The Waffle Patterns Pepernoot Coat Sew Along Fabric Reveal

I can finally reveal the fabric that I have chosen to use for the Pepernoot Coat sew along that I am doing for Sew News. One thing for sure, I will not be lost in a crowd! The body of the coat will be the fabric with the black ground and the cobalt blue flowers. The camera really didn't capture the true intensity of the color. The fabric is a heavy twill. The flowers are chenille with a velvet center. The more abstract print I plan to use for the lining. 

I shared the abstract piece with you last week. It's a piece that I purchased from Tessuti Fabrics in Australia. I will need to line the sleeves in a black flannel-back lining as I'm just a little short on the fabric needed to line the entire coat. The picture below is a better representation  of the true colors. I'm really excited as I think it will make for such a fun coat!

My post for this week's edition of the sew along is up on the Sew News blog and you can find it HERE. I really went into depth about the pattern as I know that there are a number of you who have never made a coat and are feeling a little nervous. As I say in the post, I think that you'll find that a coat is no more difficult than a blouse or a dress. So read through the post and take note of the different aspects of the pattern. Of course the first step to success is correctly cutting out the pattern. If by chance you decide that you would like to lengthen the pattern, please be sure to lengthen the;
1.front skirt
2.back skirt
3.front facing
4.front band
If you miss a piece, the pattern will not go together correctly and you'll be frustrated until you figure out what you've done. I know, I've made that mistake :) It might also be that you won't have enough fabric to correct your mistake, and then you'll not only be frustrated, but aggravated as well. Again...I've made that mistake as well. 
One last comment on the pattern. The pocket is marked on the front skirt. I suggest waiting to determine the pocket placement. When I made my coat, I did not place the pocket where it is indicated on the pattern. My suggestion is to get the pocket made and then determine the placement. Rather than make the pocket first as it shows in the instructions, we will be sewing the body of the coat together first and then making the pocket. Once the body of the coat is made, you can then try it on and decide where you would like to place the pocket. 

Good luck as you begin your coat sewing journey. 
If you have any questions, please let me know. You may leave a comment here on this post, or on the Sew News blog post. Either way, I'll get the message and be able to respond.
Happy Sewing!
Rhonda

The Last Patternmaker

At 82, she has helped create a successful company. An amazing story of skill and determination. In case you missed it on Facebook, I thought I would share it here. 

Sunday Night Reflections

Remember, 

There's no such thing as a small act of kindness. 

Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.

                                                                                                           Scott Adams

Even a piece of chocolate given in kindness can save a life.

Eating For Your Health/Roasted Cauliflower Wraps with a Twist

It's no secret that I LOVE roasted cauliflower, roasted vegetables in general, but especially roasted cauliflower. Last November, I shared a recipe for Grilled Cauliflower Wraps. Makes for a nice light supper, or a great sandwich when you're on the go.

This past week, I received an email from a fellow Texan. She told me that during Lent, she usually serves fried fish on Fridays, but this year decided to do something a little healthier, so she gave the roasted cauliflower wraps a try, but wait till you see what she did.

Rather than just roasted cauliflower, she mixed green bell peppers and onions with the cauliflower and roasted all together. If you look closely below, you'll see that I added a sliced jalapeno pepper to my mixture.

Below is my mixture just before it went into the oven. I had fun with spices too! 

While the vegetables were in the oven, I chopped up a bunch of fresh cilantro. 

 Vegetables roasted and ready to go.

I made up a batch of fresh hummus and smeared it on a whole grain tortilla. 

Topped the hummus with the roasted vegetables and freshly chopped cilantro, rolled it all together and then made my taste buds sing! 

If you would like to give it a try, here's the recipe;

1 head of cauliflower

1 green bell pepper

1 Spanish onion sliced

1 jalapeno pepper sliced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon garlic powder

homemade or purchased hummus

1 bunch fresh cilantro

whole grain tortillas

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Once you have broken the cauliflower into small florets, slice the bell pepper, onions, and jalapeno. Add spices and olive oil. Mix well. Pour on to a foil lined baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees until vegetables are golden brown and tender.

Build your wrap, roll and eat!

Thank you so much Lamar for your suggestions on the wraps. I can't wait to make this again, and again, and again!

See, a healthy diet can be fun :-)

Enjoy!

