coat Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Handmade by Carolyn

jasika blazer

02/03/2019 3:44 pm \ 22 Comments \ Carolyn

Remember in my 2018 end of year round-up I mentioned briefly I had made a Big Thing? Well this is it! A tailored blazer… this is the Jasika blazer, the newest design by Heather of Closet Case patterns.

Well, what a project! I really really enjoyed making this; sinking my teeth into my most involved and meaty project in ages! since I’d pretty much fallen into the lackadaisical habit of quick and easy “ordinary” things for quite a long time prior. I was very ready to take on something a bit more contemplative, careful and slow-fashion-y, and this was a really nice thing to ease back into that… I’m so glad Heather asked me to test for her again!

The Jasika blazer is described as a classic tailored jacket, made utilising modern speed tailoring techniques, with fusible interfacing and minimal hand-stitching, but rest assured, purists! there is still hand-stitching where it counts! And I do really appreciate that the process for making this blazer is nicely catering to the modern-day maker that still wants to sew timeless classics for themselves but might be time poor, and so might prefer to do as much by machine as possible.

Materials: I used a length of lovely raspberry-rusty silk/wool tweed given to me by my friend L when she cleaned out her garage, and it was perfect for the job! I love the luscious colour; I think it’s a good one for my colouring, and of course the texture is totally divine… I lined with black polyacetate lining fabric, another longterm resident from my stash; and mostly used the tailor-made (ha!) interfacing/notions package that Heather is stocking specifically for this project. This kit contains fusible woven and knit interfacing, horsehair canvas, padded sleeve heads and shoulder pads and cotton stay tape. Boy, but this is a really fab little kit too and I SO appreciated this! It’s not always that easy to get quality tailoring bits and pieces like this in Perth so it was just brilliant to have them at hand, to help me get a really nice finish to my blazer. Because you really want this to turn out as good as you can get it; a tailored blazer is quite the time-consuming project and it would be nice for the materials to be worthy of your time!

I dithered on whether to use my own label, or the Me-Made from Closet Case patterns. Cassie said why not use both, why not indeed…

I honestly can’t remember now whether I bought the perfectly matching button from Fabulous Fabrics or from Spotlight now. I scouted through both shops, and bought candidates from both shops too! so much agonising!… and now its provenance is lost in the hazy mists of time… I did really take my time with the buttonhole though, and made a mini double welt one, so as to match those pockets.

Oh! Pockets… I LOVE all the pockets in this blazer! I jammed every single one of them into my blazer, in order to test all the pocket options for the pattern of course! Not that I’m a complete pocket-whore or anything, o no! There are three; a single welt breast pocket, a double welt hip pocket, and a double welt with flap hip pocket. I’m actually toying with the idea of opening out the lining and adding an extra, internal welt pocket to the inside of the jacket too… but that will have to wait until I get a few more, ahem VIP’s; and by that I mean Very Important Projects, out of the way! #drowninginweddingsewing

We’re not supposed to reveal a project before the pattern’s been released, which is sometimes so hard to do… I did however sneakily wear the blazer out for real, once, one coolish day (below). Fortunately for me, it’s been quite summer-y and not conducive to blazer wearing, and I felt sorry for all the northern hemisphere testers who have no doubt been dying to wear their splendid new blazers! The pattern has been released just at the right time for us in the southern hemisphere, yay… how often does that happen? not very often! Though, it was 35C when I was taking all these photos… my husband thought I was bonkers putting on tights, boots, woolly top and blazer in this heat. I was like, but it’s a winter thing, I have to look the part, even if I’m legit dying! Aah, the things we do…

Not only did I thoroughly enjoy making my new blazer, I’m really quite proud of how it turned out, and am very much going to enjoy wearing it too. I might even be… dare I say it? looking forward to winter?? Going too far?? maybe!!

Details:

Blazer; the Jasika blazer, Closet Case patterns, raspberry/rust will/wool tweed
Skirt; Vogue 1247, purple denim dyed brown, details here
Top; modified Nettie, Closet Case patterns, ivory wool/mix, details here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp boutique

White dress; the Inari by Named patterns, in white ultra-bobbly stuff, details here
Caramel leather sandals, from an op shop years ago

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: Closet Case files, coat, daily outfit, jacket, jasika blazer

floral trench coat

26/09/2018 8:54 pm \ 72 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a new trench coat; a riotously floral-tastic, blowsy English rose of a trench coat. As soon as I spotted this print I was smitten! delightfully old-fashioned, vaguely reminiscent of Granny’s china cabinet and a wholly unabashed celebration of spring-time. Because that’s what it finally is now… SPRING!!!

This very thing, by which I mean an over-the-top floral trench coat, is a thing I’ve had percolating in my mental wish-list for aaaages, ever since I first laid eyes on the floral trenches by Burberry from a few years back. I originally bought this paler pink magnolias floral fabric to make the trench coat but got distracted and made that dress instead, obviously! Anyway, a little after I finished that dress, I still really really wanted my imagined floral trench coat, so I bought some more floral sateen. And I’ve finally made it!

Pattern; McCalls 5525 view E, the view with all the bells and whistles. The only things I left off were the flap thingies over the pockets, because I didn’t have enough buttons for them!

