Sleeves On Saturdays

I recently received this picture from Jenny. She said that she had been shopping, saw this jacket and decided that she could make it. As she looked at it a little more closely, she realized that she was a bit stumped with the pleats. A light bulb went off, "I can ask Rhonda if she'll help!"

Jenny had purchased this pattern as she felt that it would bring her close to the original jacket. I had hoped to find a good raglan sleeve jacket pattern, but I couldn't and so since Jenny already had this pattern, I bought one too. She had thought that the lavender jacket in the lower left hand corner would work. I don't like the fit of the sleeve. That sleeve is a basic dolman sleeve. So rather than that view, I will start with View A which is in the top right hand corner. This jacket has a set in sleeve. Today I am going to lay the foundation for this pattern by showing you how to take a set in sleeve and turn it into a raglan sleeve. 

Raglan sleeves are lovely. They are easy to sew and for many, the fit is better.
The Raglan Sleeve

 Begin with your straight sleeve pattern.

 Match the front bodice to the sleeve at the armpit curve of the sleeve. Where the bodice begins to move away from the sleeve, draw in a guide point. You can see this in red in the above picture. Your mark should be on the sleeve as well as the bodice.

 Do the same to the back.

Draw a guide line at the bicep line of your sleeve. This is the line that connects one armpit to the other on the sleeve. Rest your front and back bodice against your sleeve being careful not to overlap the lines. The guide points should match exactly.

Measure up 1" from the bicep line and mark. At your sleeve cap, draw in a guideline that is parallel to the bicep line. From the edge of your shoulder line on your bodice, measure over 1/2" on the guide line at the top of the cap of your sleeve. Do this on the front as well as the back. Now draw in a curved line as you see above. The line will end at the mark that is 1" from the bicep line. 

On your front and back bodice, measure in from the neckline 1" and draw a straight line to the original guide point. Curves fit the body better especially under the arm so curve this line into the armpit line of the sleeve.

Remove the sleeve pattern from your drafting. Your sleeve will look like the sleeve above.

Remove the front and back bodice from the drafting. Your patterns will look like the patterns above.

The final patterns. I did not add notches on my patterns above, but be sure to add notches so that you can easily match up your patterns.
This is the first step in the drafting of Jenny's jacket. Next Thursday I will show you how to make the pleats in the front of the jacket. I will be making this jacket so I will show my progress along the way. Should be fun!!

Fabulous Free Pattern Friday/Geometric Dreams Jacket

I feel like it has been such a long time since I've done a FFPF post. But it was only two weeks ago as I missed last Friday due to the fact that I was trying to get my garment finished for the Passion For Fashion contest. I have been wiped out all week, but I'm back with a fun little jacket. Believe it or not, it's just one rectangle, one half circle and one triangle. I'm calling it the 

Geometric Dreams Jacket 

The half circle actually wraps all the way around and stops at the center back neckline. The excess of the circle falls over the back or drapes to the front.

In this picture of the back, you can see the triangle that radiates out of center back.
This piece needs to be made with a knit. It does not need to be a two-way stretch knit, but it should have a nice stretch in the crosswise grain. The first measurement that you will need is the measurement around your arm.

Cut a rectangle from your fabric, I cut mine from one side of the selvedge to the other. The width of your rectangle will be the measurement around your arm. The width of my rectangle was 14". You will need to sew the ends of the rectangle and leave the center area open. This should not be tight under your arm, so you may need to adjust your stitching.

A view of the now tube from the back. This is just a basic shrug at this point.

Measure the center opening of the tube you have just sewn. This will determine the width of your half circle. You will need this measurement plus 6 to 8" for the top portion of the collar. I was able to use the width of my fabric. The length of your half circle will be the desired length from the bottom of the shrug/tube.

With your fabric folded, or if you need more width you will need a double piece of fabric. As you see above, draw in a curve along the edge of your fabric.

If you are able to cut the half circle on the fold, cut your half circle in half.

In order for the jacket to hang well at center back, you will need to add a triangle. The width of the triangle at the widest point should be 3/4 of your hip measurement. So if your hips are 40", your triangle at the widest point will be 30". The length will be the same as the center cut edge of your half circles. Sew together as you see above.  

Now take the half circles and the triangle that you have sewn together and sew to the center opening of your tube as you see above. leave the excess length of the half circle free. This will form the portion of the collar that drapes to the front of the jacket or over the back, your choice.

As I said, the triangle is necessary as the lower portion of the jacket will not hang free without the extra fabric. You can see below the center of the triangle at center back.

The triangle will wrap to the front and give your hips the room that they need.

Finish the edges, hem the sleeves and you are good to go. If you would like, you can taper the sleeves. I chose not to as I would like to wear other pieces under the jacket and I don't want the sleeves to end up being too tight. A super easy jacket and there are only 3 easy pieces!

Happy Friday Everyone!!!!

Bound Buttonholes

I'm just about finished with the jacket I started on Tuesday night.

A little topstitching, the hem and I'll be finished. At least that's one thing out of my to do drawer!!

