in rayon bemberg and then lined the sleeve in a contrasting silk charmeuse – y’all know this is a favorite trick of mine. Adds a touch of luxury and its seriously luxurious to have silk charmeuse rubbing my arms. Feels like I finally hit nirvana or something – Oh! warm chill just thinking about it!

Picked out the buttons myself – I’m a terrible button picker and its something I always dread. I’ve made really bad button choices before, but these, these are just right for me. I’m pretty happy with the fit overall and the rub-off worked pretty well. I need to do little work on the sleeve – I think its off grain for one and I need to add just a touch of ease to the sleeve cap because its pulling a little strangely at the underarm.

A bit off the beaten path but I’m teaching private lessons to a lady who wants to make a tailored jacket and so I told her it might be fun if we did two jackets, one traditionally hand tailored and the other fusibly tailored. I’ll be making my own jackets with her and I thought you all might find it interesting to watch the progress and see how it works. You guys up for some tailoring posts? Like from the very beginning? Like the whys and wheres and whats and seeing how the two methods differ side by side? There are many great tailoring posts from other bloggers out there, but it might be fun to see these two methods side by side and why you might pick one over the other for a particular project.

By the way, I finished this jacket last week and have been wearing it like everyday since. Its sooooooooooo weird to me how easy it is to just throw this thing on and look great. A+ for jackets. Many more are going to be popping up around here. Just sayin.

Peace out friends – jacket envy, anyone?

I’ve been working on a rub-off of my mom’s old 70s boyfriend jacket. Its a jacket that I wore to death in my high school and early college years and its one of those styles that for me, is a classic. It fills a huge gap in my wardrobe as I have next to no jackets. In fact, I have but one jacket that is really wearable – another future rub-off. Anyway, I’ve always had this thing for this jacket (in fact this is not the first time I’ve posted about it). I’ve kept it after all of these years because for one thing it was my mom’s and its something that my dad gave to her when they were dating way back when and for another its authentic. It’s construction elements are definitely nothing to write home about and the cut and style are actually rather simple. As someone who is often prone to make fashion choices based on frilly and froofy details, this is significant.

I haven’t had a lot of time on my hands these days but this project got pushed to the top of the pile because of an impending deadline (more on that in a later post). For awhile there, I was dreading the idea of making this jacket, because well, its a jacket and jackets are full of pattern pieces and choices in interfacing and where to put interfacing and what to interface and shoulder pads and bound buttonholes and pockets and ….. I think you get the idea. Its a big time commitment to commit to a jacket. I mean, I love tailoring and fashioning the tailoring needs of a jacket to the needs of my life, but its that time thing. So this time, I said no to welt pockets (I had visions of putting them on the inside) and bound buttonholes and I said a resounding yes to fusible interfacing. Seems like such a small thing, but it was a big deal to me. Sometimes good enough really is, good enough. And to add to that, sometimes it determines whether or not a project actually gets made or just sits in a pile gathering dust as I run around longing for time to delve into making it. Do you ever feel like this? Maybe breaking the cycle of sewing procrastination is about chopping out a few details in that big project and actually feeling fine and good about it. (Note: I haven’t actually finished the jacket here, its still a work in progress – just showing you some mid process pics. The lapel is black because the interfacing is black. The finished jacket will be a simple navy blue.)

Speaking of the actual rub-off, this is only the second item I’ve rubbed off. It’s a rather large project to be doing at such a stage, but I felt that since the jacket was fairly simple and since I’ve sewn for a long time and I felt like I knew what I was doing, it would be fine. Surprisingly, it has been just fine – a few mishaps along the way but nothing that isn’t fixable. The original jacket is too small for me in the….. you guessed it – upper back and shoulder/arm area. So, using the original jacket as a muslin I fixed the problem in my rubbed off version. It’s still due for a little tweaking in the sleeve, but otherwise, I’m thrilled with the fit! I opted to draft my own lining pattern as the original lining doesn’t address the back vent as I would like to.

Also, today I’m announcing the winner to the Japanese Pattern Book Giveaway! LM – they are yours! Here was the winning comment. I’ve emailed the winner, but now its all official, right?