Rhonda

Sleeves On Saturday/The Cold Shoulder Sleeve

You aren't seeing things, it really is a Saturday sleeve post!
I hope your Saturday is off to a great start. I'm on my 3rd cup of tea and listening to some great music. We have a wonderful radio station here in Chicago called WXRT. On Saturday mornings, they have a featured program called The Saturday Morning Flashback. Every Saturday morning, they flashback to a year gone by. Today is 1968. The music is fabulous. I was a little girl at the time, but I loved listening to my radio. I also loved everything about the fashion of that period. I wasn't allowed to wear much of what I liked...but I dreamed of a time when I could :-).
I received a message from a lovely lady who lives in England asking if I could help her with a cold shoulder sleeve. I thought it was a typo, maybe she meant a bold shoulder??? Nope, she meant cold shoulder. Since I had no idea what a cold shoulder sleeve would be, she sent along a picture. Once I saw the picture...ohhhh. 

This is a very easy sleeve to do. In order to get the fit that is in the picture above, the garment must be made in a knit fabric. Begin with a t-shirt pattern, or a knit dress pattern. 

Here's my sleeve. 

If you'll notice in the inspiration picture, the shoulder is cut away a little. In order to give a little hint of a cut away shoulder, but still be able to wear a normal bra with the top, I came in 1" from the shoulder edge and blended the line back to the notch. 

And I did the exact same thing to the front of the pattern. I did not cut the seam allowance off the armhole of the pattern. Once I drew in my new style line, the pattern was cut on the new line.There will be no need to add seam allowance.  

Now for the sleeve. 
Square a line across the top portion of the sleeve from the front notch to the back notch.

The front and back notches on the sleeve should be approximately at the point where the armpit hits the chest. I think the top line of the sleeve should be a bit higher, so I came up 1/2" from the notch line. 

You could come up a little higher if you wish. In the picture below, my ruler is sitting 1" above the notch line. I felt that this was a little too high, but you are the designer, so you get to decide what you like best :-) Remember, you can always cut away the excess, but adding it back can be a chore, or maybe impossible.

Once you have determined where the top of your sleeve should be, find the middle of the sleeve and place a mark at midpoint. From that point, measure down from the midpoint 1/8". Draw a slightly curved line back to the edge of the sleeve. 

Add 1/4" seam allowance to the new style line. 

Now cut away the top of the sleeve. 

There are a number of ways that the top of the sleeve could be finished. I opted to cut a 1" wide strip and sew it to the top of my sleeve prior to setting the sleeve into the top. 

This gave a small casing just in case I wanted to add a touch of elastic. It wasn't necessary, but it's nice to have the option.

 The neckline was finished in the same manner.

 I have not finished the shoulder edge, but I will be adding a strip to the edge of the shoulder as well. 

My almost finished top.
The sleeves on most t-shirt patterns have ease from the armpit to the wrist. Keep this in mind with your sleeve as you may want to taper the sleeve to achieve a more fitted look. 

As I said, the sleeve is quite easy to draft. It's rather fun to wear too. Think about maybe wearing it under a jacket. The of element surprise when you take your jacket off would be such fun!!!

Master Sewing and Design Certification/Piped Pockets

If by chance you are thinking about taking the plunge and working toward Master Sewing And Design Certification, I wanted to let you know that most of the techniques that I'm sharing with you at this point are not a part of the requirements. For instance, you will need to demonstrate a welt pocket, but it does not need to be a piped welt pocket. I think that the tutorials offer great information, and hopefully help you in projects that you take on. Something that you might want to think about doing is getting a notebook, doing the samples for yourself and building your own sample notebook. A notebook like this can be a wonderful resource. I made one when I was in school...lots of years ago :)...and I loved my notebook. Sadly, we had a flood and I lost the book, but I am now building a new one. For those of you who teach, this is a great resource to have and to share.  

Today I wanted to do a welt pocket with purchased piping. This is a fun technique to have in your sewing arsenal as you can customize your garments with a purchased piece of piping, or even create your own. Since the piping that I'm using is quite small, it could also be used to make bound buttonholes, and the process would be basically the same. 

Piped Welt Pockets

The fabric that I'm using is a piece of raw silk.  

Depending upon where you want to place your pocket, and the type of fabric that you are using, you may want to back the pocket opening with a piece of interfacing. I used a piece of cotton fusible interfacing. Just be sure that the interfacing corresponds to the fabric.

As we did with the triangle buttonhole, marking is very important. Notice here that I have marked the center of my pocket and the ends. Hand basting is best for this step.  

The size of the piping may not be as wide as the tape that is holding the piping, so be sure to measure the width of the piping before you begin. My piping is approximately 1/8" wide. 

