Fast Really Can Be Fabulous!

Making a garment that requires many steps, underlining, lining, handstitching, bound buttonholes, etc. can be a wonderful challenge. But there are times when we just want to make something up quickly that will still result in a good looking garment, and of course, something that doesn't look homemade. The Fast and Fabulous Jacket from Islander Sewing really fits the bill. It's super fast to make, and the results are, well, fabulous!

Since this is an unlined jacket, I chose a fabric that basically does not have a right or wrong side. 

 Here's my almost finished jacket. 

The back. As you can see, the fabric is a bit of an abstract stripe/plaid, so it required a bit of matching, but not down center back since there is no center back seam.

Although the garment is unlined, we still want the inside to look polished and finished. The first step has you serge the edges of the front, back, and sleeves. Another option would be to bind the edges, but of course this takes more time. And because of the way the way that the pattern has been designed, lining it would also be a snap. So lots of options.

In the photo below, I turned my jacket wrong side out so you could see the serged seams.

Love the shaped hemline. A nice aspect about a shaped hemline is that it is especially slimming. 

If you look closely, you'll see that I have not hemmed my sleeves. One thing to keep in mind is that I found the sleeves to be short, and I do not have long arms. So in cutting your jacket, you might want to add a few inches to sleeve. Remember, the extra can always be cut off. A bit of a challenge to add it back. For me the fix will be easy as I'll just bind the edge of the sleeve.

  

The facing finishes the jacket in a snap. I sewed my facing together and then pressed back 1/4" prior to sewing the facing to the jacket. Once the facing was attached, I pinned down the facing and stitched it down. Finished!!!

The jacket was designed to either be made with no buttonholes, or just 1 at the neckline. I decided to do a little something different and used a purse clasp.

I like the unexpected touch :)

I did make a slight alteration to the jacket and tapered it in at the waistline. I did find the pattern very true to size, so pay attention to the measurements prior to cutting. 

The jacket is designed with raglan sleeves, so it's easy to fit and even easier to sew. 

I have not sewn in the pockets at this point. I wanted to get the jacket together before adding the pockets. If you've never done a welt pocket, by all means, give it a try on a scrap prior to sewing it into your jacket. But, the instructions really make the process quite simple, so give it a try.

If you didn't catch yesterday's post, Janet is offering the pattern at a 20% discount to all who come by the blog. Just use the code SEWBUSS at checkout. You can find the paper pattern HERE, and the downloadable pattern HERE. The discount is good until July 22, 2017. 

Happy Sewing!
Rhonda

The Fast and Fabulous Jacket Pattern Giveaway and a Treat For All!

Good Morning!
My day begin with a shivering dog panting in my ear at 4:00 a.m. mind you.  We have quite a thunderstorm rolling through Chicago. As much as it upsets my poor dog, I love summer thunderstorms as they make my tomatoes grow. There's nothing like rain water for the garden and the added electricity of a thunderstorm seems to make everything burst with growth. So, always a silver lining :)

Today is the announcement of the winners of the Fast and Fabulous Jacket pattern from Islander Sewing. So without further adieu, the winners are...

Sewlovely

Angela

Karen Roop

Congratulations Ladies!!! Be sure to email me right away at sewbussted@yahoo.com with you mailing instructions so I can pass it along to Janet. I know she would like to get your patterns out to you as soon as possible.

Now for everyone else...

Janet has agreed to give you a 20% discount on the pattern!!! How nice :) To get your discount, just use the code SEWBUSS at checkout.  The discount will be good until July 22, 2017. You can find the paper pattern HERE, and the downloadable pattern HERE.

I made up the jacket last week and was quite happy with the results. So pop back by tomorrow to see what I made :)

Have a  wonderful day!
Rhonda 

Sunday Night Reflections

What a week I have had! 