LM – I would LOVE to win them! besides the fact that I never win anything I have always wanted to try out one of those fancy patterns…they seem airy and floaty. Anyway, I’d love them and i appreciate your generosity!

Thanks to everyone for entering! Y’all are the best!

If you’ve read me for any length of time, you’ll know that I don’t make wearable muslins. In fact, I daresay I have never made one. This time round though, I did. The interesting part about this classic button-up shirt is that the muslining part was more for the construction than for the fit. I used this awesome tutorial from MimiG (do you read her? you totally should) about using the measurements from a RTW item to make the fitting adjustments for a sewing pattern. What’s even more interesting is that I actually own a RTW button-up shirt that I can actually take measurements from. I don’t usually wear button-ups because my broad upper back makes finding RTW button-up shirts seem pretty much impossible. If it fits in the upper back and arms, then its drowning me in the waist or if it fits in the waist I can’t put my arms out in front of me to, like, drive a car. You know, usual story. As you can clearly see here though, we’ve got the arms in front of me pretty good.

This is Simplicity 2339 – first time I’ve used one of those simply Amazing Fit patterns. I’m pretty impressed with this pattern, have to say. Its your standard button up beauty which actually includes a button placket, cuff and collar stand. The only thing it does not include is the sleeve placket or tower placket, as I’ve also heard it called. Lucky for me, there was a recent Threads article on just this thing, including a pattern for one of them so for my next version, I’ll be adding it (which by the way, is almost finished!). These Amazing Fit patterns are pretty cool. This one in particular has different bust sizes and I love the dart shaping (you have the option to eliminate the vertical dart in the back and front too to make a more classic look – silk shirt here I come!) and like I said in my last post about pants resources I’ve had really great luck with helping others with various body types fit into the pants from this particular line.

Confession time: I’m now a different size on top. I was a 34″ upper bust for a long time and now, wouldn’t you know I’m a 36″. (Note: I have not suddenly done anything cosmetically or other for this to happen, it just did) Crazy thing is I’m not any bigger anywhere else. Waist and hip stayed the same. Still, I thought I would point it out. This is now the second time that I can remember (there are loads of times I can’t remember from teenage years) of changing sizes. Fresh out of college and on the brink of starvation I was a pattern size 10 in the bust (Big 4) then I moved into a 12 bust for some years and now I’m a straight up 14. Also, since I have the broad upper back thing, I went with the straight size 14 instead of sizing down for ease – this really really helped that. I actually didn’t have to make my broad upper back alteration and am happy that the shirt is fitting quite well. Still need to tweak just a bit for the broad upper back thing (does it ever end?) but this shirt is totally wearable.

Oddly enough, this is one of the harder things I’ve sewn. I remember when I was in my teens and I was way into sewing in high school and my mom told me that my aunt had made a classic shirt before – this defined her skill as a sewer because you know, this kind of stuff is the big time. Peter might make this look easy as pie (I’m pretty sure he should be teaching a Craftsy or Creativebug course on shirtmaking and all of the different ways you can construct this baby), but I can tell you putting that stupid collar and collar stand together and then attaching it to the shirt is like precision sewing at its finest. Welt freaking pockets are easier than that! Bound buttonholes are easier! I’m sure it will be a miracle if I can do a sleeve placket. The cuffs only took me the better part of 2 hours.

All this to say that my sewing on this first jaunt is definitely not up to par. Hence wearable muslin status. There are many mistakes on this shirt – the collar stand extends out beyond the shirt front, the button placket was put on backwards, I didn’t do flat fells (just serged that stuff, ha!) and even though my machine does fantastic buttonholes, this time round we did some serious fighting. I even inadvertently put the buttonholes on the men’s side of the shirt and its really rather hard to button up and unbutton (you know for those steamy moments – Valentine’s is just around the corner….) Definitely not my best, but I’m actually OK with this.

I have a bit of a tweak or two to do to the pattern – still battling a little with the broad upper back. Usually it does take about 2 or 3 tries to get the tweaks out of a pattern for me – is that the same with you? Do you make wearable muslins? What about wearable muslins only for the construction aspect?