Once I determine the width of my piping, I then marked the outside edge of the pocket. 

Align the piping with the basted edge of the pocket.

Stitch down the piping, starting and stopping at the marked ends of the pocket. I stitched the piping to the fabric on the right side, but it's easier to see the stitching from the back side.

Once the piping has been stitched to the garment, clip the pocket open, using the center basted line as a guideline.  

Stop clipping about a half inch away from the ends, and clip a small v shape as you see below.

Turn the edges of the piping to the inside of the pocket opening and press.

Now that the piping is in place, we will add the pocket bag to the inside. Begin by stitching the pocket facing to the lower piped edge. Once the pocket facing has been stitched to the lower edge of the piping, simply fold it down and press.

Now stitch the top pocket to the top edge of the piping.

Once the top pocket and the pocket facing have been stitched in place, it's time to sew the pocket together.

Turn the pocket over and make sure that the piping is aligned and you are happy with how it all looks. Maybe give it a little light steam, depending upon your fabric. 

Fold back the sides and reveal the small triangle that was cut at the ends of the pocket.  

Beginning on one side, stitch across the triangle, right at the edge of the pocket and continue stitching around the pocket to the other side and stitch across the opposite triangle.  

All I need to do now is take the basting stitches out of my fabric and my pocket is complete. 

If by chance you are using a piece of piping that is encased in fabric, you will probably want to pull a little of the piping out from the edge so that you don't have to sew over the piping. A larger piece of piping could also leave a bump on the right side of the garment which you would not want. The piping that I used is quite small and basically pressed flat, so it is not an issue. 

The Pattern Review Weekend will be May 13th and 14th, here in Chicago. If by chance you are coming, be sure to check out Chicago Fabric Yarn and Button located at 208 South Wabash. The shop is not a large shop, but if you don't mind digging, you can find some wonderful treasures. The piping that I used for this demonstration was purchased there. This is our only downtown fabric store. All the other stores are either in the suburbs, or will require a ride on the elevated train. 

I hope this tutorial will inspire you to be creative with your pockets and buttonholes. Think about building a sample notebook. I have lots of tutorials coming up and I think you will enjoy having the notebook as a reference.

Happy Sewing,

Rhonda

Coming Up On The Blog/Piped Pockets and Buttonholes/A Contest

Do you ever have the best intentions, and then get side tracked? I did last night. I had every intention of popping into my studio and working on the tutorial for you, but ended up watching a series that I love on our public broadcasting station. The program is called "Finding Your Roots." It traces the family history of well know people. I find it fascinating...obviously :-). 

So coming up a little later is a tutorial that I thought at least a few of you might be interested in, bound buttonholes and welt pockets made with piping. Easy to do, and they can be customized, so a fun trick to have in your sewing arsenal. I'll be using the polka dot fabric and the striped piping that you see below.

I always enjoy seeing your purchases, so I thought you might enjoy a recent purchase that I made. Tessuti Fabrics in Australia is such a lovely shopping experience. Thank God I don't live there as I would have no money, great clothes, but no money!

Tessuti recently sent out an announcement that they would be sponsoring a new contest. You can read all about it HERE.Two fabrics have been chosen for the competition, sadly the one I chose is sold out. Too bad, it's really pretty.

The other fabric is also lovely, I just like pink and purple better. You can see the other piece in the picture below. If you like the fabric, and think you might like to dip your toe into the competition, you can find the fabric HERE. Both are silk, so a bit of a challenge, but so pretty and I think worth the effort. 

As I said, the experience of shopping with Tessuit is always so lovely. The fabric arrives beautifully packaged and tied in a piece of Tessuti ribbon. I was so excited when my package arrived and I tore into the package before getting a picture. They also take great care to protect the fabric during transit by wrapping it in an extra piece of plastic wrapping.  

So here's what I purchased. The piece below was a remnant that had been greatly reduced. Just couldn't help myself :-) 

This piece is absolutely lovely. I had planned a skirt, but now that I have it, it may become something else. We'll see. Sadly, I looked all over the website and couldn't find it, so it most likely is sold out.

 My photograph does not do this fabric justice. It's actually a panel. The fabric is still available and you can find it HERE. Be sure to click on the dress that they made with the fabric. Super cute!  

We'll see what I do with the silk. The contest ends on April 30th, so a little time. It's a piece that I think I can use for the competition and another project that I'm working on, so double duty, always good.
I'll be back a little later this afternoon with the piped pocket tutorial.
Have a wonderful day!
Rhonda