What I thought I would share with you today is how I did the bound buttonhole that I put in my jacket. There are a number of ways to do bound buttonholes. I really like this method for coats, sometimes jackets, but primarily coats as the fabric can be rather heavy. 

I made a rather large buttonhole as I want it to be more than just a buttonhole, I would like for it to be an accent. There is only one buttonhole in the jacket.

 I used a rather large vintage button as well.

The method I am going to share today works great if you would like to do a buttonhole that has a decorative shape. For this reason I would use this method in a jacket.

To make the buttonhole, you will need a piece of lightweight matching fabric to back your buttonhole, although this is not always necessary. I used the fashion fabric to back the buttonhole that I put in my jacket. If you are using this method on a jacket, I would recommend using a lightweight fabric to back the buttonhole, and it should match your fashion fabric. For the example I used a contrasting fabric so you could see what I did.  

Measure the size of your button to determine the length of your buttonhole. This buttonhole can be any width you chose it to be, especially if you want it to be an accent to your garment. Generally though, the bound buttonhole is about 1/4" to 3/8" wide. Mark this rectangle shape on your fabric and sew in the rectangle shape as you see above.

Clip the buttonhole open. It is important to be precise. Cut down the middle to just about 1/2" from the ends and then cut to the corners being careful not to cut through the corners. Here is the tricky part, you really need to cut right to the corner so that when you turn the fabric it turns and does not leave a pucker at the corner.

 Turn the fabric and press.

Now you will have a lined rectangular shape. You can see a bit of the contrasting fabric I used as I wasn't as precise about my ironing as I should have been. Sorry about that!

Now cut 2 pieces of fabric for the lips of the buttonholes that are approximately 2 1/2" square.

Place 1 square on top of the other and sew a basting stitch down the center.

Fold the 2 sides back and press.

 Line up the center line of your buttonhole lips with the center of your rectangle.

 Pull one side back and pin the lining fabric to the lip fabric.

 Fold back the other side and pin that side in place as well.

 Now turn the buttonhole over and check to see if the stitching line is still in the middle. If not, adjust.

 Stitch down the long side of the buttonhole. You will be stitching through all layers.

 Turn and stitch the other side.

Check to make sure that there was no shifting while you were stitching down the long sides of your buttonhole. It's much easier to adjust at this point rather than later.

 Now fold back the ends and stitch down the small triangles that are at either end.

The buttonhole is finished. As I said above, I didn't press my facing fabric as well as I should have so you can see a bit of it along the edge. If this matched the fashion fabric, you would not be able to see this.

 The back of the buttonhole. Pull out the center basting thread and your buttonhole will open.

I have found this method to be fairly mistake proof when it comes to bound buttonholes. I hope you give it a try as I think that if you've never tried this method, you will really enjoy it.
Good luck, and if you have any questions, please feel free to shoot off an email and I will do my best to help.
Next week I will show you a lovely way to finish off the back of your bound buttonhole.

A Little Mindless Sewing Is In Order

I am still exhausted!! When you compete in a contest like Passion For Fashion, you are so focused on what you are doing and what you need to accomplish. Once it is all over, you crash, at least I do. For the life of me, I don't know how the contestants on Project Runway keep it up for days on end. It didn't help matters that I had a nasty headache that I couldn't get rid of for the two days of the competition. On Friday night, I basically didn't sleep. I spent most of the night worried about the pants that I drafted and whether or not they would fit. I kept thinking, "What were you thinking??" Pants out of a knit fabric can be very forgiving, but not so with a woven fabric. I know I can draft pants, but still the thoughts of doubt kept running through my mind. When my model arrived, I immediately had her try on the pants and they were wonderful. I can't even begin to explain how relieved I was. Although, anyone who has ever made a pair of pants I'm sure can understand why I would feel so anxious.
Now that the contest is behind me, I need to do something that takes very little thought and yet still feel as though I'm making some type of accomplishment. So off to the "To Do Drawer." Do you have a "To Do Drawer," the drawer where you keep the things you always intend to get to and for what ever reason never seem to? I have some beautiful pieces in my to do drawer, like a black cashmere coat, all cut, just waiting patiently for me to take it out and get it finished. For shame, for shame. Well, I have pulled a piece out of the drawer and I intend to work on it this evening.

I hold my head in shame as I cut this jacket out two winters ago. Shame, shame, shame. The pebbled fabric is actually an upholstery piece. It has a rather nice draped to it even though it is a heavier fabric. I'm using the striped piece for the lining and it is also an upholstery piece.

I just love the pattern and you can see from the line drawing that it just doesn't get much easier than this.

Another HUGE for shame is the fact that my bag was tossed aside, but I am determined to finish it and I will be posting the pattern within the next week if anyone is interested. As it turns out, the fabric that I'm lining the jacket with works beautifully with the bag.

Tomorrow is The Wednesday Showcase, but I'll do a small second post tomorrow afternoon and show you what I accomplish tonight. Thankfully, there is absolutely nothing on television to tempt me!