In other news, January has been kind of a wash of glumliness (my own word, thank you). We’ve had sooooo much snow and cold weather here in SLC, Utah and what’s worse is that I haven’t actually seen blue sky and sunshine for over a month. I hate that! It gets me feeling down and dumpy, but I’m going to be OK, I guess. Groundhog Day is tomorrow and if there’s one thing that I absolutely love, its Groundhog Day! Such a silly day, but so completely up my alley of ridiculousness! Phil better predict warm weather or I’ll have his hide (which by the way, did I mention that I’ve acquired 4 beautifully wonderful lambskin hides for the Cordova?????). Also, my hair is awesome. Wait, let me say that again – My hair is awesome! It takes about 5 seconds to do everyday and actually, I could probably just skip the hair dryer for good. Oh and if you are dying to know, my skirt is from J.crew (bad bad girl am I, but its THE perfect color), my tights are old Anthropologie and my booties are terribly terribly comfortable and they are from Payless. Yup, that’s right, I said Payless – Christian Siriano anyone?

Here’s a quick and dirty fact list for you:

Pattern: Burda 7447
Fabric: Red Wool Gabardine, from Yellow Bird Fabrics
Lining: Deep Purple Rayon Bemberg Lining (Yellow Bird Fabrics)
Facings & Pockets: Plaid Cotton Voile (Yellow Bird Fabrics)
Pattern Changes: Cropped the length and this time added a button flap to the right back pocket

I love these pants. Actually, I just love pants. I now have 4 pairs of pants in my closet and I can’t even begin to tell you how nice it is to be filling that hole. I’ve already worn my coral pair several times and each time I just keep thinking, “Gosh, I just love pants!” I know, I’m silly. Whatevs. I’m loving this pants journey quite a bit.

Wanna talk shop for a minute? Alright. These pants ended up being snugger than my coral wool crepe pair. Why is that? Well, the weave of the fabric is tighter and so overall, this pair just ends up holding its shape better. I thought you might find that interesting only because these are the exact same pair and they almost look like I purposefully took them in when I didn’t. Still, they’re totally comfortable.

If you’re looking to make yourself several pairs of pants, in wool no less, and want to line them and they have a fly front, then you can not live without this book. Easy Guide to Linings is definitely one of those books that I can say without any reservation every garment sewer should have. I can’t even tell you the amount of questions I get about lining garments – this book solves all those problems. You want to know different and better ways to line a garment, get this book. It’s the definitive reference on the subject and it doesn’t disappoint. I use it ALL the time!

I added that little pocket flap to one of the pockets in the back – pretty cute right? Also, I used a cotton voile in the pockets and waistband facing. This made the pocket not peek out like they do in my coral pair. Also topstitched the pocket in place too, so that helps. There is one more thing that I need to fix on this pants pattern and from there I think I’ve got a perfect TNT pattern. I have at least one more pair planned for this season – one in grey – and possibly one in green. We’ll see. Also, just in case you were interested, this is that same top from this post – I wear this thing all the time. Its so ridiculously easy to draft and make – you guys want a tutorial?

I was also thinking about putting together a resource list for everyone on where to find the best information for fitting and constructing pants. Would y’all be interested in that sort of thing? Knowing really is half the battle and sometimes its a matter of knowing where to look for info.

In haircut news, I’m LOVING LOVING LOVING my new do. Thanks so much for all your of sweet comments about my hair and about my personal style journey – there were some really really wonderful comments on that front.

Well, that’s a wrap! Do you lust after brightly colored pants? I did for so long and now, look! I’ve got 2 pairs! Yay!

Here is my first project of 2013. Pants. Told ya! To boot, I made these pants to go specifically with this top. Kind of a random choice because its not like this top is a NWG or anything. But I love this color combo (marroon and coral) and ever since purchasing this wool from Wool House at the American Sewing Expo last September (I totally understand if. you’re. jealous!), I’ve been scheming as to what the wool would eventually be. When a lady I work with gave me this little maroon wool sweater, it cinched the deal. Coral wool pants. You can call me crazy, but seriously what beats these babies?

