The (Sub)urban Jacket

This was quite the snake-bit project, primarily of my own making. A while back, I admired sewing friend Charlotte's rendition of this unusual design. She described it as seriously challenging and even shared her modifications created with a Butterick pattern. I sure wish I had a picture of hers. It is fabulous with its hood and long sleeves.

In the beginning, I was optimistic, sure of myself. I even have fabric in stash that is similar to the fabric on the front of the pattern envelope. I was sure that I could do this!

Yes, the instructions were a bit of a conundrum to me but I pre-disposed myself to thinking "This will be difficult." Attitude is everything.

This is a Diane Ericson design. I do love her work. I drool over her journal entries every time one drops in my email. Much inspiration! I think to myself - I can do that too.

But I made so, so many mistakes. I don't think I can remember them all to include in this post and who wants to see all that anyway?!?

One mistake I made that tripped me up was cutting 2 of the collar/facing piece when I really needed 4. That took me for a long ride that included other related mistakes.

The design includes welt pockets, a close cousin to bound buttonholes, as I'm sure you know. I played around with some samples and decided that a real welt pocket would introduce too much bulk for my taste. I made a simple faced pocket opening and used the pattern pocket backing to finish it. And, after all, this was intended to be a wearable muslin.

(I do like this picture a lot. I like the way the flange causes the back to swing to the front)

As always, I had a limited amount of this while denim. I thought I could cut out a sleeveless jacket, keeping the hood and other details. If I had paid attention to the number of needed collar/facing pieces, I might have actually done that. Or maybe not.

When I finally sorted out the collar/facing error in cutting, I had to harvest another piece from the hood. That "other piece" turned out to be a lining piece that I did not use, as I had no intention of lining a wearable muslin. I guess that once I decided I would struggle with this, I made sure that I struggled with this.

Oh well, I did get the experience of making the hood before that debacle. No pictures of that.

I had fun decorating this separating zipper. It's just a white zipper with black permanent marker applied to it. An idea from Diane, I'm pretty sure.

I still did not have enough for 4 of the collar/facing piece. So you can see that I used the black and white print. Not bad, I said to myself. I can live with this.

The black and white was also useful for creating bias binding for the armholes. The armholes never did completely sort out for me. Perhaps they are good with sleeves, but there was a funny way that it cut away from my body at the base of the armhole. I just reshaped it to my satisfaction.

This was an interesting project and the wearable muslin idea has served its purpose. This is not a good silhouette on me. Seriously I don't think I like a boxy short vest over a longer top. And I definitely do not tuck in shirts these days. 

I'll chalk this up to a learning experience. I've got my attitude back under control.

Which of Diane's patterns should I make next? I can do this!

Getaway Jeans and Persistence

My latest project was snake-bit but I persisted. And, boy, am I glad I did. 

The fabric came from my local fabric store, Gail K. The guy cutting it said it was Japanese denim. It's black on one side and a bluish black on the other. I loved it the moment I saw it. It's 100% cotton and so I washed and dried it thoroughly before cutting into it. I don't think there was much shrinkage. 

It's very sturdy denim, much like new jeans used to be before lycra invaded RTW jeans. I selected this fabric specifically for the Getaway Jeans from the Sewing Workshop. It's not often that I buy for a specific project, but this was just right for jeans. 

As Mr. NowSewing and I prepared for a 10 day trip to visit grandchildren, I carefully cut these out. Well, actually I made a toile first and got the sizing right. I imagined myself bringing a number of pre-cut projects to sew while visiting. I cut out the jeans and a Swing Tee dress, a basic no-brainer summer dress.

As I began to actually pack for the trip, I realized the unlikelihood of being able to sew something this complicated, or really anything at all involving a machine, while visiting. So I left my two carefully cut projects behind, and took my Alabama Chanin projects instead. These are all hand-sewing and worked out just right. It's nice to visit and sew by hand.

Once back home in the studio, I began the wonderful black jeans. I did not keep count, but I feel like these jeans contain the largest number of mistakes-per-project ratio to date, sort of a personal *best.*

It began when I realized it was a bad idea to have separated the pattern tissue from the pattern pieces. It was easy to conclude this after I screwed up the pockets. This occurred after I successfully sewed the odd but interesting darts on the front crotch.

In my defense, things have been going on in my personal life that are distracting. But I persisted. Mr. NowSewing said, Stop, but I did not.

The pockets came together easily once the pieces were more accurately labeled and I read the sentences in the instructions completely. Those pockets made me so happy, the way sewing at its best is prone to do.

Next I worked on the fly zipper. I booby-trapped this part a bit by using an old metal zipper with one missing zipper stop at the top. I worked around a safety pin to avoid zipping it off. 

I've had good success with Sandra Betzina's method for fly zippers in her book Power Sewing. But I like to try new things, so I began by following the instructions in the envelope. The instructions may be OK and I may try them again some day, but I stopped when I came to the part where the center front is NOT basted together during construction. Whoa. Way too much slack in that action for me. So back to trusty Sandra Betzina. It worked great.

The next steps are to attach the left and right waist bands. Due to the fly zipper, they are different lengths. I struggled a bit, and fused interfacing to the right side of one. Thank goodness for remnants. And then I noticed that they were larger than the pattern tissue. I whacked off the extra and moved on. 

