A New Spring Jacket/Style Arc Grace Trans-Seasonal Coat

Have you ever made something and loved it so much that you are apprehensive about using it? Well, that's how I feel about the Poppins Bag that I made back in January. But, I am determined to sweeten the pot enough that I will use it, and that's why I decided to make the Style Arc Grace Trans-Seasonal periwinkle jacket :)

The pattern is a bit deceiving. From the drawing, it looks as though the collar will hit just below the chin. In reality, the collar actually hits above the chin, and just below the mouth. I do not have a short neck, so something to keep in mind if you do make the jacket.

The fabric that I used for the jacket is a wool gabardine that I have had for quite some time. It was actually a remnant that I purchased from Vogue Fabrics here in Chicago(actually, Evanston, IL) I only had 1 7/8 of a yard. The pattern calls for 3 yards :/, but I was determined. No matter what I did, I could not get the facing, or the pockets out of my fabric. What to do??? I had the raw silk, and as I was going through my "collection," I thought, "well, maybe." 

In the end,the jacket would have been too light had I not lined it. So rather than just using the silk as the facing, I used it to line the entire jacket. I love how well it worked out!

The instructions that come with the jacket are a bit sketchy, so I would not recommend this pattern to someone who is fairly new to sewing. The instructions for the pockets are not included in the pattern, you must go to the website to find the tutorial. 

The pocket is a welt pocket with a flap. Pretty when finished, but can be a bit tricky. I used a lining fabric for my pockets. 

As I mentioned, the collar is quite high. Rather than take it out and cut it down, I played around with it a bit and decided that I rather like the asymmetrical look if I wish to use the top button.   

Rather than top-stitch the jacket in a matching thread, I used 2 thread colors. Using the 2 colors together gave interest and an extra pop that using a matching thread would not have done.

Buttons!!! Buttons can be such a challenge. I am so very fortunate to live so close to Soutache. Such a lovely shop, like a trip to Paris without the jetlag, and she has the most amazing collection of buttons. I thought that this set of vintage buttons worked perfectly :)

I have enough of the raw silk to make either a skirt or a pair of pants. Not sure which I'll choose. If I go with the skirt, I'll also have enough for the cute Susan Khalje Boat Neck Top. If I do the latter, I will have the beginnings of a wonderful travel ensemble.

Once I get the buttonholes done, and sew on the buttons, I think I am going to really enjoy this new jacket. It also looks great with jeans, so very versatile. 
Happy Sewing!

Rhonda

Giving the Merchant and Mills Francine Pattern a Test Run

I can be a very bold soul ;) 
As I just typed that, I remembered an incident that happened last winter while out skiing. We had skied up to get on a chair. This particular chair is quite old, and a little tricky to get on. There was a man in front of us with his very young, and very small daughter. The attendant had asked him to put the child on the other side of him and allow her to load the child onto the seat. He refused, lashed out at the attendant, grabbed his daughter and put her on the chair. But, the child was half hanging off the chair. I gasped as I thought for sure that the child was going to fall off. The attendant quickly stopped the lift, came around and properly placed the child on the chair. She commented to the man that if he takes the chair again, that he must listen to her. He snapped back...and then I opened my mouth. He turned back to me and said that it was none of my business. I replied, "But it is, accidents affect everyone who is skiing on this mountain." At that point, the lift began to move, and off he went. The attendant thanked me for defending her. While I did defend her, my actual concern was for the child. 
When we got off of the lift, I was ready for a confrontation, but the guy had skied off with his daughter, and I never saw them again. 

My initial comment though, was in regard to sewing, not me trying to be the police of the world :/ 

I have never used a Merchant and Mills pattern, so before I started using the Francine pattern to design other pieces for the upcoming challenge with Becky of Trail Balloons, I wanted to give the pattern a test run. I had purchased a lovely remnant of wool from Fishman's Fabrics in Chicago. Such a beautiful piece, it feels like butter against the skin. 

To make the dress, the pattern calls for almost 2 meters from a piece of 60" wide fabric. I only had 1 2/3 yards. But, I played around with the fabric, and was successful. 

We had dinner a few nights ago with a friend who is a retired Navy submarine captain. He and my husband were commenting on the fact that the United States is one of only 3 countries that doesn't use the metric system, Liberia and Burma being the other two. I'll be honest, when it comes to the metric system, I can be quite lazy. Thank goodness for online calculators!!! But, I still managed to make a mistake with the measurement calculations, and cut a dress that swam on me :/ And too...I need to enter here that I did not make a muslin, but cut the pattern directly out of my lovely piece of wool. I know, I know, shame on me!

Thankfully, all was not lost, only the pockets. Here again, I was lazy, so instead of taking out all of the stitching, I simply took in the dress so that it no longer looked like a tent, and chopped off the pockets. 

Pictures of me in the dress will follow. I have actually worn the dress a number of times since I made it. It is so comfortable, and easy to wear. It has been horribly cold, so I have worn a wool t-shirt underneath the dress, a black one. It just peeks out from the opening in the dress and looks quite cute. The side seam pockets would have been nice, but in the end, I really haven't missed them. But, I will add them back with the next dress.  

A few other pattern notes;

*There is very little ease in the sleeve. But, with the wool, the seam steams beautifully.