I’m pretty ashamed that I haven’t sewn more pants. Seriously, pants are truly something that I love wearing and am always thinking that I need to make and yet, I never do. So I feel that I’ve started this year off on the right foot with my first pair of pants in a quite some time (like since my pj pants from last year, ha). What’s that? You want details? Of course you do! This is BurdaStyle 7447 which is an envelope pattern. And don’t get me started on how I’m completely confused as to the fact that there are BurdaStyle downloadable patterns without seam allowances and BurdaStyle magazine patterns without seam allowances and yet the envelope patterns have seam allowances but seem to be owned by Simplicity….? Whatevs. This pattern is impeccably drafted and I think would work for a variety of different shapes.

They are a basic trouser and I made very few alterations to them. I added a little length to the crotch depth and took them in a smidge from the waist to the knee, but otherwise, these didn’t require very much tweaking. I’m seriously impressed with the fit myself as usually I have a pretty hard time with Butterick/McCalls/Vogue/Simplicity pants patterns. The back looks fabulous as does the front and side and I’m terribly terribly happy with this pattern. There’s a couple more tweaks I plan to make to the pattern for the next time around, which is going to be quite soon as I already have the next pair cut and ready to sew but otherwise, I’m a pretty happy camper.

These pants are fully lined, which is harder than you might think with a fly front. Going to work on perfecting that for my next go around and I made the mistake of not putting in a better pocket lining fabric (like pocketing) for the pocket lining and engineering a better pocket in general. So the pocket lining inevitably peeks out a bit and since I used a lighter colored lining than the fabric, well, its doesn’t look as professional as it could. No matter. They will still get worn and worn to death!

I used Stitches&Seams absolutely AWESOME fly zipper insertion tutorial. Seriously friends, you can’t improve on this rather foolproof way of putting in a fly zip. The tutorial is very clear and concise and hands down one of the easiest zipper insertions in a fly, I’ve ever done. I mean, doesn’t my fly look pretty professional? Very flat and doesn’t pull or distort weird in any place.

I chopped the length off because I wanted a more cropped style pant and I omitted the carriers this time around, but will probably opt for them next time. The welt pockets in the back need to come down about an inch but otherwise, I’ve got myself a pretty good trouser pattern. Its definitely going to be a year of pants people! I’ve decided that I’m moving onto the Sewaholic’s Thurlow pattern next and after that, I’m going to revisit my Clover pattern. Are y’all ready for a pants journey with me?

And for what’s its worth, cause it might be worth alot, this is what the pants look like after I wore them for a day too. The lining really helps the pants to resist wrinkling (and wrinkling isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but you know). They are incredibly comfortable too, which is exactly why I have to have another pair, poste haste.

Drum roll please. Here it is! The COAT! The finished coat and its on my man and he loves it. It’s a pretty handsome coat, if I do say so myself. We were able to get outside yesterday and snap a few photos and lookey here, it even snowed so the backdrop couldn’t have been more perfect. The coat itself has been finished since last Tuesday. Shawn has been able to wear it a few times and he said that its a really nice and warm coat. He says he feels good in it. Its a close fit and keeps the cold out. He loves the pocket placement, he loves being able to sink his hands right down into the front of the coat comfortably and he says the inside pockets are wonderful. He’s pretty impressed with the hood and though at first he didn’t really like the aesthetic of being able to tighten it up, ultimately he’s really glad I included it because it really keeps the heat trapped inside. Though my mister likes to look good, he likes functionality even more and he’s definitely one of those types that would purchase 7 of the same suit, that looked good on him, and wear the same thing every day of the week because he doesn’t want to be bothered with thinking about stuff like that.

This is the hardest thing I’ve ever made to date – beats the sofa slipcover by a landslide. The slipcover was only hard because it was sooooo big. This coat was different. I could talk til I’m blue in the face about tailoring techniques and how much I’ve learned about them and read about them, but actually employing them on a jacket or coat is a completely different story. I used several tailoring techniques on this coat – stabilized the center back seam, shoulder, front facing and zipper area, created a back stay, added shoulder pads, interlined the lining, added welt pockets, and stabilized the hem on both the coat and the sleeve. I used fusible interfacing instead of a sew-in and really really learned my lesson on testing interfacing on the actual cloth before sewing it together because after I had sewn several interfaced parts together, I found that the interfacing didn’t really like to adhere to the fabric very well. Unfortunately it seemed more due to the fabric itself as I tried several high quality interfacings and all kept peeling off after a bit. Still, I trudged on.