They were now too small to fit on the top of my jeans. Back to the remnants to cut new waistbands, self-drafted to match the tops of my jeans.

That worked out fine, though my waistband is not traditional for jeans. It is a feature, right? It was indeed a lot easier to sew the buttonhole when it was not sitting so close to the top of the zipper.

The rest of the construction was without hiccup, so Yay!

The back waistband has elastic and I totally like that. Thought I would not, but I do. So comfortable and I do not tuck shirts in, so just right. The length was perfect too. 

Here worn with a green linen MixIt Top.

I put them on right away for a Father's Day dinner with DD and family. I do believe I'll get a lot of use out of these jeans. They do not photograph all that well, but you'll just have to trust me. 

I used a medium green heavy weight cotton for the top-stitching. It is one of those details that makes me happy even thought no one else will ever notice. Now I need a pair of white jeans. Definitely.

Once these were complete, I had a good night's sleep and went back over my pattern tissues to determine what went wrong. As it happened, I cut out tissue for both the Small and the Medium. After the toile, I cut the Medium in the denim. But when I reattached the pieces to the tissue I failed to notice that some were for size Small and some for size Medium. Operator error, per usual.

The swing tee dress was indeed a no-brainer, so I'm grateful for that.

West End Revisited

The first time I made these pants I was not happy with the look. I felt dumpy in them so it almost didn't matter how they really looked. Not to be defeated so easily, I made them into a skirt. I never wore that skirt and it disappeared at some point. Then I made them in linen and liked them better, mostly because I raised the hemline.

Just realized that they are culottes, not pants. I shortened them by 4 inches and poof - culottes. In my mind. If I had known they were culottes, I might have liked them better.

I like them now, at least this particular pair. I made them in a black rayon-linen blend (not Brussels Washer - more rayon than linen). It was easy to sew and I really like the fit quite a lot. The fabric has just enough drape to suit this pattern, I think.

Since this is the summer of dresses for me, I'll wear culottes too.

And the pockets are sooooo cute.

I think I'll make them again, maybe full length in silk. I think that would work!

I've also been packing for a mission trip to Belize (a.k.a. British Honduras from my youth). I am one of 4 chaperones for eleven 15- and 16-year-olds. I'm a little nervous, as I am more of a grandmother figure. But I pride myself on being low-maintenance. This trip should test that myth belief. I figured that out when I read that we are to bring our own sheets and towels and we must be able to climb and carry all our belongings. Oh my!

I may take these culottes. They are certainly comfortable and shouldn't be as hot as long pants will be. I have packed a pair of shorts, but, oh, my - shorts. Necessity dictates I wear them.

Using up some nervous energy, I made 3 bags yesterday.

This is going to be my watercolor and sketching bag. It's made of a stiff cotton canvas and trimmed with some selvage gifted to me at a sewing retreat.

I lined it with some quilt cotton.

Or this one might be my watercolor and sketching bag. It's made from a piece of fabric I free-motion quilted in a class - I need lots more practice. I had to hide some of the big goofs with little patches.

I also made a weight-less nylon back pack. Although this nylon is not waterproof, I'm hoping it'll dry quickly. It's the rainy season in Belize.

So here goes nothing!

My New Favorite Dress Pattern

I may be a dress convert. This one took me right around the corner. Or the bend.

In the last few sewing sessions, I've made some tunics that were - let me be honest - dresses. Yes, dresses. How can this be?!

The one I just completed is based on a 2018 issue of Sew Confident. I had made the swing tee with neckline and sleeve mods, so I was pretty sure I would like it lengthened.

Lengthening sounds pretty straight-forward but I actually learned something from their lengthening process. If I had simply added inches to the bottom, it would have been voluminous. So I'm glad I had the tutorial.

The tutorial also contains interesting pockets constructed by drafting a side panel and pocket, so well worth the read. The pockets were a little fiddly. I'm not sure I marked enough dots as my pockets are about an inch lower than they should be. Or maybe the fabric stretched.

This version is a toile. My target fabric is a purchase from the Alabama Chanin store in Florence AL. I visited with BSF Ginny and purchased a lovely navy blue knit to make a dress. As you may know, that organic-grown-spun-and-knitted-in-the-USA cotton jersey is danged expensive. As it should be. I'm not quite ready to cut into it. I'm thinking this design would be good though.

This fabric is a poly-something I purchased in Charleston years ago from a tiny fabric and alterations shop right on King Street. I think it disappeared under the weight of high rent as the edges of downtown Charleston gentrified. The fabric reminds me of our many trips there to visit our daughter over the last couple of decades. This is a benefit of stash, yes?

It is a cooperative knit - no curling, no slipping, just a little stretching. I had to play around with needle (ball point), thread (poly, since this is poly), throat plate (straight stitch), and machine foot (mostly walking foot) to get the stitches pretty.

I'm very pleased with this dress. I had occasion to wear it to the reception for an art show I'm in. The show is titled Fiber and Folk at the new Alpharetta Arts Center. These two pieces were juried in. I'm so excited!

I like this dress so much that I made another one.

This is a piece of rayon knit I purchased in Seville Spain several years ago. I think I had a tunic or tee in mind when I bought it. I just barely squeezed this dress out. I omitted the pockets so it was a very quick make.

Now I might make it with the original target fabric - my expensive Alabama Chanin knit. I am not tired of wearing or sewing knits yet, but I will be when the real summer heat arrives.