I was back out at the airport hoping to finish up the annual inspection. Once we had the new alternator, along with the new alternator bracket on the plane, the new throttle cable installed, the new nose wheel tire installed, we rolled it out to start it up, check the compression and make sure that there were no oil leaks. A turn of the key and we found that the battery didn't have enough power to turn the engine over. My mechanic explained that when the alternator fails, it really taxes the battery. He said that we could charge it over night and maybe get it back. I shook my head no and said, "look, winter isn't that far away and I don't want to end up getting stuck somewhere because I didn't put a new battery on the plane." He agreed, and we ordered a new battery. He could see that I was heart broken as I really wanted to get it back up and running. But all in good time. One thing being a pilot will teach you is patience, whether you like it or not. 

I had a glorious day at home on Friday, and I made up the new Fast and Fabulous jacket pattern from Islander Sewing. I was all set to post my pictures and share my jacket. Sat down to turn on my laptop, and I couldn't get the screen to come up for love of money. The computer was on, but no screen, total blackness. So a call to my nieces's husband begging for help. Actually, I really don't have to beg, he's so very generous about helping me out, thank goodness!!! He came by and it ended up being an easy fix. Again, thank goodness. 

We attended a glorious wedding yesterday. I'll share what I made to wear and more about the wedding in another post. It was truly a fairy-tale wedding. Perfect from start to finish. In fact, the father of the bride was the friend who shared with us the lovely letter that his uncle wrote about his evening with the king and queen of England. 

Now on to something delicious!

Earlier this week, I was thinking about what I might make for dinner. I had a big bunch of parsley in the refrigerator. As I looked at it, the thought came to me that it just might make up an interesting twist on a traditional pesto. So, I de-stemmed the parsley, and then went out to my garden and chopped off a hunk of fresh chives. I felt that Parmesan  cheese would work best as the flavor of the parsley is somewhat delicate. But rather than use pine nuts, I used walnuts as I like the meatier taste of a walnut. I used the pesto in a simple pasta dish and it was so, so good!

To make the pesto, begin with 2 packed cups of de-stemmed parsley and 1/2 cup of fresh chopped chives. 

Put the parsley and the chives in the bowl of a food processor. Add 2 large cloves of garlic, 1 cup of chopped walnuts, 1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese, 1 cup of good olive oil. Salt and black pepper to taste.

Process until smooth.

I like to store mine in a plastic container.

It can be used on sandwiches, added to pasta for a quick and easy dinner. I'm going to roast some cauliflower with the pesto for tonight's dinner. Actually, any roasted vegetables would be nice with the pesto. So be inventive and have some fun!

One last thing that I thought I would share is fresh chive butter. Actually, this can be done with any leftover herbs. I'm sure that like me, you purchase herbs for a particular dish, use a few and then the rest goes bad as you don't use them quickly enough.

So whether you have chives, or another herb, allow a stick of butter to come to room temperature. Chop the herbs into the butter, and stir to combine.  

Plop the herbed butter onto some plastic wrap.

Wrap the plastic around the butter and roll into a log, and refrigerate.

If you aren't going to use the butter right away, put it in the freezer. Just be sure to label it so that you know which herb you used!

Try experimenting and mix several herbs together. 

I used my herbed butter on some grilled salmon. It was so good. Also great on a morning bagel :), baked potato or any other vegetable that you might like to grill.

Perfect Parsley and Chive Pesto

Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups packed de-stemmed parsley

½ cup fresh chopped chives

1 cup good olive oil

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese

2 large cloves garlic

1 cup chopped walnuts

Salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

Combine all ingredients in food processor. Process until smooth consistency.

Enjoy on grilled vegetables, with pasta, and on a sandwich.

Let's Celebrate With A Giveaway!!!

Here in the United States, it's the 4th of July, a day for celebrating. So it's all the more fitting, that I have something wonderful to share and celebrate. Janet Pray of Islander Patterns is just about to launch a brand new pattern, the Fast and Fabulous Jacket. And even better, she has given me the opportunity to give away 3 patterns!!! That's right 3 patterns!

This is a great jacket for pulling a look together. Great for airplane rides that can be a little chilly, and wonderful to pull on over a simple pair of black pants and create an entirely new look, so the perfect addition to a travel wardrobe.