I’m actually really surprised that I finished the coat, to be honest. It’s a direct result of that crafty monogamy soapbox I got on awhile ago. That seriously works. Like, really. I was absolutely determined not to let my attention divert to another project and I’ve found that it really, truly increases sewing productivity. I think I just found my New Year’s Resolution!

As a round-up, I decided that it would be helpful if I included all the posts that I’ve written on a project in the final project’s post. So here’s a handy dandy reference to all the posts on this coat, in order of course:
● New Project: Winter Coat for My Man
● Winter Coat for My Man: the Muslins
● Winter Coat for My Man: Progress
● Winter Coat for My Man: the Home Stretch

What do y’all think? Like it? Ever made anything for your significant other?

I’m sure that you can already sense that in the next photo session of this coat, Mr. S will be wearing it. We are that close. What’s more, I haven’t started a new project – well, alright, I’ll level with you. I did do the muslin for the pants for this pattern, but have yet to do anything else for them, including making the alterations to the pattern itself. Yes. I kept my word and did not start another thing. I’ve definitely been dreaming about new things, so I got a notebook to write them down in. Are you proud of me, or what? It has been really really hard, but crazy enough, my sewing room has stayed tidier and more organized though it still did get pretty messy whilst sewing the coat – but only with coat stuff. Totally normal as sewing is messy, right?

Today I thought I would explain a few things about the coat and give you inside shots of well, the inside. I die. It’s gorgeous. First things first. The toggles. were. a. nightmare. to. attach. Grrrrhhhh! Of course I did it after putting the entire coat shell together, so yeah, the stitching is not perfect, but you know what, I let it go. My perfectionist didn’t have it in her, plus I did just read a very good quote on perfectionism: “Perfectionists pave the road to hell working with grains of sand.” So, there’s that, of course. In addition, I would like to add something about my mister and his predilection to give me a run for my money. After we had exhaustively discussed the fabric, lining, blah blah blah and after I had constructed the front and back bodice pieces of the coat shell, it was at this time that he told me to just, “add some color to the outside of this thing, will ya?” Do I even need to say anything else? Sigh…..so then I added the flashes of yellow in the buttonholes, to which he added, “I like it, but I wanted purple.” I told Leena, a lady I work with about this and of course she had a piece of purple ultrasuede (she has everything you could ever want!!!!). Well, Mr. S says its dark violet, but he likes it. This is why the toggle patches are purple or violet or I mean, dark violet. Pimp, am I right?

We may now proceed to the inside of which I controlled everything and learned my lesson on asking for opinions from a certain someone…. Ahem. Are you ready for this? I found out after I had constructed the outer shell, that the wool was a bit on the thinner wool coating side so I interlined the lining. If you don’t know, interlining is combining layers of fabric so that they act as one, the exact same thing as underlining, but in the case of interlining, this is done soley to provide warmth to the garment. Underlining is done to provide the garment with more structure, body or opacity. I combined three layers here – lining, lambswool and flannel. At first it was just going to be flannel, but then the flannel I purchased was cheap and thin and so I added the lambswool in between the lining and flannel and now its like wearing magma. Yup. Mr. S said he was banking on this thing being warm and warm it will be. So there you have the lining.

From there, let’s have a chat about the lining I used. I’ve seen this type of thing in RTW and I’ve been dying to copy it – using a contrasting lining in the sleeve. For the body I used a lovely lovely and heavy rayon crepe back satin that I found whilst lurking over at Fashion Fabrics Club several months ago. It’s a perfect weight for a coat and such a great fiber content and it was seriously so amazingly easy to work with and use. LOVE this fabric! For the sleeve, I used a grey silk charmeuse from Yellow Bird Fabrics. Doesn’t it look great? It’s totally lush to wear too. I tried it on which is how I know. I really really love this idea because, as you might have guessed, this really cuts down on the cost of the lining of the coat (I mean instead of lining the whole thing in silk charmeuse, you know), yet still adds luxury and an element of style to an otherwise boring black lining. The rayon was only like $5 a yard and then of course, there’s the silk charmeuse, but you really only need the length of a sleeve – like 3/4 – 1 yard and Voila! Instant stylish lining. Think of using leftover silk pieces! Pretty spiffy, eh? In case you were interested, this is my first time bagging a lining on a coat/jacket and I used Jen’s tutorial which is pretty much brilliant. She’s such a genius! Love! I need to edit the sleeves a little bit here, but other than that, the lining is A, OK.