*I found the sleeves to be rather wide around my arms and wrists, so I tapered them quite a bit. In all fairness, I do have rather thin arms and wrists and typically taper my sleeves.

*Measure the circumference of the top, or dress pattern against your own measurements. And, a muslin would be most helpful before cutting your fashion fabric, especially if it's a very nice piece of fabric. 

As I said, I really love the dress. The shoulder seams hang off of my shoulders a bit, but that is hardly the end of the world. I just didn't want to take the sleeves out and adjust the shoulder seams. When I make my next piece, I now know what size to cut, and the pattern will hang correctly on my body.

I have a number of fun tweeds that I will be using for my challenge pieces. As soon as Becky and I have nailed down a few particulars, I'll let you know the start date of the challenge. I'm so excited!!! :)   

I Have a New Hobby!

And I probably need a new hobby like I need a hole in my head! 

Last Sunday I took an all day workshop and learned nuno felting. By the end of the day, I was exhausted, but so very happy with my new skill. Our workshop chairman for the Haute Couture Club of Chicago had arranged a class with Natasha of Esther's Place. We had the opportunity to take a 2 1/2 yard length of silk, apply the nuno felting technique, and turn it into yardage that we could then use to make a garment. My original intention was to use my piece to make a skirt. I've changed my mind. Once I got my piece home, I rinsed it as I had been told, and then left it to dry overnight on my dress form. When I came down the next morning, I decided that I loved the piece just as it is and so it will remain a shawl.

As I worked on my piece, I decided to leave peeks of the silk throughout the felting.

   

Developing the fabric was quite interesting. I had chosen a piece of sage green silk as my base. The silk was hand dyed by Natasha. Once I had the silk in my hands, I saw that there were also red and blue bits of color in the silk. For my first layer of wool, I did alternating strips of red and blue, which you see below on the left side.

I then used the green as my second layer. I was a little unsure of how it would all work out.

The final application was our embellishment. Like I said, I initially thought I would use the yardage to make a skirt, so I left a ruffle edge of the silk and I wanted a border along the edge. I wanted the border to have an impressionistic feel to it, so I used bits of red yarn, green bamboo yarn, a glitter yarn, tiny little felted balls, and some ribbon to create my border. Finally a very fine layer of the wool is placed over the embellished layer and then the felting begins. Cups and cups of  warm, soapy water are poured over the wool. Once the piece is wet, we then began the rolling and felting process.  

As I also said, I was exhausted by the end of the day, but I was excited about how my piece turned out and all that I had learned. The colors melded together beautifully. I can't wait to make my next nuno felted project! 

This is the very talented Natasha.  

Below is a skirt that she made with the nuno felting process.

Natasha and her mother Donna are the team behind Esther's Place. They raise their own sheep, sheer the wool, and then provide their customers with the best products that they can offer. 

They also offer a wide range of classes, weaving, knitting, felting, dyeing, and even canning classes.

Esther's Place is just a 1 1/2 hour drive west of Chicago. If you are in the Chicagoland area, by all means, take a look at their class page and plan a day out in the country. You'll be happy that you did :)

I Need To Do Something Just For Me

Sometimes we get caught up in doing, doing, doing. Doing for our spouse, doing for commitments, be it work or charitable commitments, doing for friends, and the list can go on and on. Then we come to a point that we just need to do something for ourselves, just for fun.  

A number of years ago, I talked about working through The Artist's Way. A fabulous experience and well worth your time. One of the commitments that you make while working through the book is to take a weekly artist's date. It can be just for an hour, but doing something that you really want to do and doing it alone. It can be something as simple as taking an hour long soaking bath, or something a little more extravagant like taking a horseback riding lesson. For those of us who sew, taking a little time to make something just because we want to can be an artist's date. And that's what I'm about to do :)

I recently saw the Sydney Jacket from Tessuti Fabrics, and loved it.

The line drawing is what will either suck me in or make me turn the other way. The Sydney Jacket sucked me in :) What did it for me was the yoke shaping.

Other than the side seams, the seams are actually overlapped and then stitched, so the fabric needs to be one that will not ravel, like a melton wool, boiled wool, fleece, etc. The jacket also features a pocket with a faux welt, so super easy to do. Also take note that this is an unlined jacket, so you need a fabric that is either double sided, reversible or has a nice back.  

I purchased the fabric pictured below a while back. It was a piece that I ordered online. I wasn't exactly pleased when it arrived. The fabric is fine, just not exactly what it looked like online. The fabric is more blood red than cherry red, and as it turns out, it will work perfectly with the Sydney Jacket pattern, so all is not lost. 

The pattern has been downloaded, printed, taped together and cut out, so now I just need to cut my fabric and get started. I'm so excited as I think this will be a super fun project.

And before I go, I wanted to share with you a fabric that I recently purchased. It's swirly!!!! The fabric is wool. I actually found it in the home dec department. It was marked down, but still expensive, so I purchased just enough for a skirt. I laid it over the red fabric above for the photograph, but I think I might underline it in black. We'll see. When the fabric is held up, the little swirly discs hang down and bounce. I think this is going to be a hoot to wear!

I can't wait to get my jacket together, so stay tuned for the final result. 
Be sure to take a little time for yourself. It really is so important.
Rhonda