Hacking Made Easy With a Free Pattern

Happy start to the week!

I'm back from my trip to Maine. What a glorious week I had. The trip not only feed my body, but my spirit. I'll post more about the trip in another post. 

I had hoped to post this last week, but internet reception was a bit spotty at best. In order to call my husband, I actually would go out on the fire escape and stand facing the cell phone tower. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. 

I was introduced to Waffle Patterns last year during Sewing Indie Month. I really like Yuki's patterns. They are easy to make, the instructions are very well laid out, and the designs are fun, hip, and on trend. One aspect of her patterns that I especially like is that they are layered. All of the sizes are printed on the pattern, but before printing, you can actually choose the size that you would like to make and then  just print out that size. Wow, no going blind trying to cut on the correct size line!!! Or, if you are one size on top and another on the bottom, choose the two sizes and print out just the two. It's a great feature. 

The Zippered Blouson is part baseball jacket and part motorcycle jacket, but with a very soft edge.

When using a Waffle Pattern, be sure to look closely at the pattern dimensions as they are quite generous in ease. For instance, the size 40 has a 36" bust, but the finished measurement is 42". That's a full 6" of ease. So depending upon how you like your clothes to feel on your body, you may want to go down a size.

For those of you who would like to try a little pattern hacking, but feel a little intimidated, Yuki has made it easy with her free add on hood pattern for the Zippered Blouson. You can find the free pattern HERE. The hood is a three piece hood. Sit's beautifully on the head and looks great when it's down and laying across the back. I have made her hood pattern and I really like it. 

Yuki posted this option of the Zippered Blouson. I absolutely love the faux fur collar.

If you think that you would like to give a little pattern hacking a try, but with a guiding hand, you can find Yuki's Zippered Blouson pattern HERE.

If you do give the pattern a try,be sure to read about the layering of her patterns and just print out the sizes that you would like. As I said, it really is a great feature. 

Have fun!

Monday Morning Inspiration

Hi Everyone and Happy Monday! All of our snow has officially melted and with opening day of the Cubs (baseball team), it is officially spring. Yea! A few weeks ago I did this post on spring trends and one of the big trends for spring is the baseball jacket. So I decided to do a little looking around for some inspiration and I found the pictures below.

This jacket is by far my favorite. Just love the mix of patterns. Great jacket.

A sheer version.

I thought this one was rather cute. Look closely as the flowers along the lower portion are three dimensional.

A pretty and understated version in wool.

This is my second favorite. I especially like the shaping around the bust.

Some interesting versions.

These quilted and embroidered jackets are beautiful.

And now for a little over the top fun;
How about a studded and spiked version?!!

 Or this from Harvey Creative. Baseball jacket meets kimono. Fun!

If you would like to make a jacket of your own, here's a link to a pattern from New Look, http://sewing.patternreview.com/Patterns/61637. Paper Cut Patterns also has a version of the baseball jacket that they call the Rigel Bomber Jacket.

 

You can find that pattern here, http://papercutpatterns.com/products/rigel-bomber

Have a wonderful week!

Rhonda

Monday Morning Inspiration

Happy new week everyone!! After my computer fiascos of last week, I am staking my claim that this will be a wonderful week. Gotta have faith!! So far, so good :)

While going through some old pictures that I had torn out of magazines for inspiration, I came across something that I decided to research and while doing so, I came across a site that had trends for the upcoming spring season. I thought they were rather fun, so I thought I would share them with you this morning.

Fashion Trends For Spring 2014

Baseball jackets are everywhere. Notice that two different sites agreed on the Marc Jacobs jacket. If you want to be on trend this season, quickly get a baseball jacket made up.  

Of course floral prints are always big, no news here.

Gingham. A little on the vintage side, but I think it's always so fresh and pretty.

Just this morning, Couture Allure posted this lovely vintage gingham dress on her blog. Love the use of the smaller gingham print as trim. Pretty neckline too. 

Culottes!!!! I love culottes!!

 Pleated Skirts, notice that they are small little pleats. Gives a fun little swish factor!

 Fringe! Talk about swish!!!

Two different sites agreed on the fringe trend.

Paint splatter

 Mules are back, yea!!

I'm not so sure about this selection of shoes.

Funky Hats

If you think that you might like to give the paint splatter thing a try, I found this on Pinterest.

I thought that it might be fun to do, that is if you can bear the thought of painting a freshly labored over new garment!! Here's a link to the tutorial, http://daretodoityourself.blogspot.it/2012/05/diy-dress-pollock-impulse.html
For a little theatrical fun, check out this video clip from the 1999 Alexander McQueen runway show.

Not something I would want to do, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.
This season it looks like we have permission to pull out our vintage ginghams, mules and culottes. We can then release our inner child by throwing paint around all while wearing a baseball jacket and cap with a matching fringed skirt ;)
Hope you have a super fun week! I'm hoping to :)
Rhonda

Monday Morning Inspiration

Good Morning Everyone and welcome to Monday. It's incredibly cold here in Chicago. I feel like we're living a real life version of the movie Ground Hog Day. If you've never seen the movie, it's about a guy who wakes up everyday to find that it is once again Ground Hog Day. He can't escape it!! Well, it's officially the never ending Ground Hog Day here in Chicago. Each day we wake up to sub zero temperatures and more snow. So a Spring/Summer collection is right up my alley this morning!!

I received an email about a pin that I had posted on Pinterest being repinned. Typically, I just delete the email, but I took a look and a bag on that person's board caught my eye so I decided to take a look. There  I saw a pin from the Balmain Spring/Summer collection and I HAD to see more. The collection is very 80's inspired. Remember when we wore lots and lots of what they now call bling? Well, this is rather over the top, but there are design details that I think are especially nice. I have posted my favorites, but if you would like to take a look at more of the collection, here's a link,

http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/spring-summer-2014/ready-to-wear/balmain/full-length-photos/gallery/1051289

When I saw this top, I was in love. I absolutely love everything about this top and would love to make one. 

The nice thing about the link that I gave you is that they have up close pictures of the clothes. A sewists dream!! After all, it's the details that we want to see.

Each strip has been grommeted and then laced together with denim strips with a chain in between each strip. WOW, WOW, WOW!!!

Can you tell that I REALLY love this piece?!!!!!! It's a little reminiscent of armor, but I still love it.

Fun pocket idea.

Love the mix of see through weaving with the solid.

From the front.

And now the back. A little over done for my taste, but beautiful back detail. Love the quilted denim skirt.

Love the flippy little skirts.

Note the pockets. Cut on the bias, matched but not matched giving more interest to this subtle detail.

Again, the flippy skirt. Like wearing a petticoat.

Note the little zippers on the sleeves. Great detail.

The back pockets on the skirt. Very unexpected, but so cute.

Couture baseball fun!

Another oversized baseball jacket paired with matching skirt. Love the idea of a sweatshirt being turned into a skirt.

I've included a video of the fashion show. Watching the clothes move is quite a treat. It's a little less than 10 minutes long, and well worth the time spent.

If you've saved all your big, bold, gold jewelry from the 80's, well, it looks like you're in luck. Actually, just a touch goes a long way ;)
Have a lovely week.
Rhonda