Mr. S insisted on inner pockets and so the only thing to be done was welts. Totally took some of that flannel from the interlining for the welts and then created the welt pocket. The japanese book also supplied the pattern for these and they came out just great though I totally made up the directions as I went along. Not too shabby, right?

What else can I tell you? The flap part around the chin came with the pattern. I’m not exactly sure what to call it, but it keeps the hood up, I guess and all in all, it actually looks kind of cool, right? Well, I think it looks cool. All in all, that pretty much wraps up the coat. I’ll share more about how I feel about the whole thing in my next post. What do you think?

My hands hurt, btw, because there was still a lot of hand sewing even though I did a huge chunk of it all by machine.
Off to find the IBprofen,
Sunni

I thought I would give you all a sneaky peak of what’s happening with the coat these days. It’s pretty crazy that I’ve made it thus far, well I think its pretty crazy. Do you ever find yourself making something that you never really thought you would make? I don’t know why, but that’s kind of how I feel about this coat. Not in a bad way or anything, just thinking out loud a bit. Anyway, after several rounds of Bridget Jones’s Diary, Groundhog Day, Lord of the Rings Trilogy and North & South I have a shell constructed (and yes, I totally watch movies when I’m sewing).

This coat has not been without its trials either. The bad first. Even after two muslins, this coat was a little tight in the hip area after putting the shell together without the sleeves. I was horrified. Yes. Horrified! Then I slept on it and I thought that the true test of my diligence in sewing is how I go about fixing problems like this. So, I inserted two inch wide panels in the princess seams in the back. Inserted them godet style at that. Oddly enough, I like it even better than the original and so does the mister. We both agreed that the panels add visual interest and you would never really realize that this was a mistake per se but more of a design element.

That shoulder overlay piece nearly put me in my grave. Of course I didn’t add this piece when I was supposed to – when it would have been easier to apply. Instead, it was added after I had attached the sleeves and sewn in the side back seams. So I stitched the thing on by hand. Oh my gosh! It took me the entire extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring to get through. Then of course, the front parts weren’t level so I went about unpicking and doing part of it again.

There are several points on which I differed from the original pattern too. Firstly, I ditched the patch pockets for welt ones instead. There are other coats in the book that have welt pockets so I just stole a pocket from one of them and set to work deciphering the craziness that was the welt pocket. Sheesh. I ended up just picking the parts that I felt were necessary for normal welt pockets and then applying them to the coat. They worked out pretty well I think.

I also added in a zipper to the center front. I actually have an old Gap toggle coat that has this very thing and I’ve loved that coat! Not only do I love the toggle part, but there’s a zipper to keep out the extra cold Utah weather. So I thought it would be a great option for the mister’s coat too. The zipper does not extend all the way down the center front, but instead just to a point where it would be easy to zip it up – about 23 inches. The bottom part is left free hanging so that the wearer has room to walk – ha ha!

I’m also lining the entire coat too and so I lined the hood and added a string just in case Mr. S needed extra protection from the cold and/or snowy weather. I have yet to put on the toggles, the next step actually, but I was getting a little giddy that I was a little more than halfway through this project and really wanted to snap some photos and show you all.

On the crafty monogamy front, I did actually put this project aside one night and whipped up a muslin for these pants. I couldn’t help it. I was feeling just a little burned out on the coat, so I thought to rejuvenate my vigor I would stitch something else for a night. I’m going to make one more muslin for the pants before I whip them out in a wool stripe number, but I have to say that these pants are incredibly well drafted. I’ve read around the interwebs that Burda pant patterns are drafted well, but I had my doubts (especially as those BurdaStyle envelope patterns seem to now be owned by Simplicity?). I mean, how does one really improve on a pant pattern draft? The thing I noticed right away was that there wasn’t excess pooling of fabric going on in the front crotch area – I always have that problem with Simplicity and McCalls/Vogue/Butterick and have yet to really understand how to get rid of it. I also noticed that the large inner thigh adjustment that I always have to make is not a problem on this pair. Seriously incredible! I’m very very excited to try a few more of the Burda pants patterns now!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We did! Even got a new camera on Black Friday – and it has video capability! Hip Hip Hooray! Oh I’ve got some fun stuff up the sleeve for you guys! Yay!

