Siberian Parka

Continuing with my New Year's theme, the Siberian Parka from Folkwear Patterns has been in stash a while. I've been wanting something with a hood. I think I must have purchased it at a resale, probably our local ASG chapter's annual sale. Honestly, I don't think I would have purchased it otherwise. But it has some appeal to me right now.

The fabric is 100% wool boucle, probably purchased at a fun store that used to be in Massachussetts. I cannot find evidence of it now and I cannot remember the name. It was almost exclusively mail/phone order, back in the day, but they had a smallish shop that was open to the public during limited hours. I used to connect with them while visiting my son in NH and visit them. I believe I purchased it soon after I finished my first, and last, Coco's jacket. I guess I thought I would make another. I will not do so.

The fabric is soft and it was easy to stitch. It did ravel quite a lot, so I serged all the edges. I could not bring myself to apply Hong Kong finishes. There are way too many seams that are way too long. And the serging thread tends to sink into it, so it is not too offensive.

After I finished the poncho, I was curious about how it would behave if washed. Not that I really intend the machine wash it on a regular basis - probably never. Unless I am extremely sloppy, I'll be OK with dry cleaning, which I know is neither dry nor clean. I serged two same-size scraps, machine washed them both, machine dried one of them. They remained similar, shrinking about 10% in both directions. And it is still soft and lovely to touch.

I checked Pattern Review for this pattern, of course. Although I had this piece in stash for years and never touched it other than to pet it, I still wanted to be a little careful. Many people commented on its size. Yep, it's huge. But then it is a parka. I made size Small.

I found the instructions for the area of the front neckline to be difficult to follow. In the line drawing above, it looks as if lots of seams come together in a V.  The shoulder area of the garment has multiple pieces as you can see in the picture. In the front, it needed to connect with the hood opening without a bunch of lumps. Ultimately, I simply played with the pieces coming together until they behaved. I'm quite happy with the result.

I also struggled just a little with finishing the edge of the hood opening. Instructions are to simply fold the fabric back about an inch total, and top-stitch in place. Because the opening widens as it moves away from the raw edges, there was no way that would work. 

My first try was to pull out a remnant of black silk dupioni and just finish the edge with a bias binding. I did not like the look of that and it enclosed my face too snugly. I cut the hem off. Next I applied a bias piece of another remnant as a facing. That worked and it is snug enough around my face though I removed more than an inch from the raw edge.

The first time I tried on the parka, I knew I would want the option of rolling up the sleeves without looking at serger thread. They are a bit long, but I like having options on this outer wear garment. I think there will be some occasions when I will want the sleeves rolled all the way down to stay warm. I finished the sleeve hems with a facing, using another remnant of blackish fabric. I traced a facing shape by pin-stitching the two piece sleeve tissues together. 

The pocket instructions were a little iffy. They are in-seam pockets with a single layer - the single layer is top-stitched to the front of the garment. The instructions were to wait to finish edges until the pocket was installed. That made no sense at all to me, unless I was planning to finish the visible raw edges with a hand-overcast stitch. I serged around each raw edge before beginning assembly of the pockets. I am glad I did so.

I used a remnant of some black tencil fabric for the pockets to avoid too much bulk.

All in all, I consider this project a success. Mr. Now Sewing thinks I look a bit gothic in it, but that's OK with me. If I cannot be a little goth now, then when can I be?

Wearing the parka with gray polyester Helex pants

Recently I've also made several pairs of basic pants - Sewing Workshop Helex pants in black ponte (my go to for black pants), as well as a gray polyester knit. The gray was well-aged, enough so that I have no idea how it came to be in stash. It would never be my first pick for pants. I also made a pair of Sewing Workshop Quincy pants in the wool suiting used for facing on this parka. The Quincy pants are still undergoing revisions to get the fit right.

The temperature today rose to 75 F (24 C), so it may be a few months before I need this parka. 