Wishing you all a wonderfully productive evening!

Monday Morning Inspiration

Good Morning, or afternoon to my friends on the other side of the world! I've been missing in action for a few days.

Back in July, I decided to throw my name in the pot as a potential contestant for the Passion For Fashion Contest that is sponsored by The American Sewing Expo. At the very last minute, July 2nd (the deadline for entry was July 2nd) I pulled a garment from my wardrobe, boxed it up and put it in the mail. Within a couple of weeks, I received a call that I had been chosen out of over 50 entries as a contestant. Wow, did I ever vacillate about my decision. Did I really want to put myself through this again? At one point I had talked myself into pulling out of the contest, but a friend of mine convinced me to give it a try. You've probably noticed many of my recent Sunday Night Reflection pieces had to do with fear, like this piece,  "Whenever  you are faced with a difficult decision, ask yourself: what would I do if I weren't afraid of making a mistake, feeling rejected, looking foolish, or being alone? Remove the fear, and the answer comes into focus." Over the last weeks, I've searched my heart about what I want and how I want to spend my time as well as standing up to whatever it is that scares me and those horrible memories from so long ago that still want to play an important role in the decisions I make. I am learning that each time I take a stand, face a fear, those memories have less power.

The time finally arrived and off I went to Novi, Michigan. On Thursday evening we chose our models and  had a few minutes to take their measurements. Friday morning we arrived at 7:30 to prepare our work stations and at 8 o'clock we found out what our challenge would be. We walked into the room and saw a series of bug pictures, beautiful pictures, but still....bugs. The theme of the contest was "Fashion Bugs Me." The twist came into play with the scenario. We were to create an outfit that would be worn to a cocktail event (not a gala or evening gown event) at a museum that was having the opening of a new bug installation. And finally, the garment was to be fashion forward.

My bug was the Thread Wasted Wasp. A rather interesting bug. I loved the deep blue/black and the little pop of color in his tail, but what was I going to make?????  

 

What I decided to do was find fabric first and let that help to inspire me. As it turned out, there was only one piece of fabric in the entire expo that really worked. I grabbed it and came back to my work station and gave the bug a good look. As I focused more on the bug, I saw his long skinny legs and I thought they looked like pants, long skinny cigarette pants. But his legs are broken by the segments, so I thought of doing a little skinny skirt over the pants. And then there is the issue of the big chest. I initially thought of doing a jacket with some volume with a large collar. Thankfully, I drafted the pants first and cut them out and then I draped the skirt and cut that out. Had I done the jacket first, I would not have had enough fabric for the pants, so I'm glad that I decided to start at the bottom and build up.   

Sadly, my pictures of the garment are horrible, but at least you can get an idea of the outfit.   

This is my beautiful model Gabrielle. I need to brag on her for just a moment. She's a high school senior and a real brain, valedictorian of her class!! I've only had a bit of time with her, but I am so impressed. I hope to stay in contact and watch as her life unfolds. She is such a beautiful person, inside and out and I think she has an incredible future in front of her.

As I said, my pictures do not do Gabrielle justice. This young woman has legs that just don't stop so the pants looked incredible on her. The little over skirt was lined with a coral fabric to pick up the coral in the tail of the wasp. It is difficult to see in the picture, but there is a hint of the lining showing around the neckline as well.

Since I did not have enough fabric to make a jacket, I ended up doing a top and having the collar cinch in at the waste. I think it was a better choice than the jacket would have been.

To give a hint of the wings of the wasp, the back of the top has points that lay over the top of the skirt.  

The garment on display. The reason that you see the lining of the top is because it will not fit over the dress form. This particular dress form does not have shoulders that will collapse, so for something so fitted, it makes it impossible to put on the form. In this picture you get a better idea of how long the legs are on the pants.   

In the end, I did not win. Oh well. I did win the Audience Choice Award. Nice and a BIG, BIG thank you to everyone who voted for me.

What I loved most about the experience though was the opportunity that I had to meet a few of you who visit my blog. A lovely lady named Ruth came by and told me that she loves my blog and said that when she sees that I have a new post it feels to her that a good friend has stopped in to chat. Lovely. I also met Patty of http://www.sewmuchknitting.blogspot.com/. What fun it was to have a few moments with her. Another lovely lady made a point of stopping by. She had called before I went to Novi and she had told me that whether I won or not, I was a winner in her eyes. So very sweet. Chris from Indianapolis stopped by to say hi. It was wonderful to see her again. At the moment I'm having a bit of a brain freeze and I can't put my finger on all of you who stopped by, but please believe me when I say that each of you touched my heart in such a special way. The fact that you come by and take time to read my blog is an incredible honor. I'm going to sound like a Southwest Airlines pilot when I say this, (they usually say, "We know you have many options and we would just like to thank you for choosing Southwest) but there are so many blogs, so many places that are vying for your time and the fact that you take a few moments out of your day and spend them with me is as I said, an incredible honor. So today I have no pretty pictures of incredible garments to share with you, but I want you all to know that you are my inspiration.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart,

Rhonda