xoxo,
Sunni

I know many of you have tried ‘n’ true patterns (TNT’s) and lately, what with the Everyday Wardrobe and all, I’ve really been trying to reach for those patterns that I know will work for me and my shape. The skirt from the Lonsdale dress is one of these for me. I LOVE this skirt. This is the 5th time I’ve made it and it did not disappoint. For someone who walked into their sewing room only last week and thought “ugh…” this was a great pick-me-up sewing project. It’s true, I need another skirt like a hole in my head, but sometimes you’ve got to feed the urge, ya know.

For this make, I picked a lightweight denim (something I picked up from Joann about a year ago) and I lined it in bemberg rayon (from Yellow Bird). The inner waistband and pocket lining was done in leftover Liberty of London cotton lawn (from a blouse I made awhile back and have been meaning to show you). I love using up every last bit of fabric like that! I topstitched the denim in a sliver/gray silk thread – I’m totally in love with this idea too because the topstitching isn’t overwhelming. Sometimes that denim topstitching thread is just too much, so for a lighter option try some of that Gutermann silk thread which can be found at Joann. Even upholstery thread would do the trick.

Do you guys have any tried ‘n’ true patterns? What are they? I love the idea of these types of patterns. I love the idea of making several different looks from the same pattern by incorporating different elements too, like gathers, pleats or other design options. I’ve done a few things with this skirt pattern – added it to my shirt dress here and here and cut it on the bias here. So, here’s to an old tried ‘n’ true and getting my sewing mojo back!

In other news, I made the top I’m wearing too. It’s a modal knit that is just about heaven against my skin. Gosh it’s so comfy. I’m going to be teaching some middle schoolers to sew – yes, the same as last year, except this year I only do it one day a week for 2 hours. And I’ve heard the kids are wayyyy awesome this year. I’m actually really excited about it and its definitely something that is much more manageable for me. So, I had to come up with some easy projects for them to do. This knit top was one of them. I don’t know if you would believe it, but this is a box blouse with kimono sleeves and its seriously so easy to make and sooooo easy to draft. I think its such a tres chic style and I can’t even tell you how in love with it I am. Truly! I’m going to tweak the fit a little bit and make only about a million more.

Cheers!
Sunni

This is the exact same skirt as my fuschia skirt just different fabric is all. It’s a self drafted number which is the reason it fits so wonderfully and feels so comfortable. It was a shop sample for my Yellow Bird class, but I recently stole it home so that I could wear it. It’s pretty lovely, if I do say so myself and I did a rather stellar job of matching the plaids. It’s lined and has that little pocket on the front – which I applied by hand – and also features a petersham ribbon waistband. The fabric came from somewhere, but I honestly couldn’t tell from where at this point. It’s a bit old.

The cowl-necked top is the Renfrew, made out of a wool knit. The funny thing about this particular top is that I had it scrapped in my “I need to do something to fix this” pile and was intending to make it into a dress. When I put on my little plaid skirt, I immediately knew that this would be an ideal top to go with it. I think the reason I had it scrapped is because as I was cranking it out, I was wearing blue jeans and I kept trying it on and thinking it looked so drab and lifeless in addition to thinking it was a lot of navy blue for one person. Just goes to show ya that coordination can be key. The belt (another shop sample) is also a self make, of course and well, there it is, readers.

I didn’t actually do my Everyday Wardrobe bit with this outfit, but as you can see, the look itself is a little upscale, but I’m completely comfortable. Totally wearable all day long, which is exactly what I did. The weather has already turned chilly and this is just the thing for an October day out! And now, if you don’t mind, I’m off to have a spot of tea and a crumpet.

Cheerio!
Sunni

PS ~ It’s been crazy busy around here, so sorry for the radio silence. I think I’m finally back to my normal, quiet life. Maybe. We’ll see, I guess. Have a lovely weekend Friends!