More June Sewing: the Nikko Jacket

If you're a Sewing Workshop groupie like I am, you may recognize this vintage pattern. It is called the Nikko jacket.

About 8 years ago, I made a muslin for it and decided not to make it. I guess that's one of the few times I've made a muslin and really used it to make a decision.

But I kept the pattern and found myself returning to it from time to time.

A while back, BSF found and purchased for me black cashmere from Gail K. I kept it for a while. It's gorgeous but I could not decide on the best pattern for it. And I have to be in a very patient mood to sew with such a deep dark black. It's like a black hole. Everything disappears into it.

I'm glad I decided on the Nikko jacket. Even though the temperatures have been topping up in the 90's (and it's humid), I know I'm going to love wearing this come winter.

The fabric was wonderful for this pattern, though, of course, I did not have enough. As usual, that was a good thing. I created a separate lapel and made that with black silk dupioni. I also used the silk for the back neck piece and all facings.

This fabric is so yummy and does not fray at all. I used this feature to make some of the seams overlapping and I did not hem the sleeves, instead just cutting the hem off carefully.

I could have left the body hem raw edged too, but I love the mitered corners on the side slits.

I have not yet added the patch pocket, but I may.

I had to fiddle a bit to get the welt pocket to be acceptable. Initially I tried it with the silk dupioni but it was too wimpy. The welt collapsed in an unattractive way. So I pains-takingly unstitched it and made it in the cashmere.

It is unlike any welt pocket I've ever made. In order to properly control it, I sewed much of it by hand. I'm rather fond of those little pick stitches that show.

I inserted the pocket backwards. Shhh. Don't tell anyone.

Sapporo Coat

Oh, my. This pattern. I've had my eye on it a while. I started following #sapporocoat over on IG, and it was just a matter of time before I would buy this one and make it up.

Local fabric store and sewing studio, Topstitch, advertised a class for making this popular jacket. I couldn't sign up for the class due to travel plans, but I contacted them and purchased the pattern. This pleased me because it's a New Zealand publication and I really wanted a paper pattern, rather than a PDF.

There are many things to love about this pattern:

• the overall lantern shape
• the cool slanted in-seam pockets
• the way the neckline frames the face
• bracelet length sleeves

Since I had waited a while to purchase it, I took my time making it. I read all the 4-star reviews on PatternReview. There are lots of 5-star reviews too, but I find that 4-star reviews often reveal issues more effectively than 5-star reviews.

One of the reviews included a link to a sew-along tutorial here. That was instructive because I could see what the intent was and make changes accordingly.

The instructions included in the Sapporo Coat pattern are cute but sparse. There are many curved seams that benefit from stay-stitching, not mentioned once. In fact, my outer fabric is a very firm wool and stay-stitching was required for smooth curves.

The cut-on in-seam pockets also need stay-stitching at the corners. I wish now that I had added a little interfacing to the pocket opening. Next time.

I also under-stitched at the neckline and the sleeve hems by hand. Because my lining is flush with the edge of the sleeve hem, I also used a Susan Khalje technique for steam pressing. It seems to be mostly working, though I may add some subtle sashiko stitching to make sure nothing rolls.

This fabric is a remnant purchased from local fabric store, Gail K, several years ago. It is similar to wool crepe. The base is brown wool and there is a thicker black thread woven in creating the look of a subtle pin-stripe. Because of this novelty weave, I thought it would be wise to cut with nap. A close examination of the instructions made clear that their layout was WITHOUT nap. Glad I caught that.

A significant and documented problem is the lining. Oy.

The pattern includes a separate front lining to be attached to cut-on front facings. The back piece is the same for both the outer fabric and the lining. But they are designed so that there is ZERO slack or ease in the lining. That is, you are to cut off all the extra vertical length in the back piece and the front lining piece is woefully short. At least one reviewer noted that her back hem was already starting to curl up.

I added inches to the front and back lining pieces to provide the needed slack for a conventional lining. I also added a center back pleat to the back lining piece.