The jacket features raglan sleeves, a u-shaped neckline, and welt pockets. The u-shaped neckline is perfect for pairing with scarves and even a statement piece of jewelry.   

The jacket is made even more flattering with the extended back length. View B features a split tail that would be fun to accent with eyelets and lacing.

The jacket is unlined, so perfect for spring, summer and fall. The design lends itself to everything from fun home dec fabrics, to denim, and even leather. 

So if you would like an opportunity to win 1 of the 3 patterns that I have to give away, just leave a message on this post. Simple!!!

You'll have until midnight CST Sunday June 9, 2017 to enter your name. Names will be drawn and winners announced on Monday, June 10, 2017.

Good Luck!!!

Rhonda

Sunday Night Reflections

Rolling A Burrito/Finishing The Easy V Express Top Neckline

One of the things that I've come to enjoy the most about the blog is chatting with all of you, sharing a bit of my life and hopefully, a few bits of inspiration. 

Back in May, I had an alternator failure on the airplane. A few years ago, I was on my way to Cincinnati with a dog in tow. The dog was the kind of rescue flight that I enjoy most as he was going to his new home. Before I left Chicago, I noticed a whirring sound in my headset. I adjusted the squelch, the sound went away, all of my other pre-flight checks were good, so off I went. After about an hour in flight, I once again heard the whirring sound, I once again adjusted the squelch, and it went away. Then suddenly, about 30 miles out of Cincinnati, a screaming noise came through the headset, and then...total silence. All of my electrical equipment was gone, and at that point, I had no idea what may go wrong next, so it was a 'get it on the ground now' situation. Luckily, there was a small country airport just a mile or so away. Since I had no means of communicating, I did a scan of the area, said a prayer, and began my approach. I'm still here, so you know it all went well :)

As it turned out, not only did I have an alternator fail, the battery had boiled over and fried the battery box. Just a mess of a situation. But, the mechanic was able to get me back up and running enough to get the plane back to Chicago. Before leaving, he drilled into me that I was basically flying a broken airplane and that I needed to take extreme caution. Once in flight, turn off the radios and don't turn anything on until I was where someone could easily come and get me. As I entered the Chicago airspace, I turned on my transponder, all was good. Then I turned on 1 radio, still good. I called Midway tower, got my squawk code and at that point, even if everything failed, I should be able to make it home. When the gear touched down at Midway, it was the biggest sense of relief I've ever felt! Thankfully, the recent alternator failure wasn't nearly as exciting. I realized what was happening before I ever left the ground. 

This past week, my mechanic and I met at the airport to install the alternator and do the annual inspection. At one point as he was working, he said, "hmmm, not good." I've learned over the years to just take whatever it is in stride, after all, I'm on the ground, and at this point, anything can be fixed. The insulation around the throttle cable was gone and the cable was quite worn. So, what does this mean? Well, the cable could break in flight which means that you no longer have control of the throttle. He told me that he has heard of cases where when the pilot pulled back on the throttle that the entire thing came out in their hand. Well, that would make for a fun situation...NOT!!! 

My new throttle cable arrived yesterday. It's so pretty. My husband laughed about how excited I was about a throttle cable. I reminded him that a throttle cable is a lifeline. He no longer thought it to be so funny.  

At long last, I finally have the video together for the burrito neckline finishing method. If you haven't already figured it out, I think you are going to love learning this new technique. In the picture below, you see the back neckline of the dress that I made using the Islander Easy V Express Top pattern. Very nicely finished.

                

Now a view from the inside.

And because the back is finished so well, the front neckline also lays beautifully against the garment.

In the video, you'll hear how I made this video. It's a little funny :/ Oh, and I want to apologize as I have been dealing with allergies the last few days, so my voice is a little weak. But all in all, I think the video will give you a good idea of how to execute the burrito method and beautifully finish the neckline of your garment.

With anything in life, knowledge is king. Be it dealing with a mechanical failure in an airplane, or knowing how to make what we do even better. 

I came across this quote and I thought it would be a nice way to end the post;

Real knowledge like everything else of value is not to be obtained easily. 

It must be worked for, studied for, thought for, and even more, 

practiced.