The pattern calls for using outer fabric for the lining for the sleeves. The method for attaching the lining and outer sleeves together generates a lot of bulk, as can be seen in a number of reviews and pictures on line. I ignored those instructions and constructed my lining in a traditional fashion, mirroring the jacket.

I used many techniques for jacket making learned from Pam Howard. What fun to remember taking a very challenging tailored jacket class from her!

One technique was the slick handling of vertical slack along the lower front hem, as well as bagging the jacket lining, after hand-stitching the hems. I love that technique!

My lining was also from deep stash. I think it was in a mystery bag I purchased from Marcy Tilton during her last Design Outside the Lines workshop in 2013. I was sad to discover that it is polyester. I burn tested it more than once because I really wanted it to be rayon.

It is a polyester satin and so ravels like crazy. But it has wonderful drape and feels silky. And I like the way it looks with this rich brown wool. If it makes me uncomfortable, I'll just take it out and line with rayon or silk. But for now, I'm enjoying the look of the polka dots.

Review of Gift-Making December

Or, why I haven't blogged in over a month.

Where did December go? Well, it flew by me. For the past month, I've been focused on making and buying presents for family members. The truth is that it was not all fun in 2017. And this was a monster of my own making, so-to-speak.

Next year, there will be few handmade gifts. I promise. I do love the idea of handmade gifts but I obsess over it. I don't think that fits with the spirit of giving. So unless it is zen sewing and gives me selfish pleasure, I must step back and allow time to breathe and enjoy the joy.

Here are the gifts I made, and honestly, some really were fun.

This jacket was requested by my granddaughter. It's made using Kwik Sew 3818, a medium-weight wool and lined with a medium-weight silk-cotton blend. I blogged about it here so I won't rehash it, But isn't she cute in it?

Next up were two robes. These were also by request. And they were so simple to make using Simplicity 1562, now probably out-of-print.

They are both made from polyester fleece, so easy to sew. The owls on white background is for my 8 year old granddaughter; the Clemson-themed robe is for my 11 year old grandson. The Clemson version was a HUGE success. He almost wore it into a movie theater. The owl version will be used too but did not garner great enthusiasm.

The last requested gift was this super-simple pillow case for a youth-sized pillow:

Here it is in its first use with 2-year-old grandson:

Now a sensible person would have stopped there. Those were requested and so pretty much guaranteed to please. I did not stop. Next I made these two (2!) patchwork pillows for another 11 year old grandson and his 13 year old brother (who wears glasses like these). They have two dogs of this breed.

If they look simple, then please, please look again. They took FOREVER to piece. Each contains half-square triangles no larger than 1 inch. Yikes! What was I thinking?

The pillows finish at standard bed-pillow size. I put a zipper in the back to allow for machine washing. When the 11-year-old opened it, he said, "Oh, look! A pillow." And he proceeded to unzip it and remove the pillow. Hmmm...

And then I could have stopped, yes? But for a long time now, I've had this great idea. My husband wanted a shirt to match one that the 2 year old had. Such a shirt simply did not exist. So I made each of them a shirt using this lovely cotton shirting from Gail K in Atlanta.

It took some research to find a man's shirt with most of the conventional details. I settled on Vogue 9220. Then I took measurements from one of my husband's shirts and tried very hard to make them match. In the end his was a bit too tight and the little one is too big. Of course, too big is not a problem with a two-year-old, so now I'm thinking about ways to remake the one for DH. Or maybe not.

The little one is from one of my old Ottobre magazines. I have used and used those patterns making many things for grandchildren with the enclosed patterns. I must say that was joyful to make.

I should probably write a separate blog on DH's shirt. I learned a lot about the fit of a man's shirt and I should document it before I forget.

As I reflect on making gifts this past month, I realize that the simplest were perhaps the most joyful to make. There's a lesson there.

So that was my December. I'm so glad it's January now.