Fabric; a floral cotton sateen, from Spotlight. The trench is fully lined with pure white cotton poplin, also from Spotlight, and the buttons… the buttons! – are totally gorgeous vintage ones that I’ve had for about ten years. I was actually the lucky person to get them in a Secret Santa pressie swap at a very early Burda sewing community meet-up, way back in 2010? I think?

I had only 11; they are a deep bottle green, possibly made from Bakelite or something very similar. I’ve been looking out for yeeeeeers for the the perfect project for them and I thought this trench coat was it… they are in fact a perfect colour match for the deep teal-y/ocean-green of the foliage in the print. However! now they’re all stitched on, I’m not completely sure the fabric was the right choice for them after all? ahhhh, the agony of high, followed by unattained, hopes and expectations! The thing is; the busy busy busy colourful print, while it is really gorgeous and I LOVE it! it really just swallows up the impact of those buttons and at any distance you can hardly see them on there at all. They just disappear. As in, buttons, what buttons? I can’t seen any glorious buttons!! The fact that they are beautifully profiled, and slightly marbled, and vintage, well, you’d never know. So, I’m just thinking, maybe? I should substitute them for some plain buttons, and save my exquisite vintage buttons for another project – another, different trench coat, something in a solid colour where the buttons can really be allowed to shine? Hmmm….

the one under the collar is not one of the original set, it’s a modern, plastic, flatter one…

Making a coat is always an activity that brings me huge amounts of joy and satisfaction, and this one did too, keeping me blissfully pottering away the whole time I was working on it. Constructing all the little bits and bobs that go into a trench coat, like the tabs, the collar, putting in the sleeves and bagging out a lining is enormously fulfilling to me, just about as enjoyable as any project I can think of. I’m totally in zen mode, throughout. As it happens, I’m perfectly happy with all the construction details of this one; all my seams and sleeve insertion and symmetry of the tabs and collar, the walking vent, topstitching, and the neatness of my buttonholes and all that jazz all worked out exactly as I hoped, and I’m very pleased with all this.

for some reason, this arrowhead tab on the collar stand is always an especially pleasing detail to me!

So that’s all super good and satisfactory. However?! I have to admit to a little frisson of disappointment at the halfway point of making this coat, at about the point when the body was together, and I slung it over Bessie and took a step back to have a first look… and, oh dear. See, I had barely enough fabric to cut out my trench, and in fact several pieces are pieced together! Which ones? oooh, I’ll never tell!!! See if you can see the seams! But that’s not the problem here, after all, piecing is something I’ve done in a lot of garments because of lack of fabric and I’m perfectly ok with doing that when I have to…. The thing is, I really had to be clever about laying out the pattern pieces to have any hope at all of getting the coat cut out, and I did some very premature self back-patting when I managed to lay out the pieces. Because the way the print has turned out on the finished coat is just not good. Specifically; the front is quite a lot “busier” than the back, and I wish I could have been switched-on enough to see that while I was juggling those pattern pieces but sadly, I did not. The front and the back are to my eye almost like two completely different coats, which is very sad-making (please excuse my little Evelyn Waugh-ism there…)

It’s definitely not as obvious when the coat is worn open, like this; which to be honest is how I was planning to wear it most of the time anyway.

I can’t do anything about the unbalanced “busy-ness” of the print; but as far as the button issue goes, well I’m gonna wear it for a while and sleep on it, but button-switching may just happen sometime down the track.

I’ll just see how it goes for a while. The coat is quite lovely to wear, and perfectly comfy, well-fitting, and I did pour myself into making it well. Oh well. I’ll give it a crack! Quite often, early dissatisfactions I have with a project evaporate a little bit down the track when I look at it one day and kinda go, what was I worried about? I adore the overall vibe of my trench coat, how it looks when worn both belted closed and open are both very pleasing to me, and as usual, wearing a coat always makes me feel amaaaaaazing, no matter what! Sometimes, well, very occasionally really, I have a tiny little wish we lived in a climate which was more conducive to coats? But not very often really. Like, hardly ever, to be honest 😉 #devotedtotheaussiesummer

I am mostly planning to wear it casually and glamorously open, like I’m wearing it here with my white Inari tee dress, I’m actually rather thrilled at how super swish this combo looks, and feels! I’m even thinking this could be my Christmas soiree outfit over the upcoming festive season? Maybe!!

Details:

Coat; McCalls 5525, cotton sateen, lined with cotton poplin
Dress; Named patterns Inari tee dress, white stubby cotton, details here
Heels; Zomp, from Zomp boutique

also looks pretty good when accessorised with a dog… mmm? sorry, I couldn’t resist roping her in for just one picture!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: coat, daily outfit, jacket, McCalls 5525

a mustard raincoat, oh and a skirt too

31/07/2018 11:27 pm \ 14 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve made a new raincoat!

So, I’ve been wearing my pale pink Kelly anorak raincoat, made from a shower curtain, for several years now, it was undoubtedly my most worn garment of last year by a fair dinkum mile! and it’s been such a trooper. I love it so much, still! However it is looking a wee bit shabby now… so I’ve been toying with the idea of a new raincoat for little while. Getting nice waterproof fabric is quite a challenge in Perth, you come across it so rarely and I was wondering if I’d have to brave the scary gamble that is Buying Off the Internet. Then I happened to be browsing in Homecraft Textiles during their yearly 50% off sale, and unearthed this gorgeously mustard-coloured waterproof fabric. The colour was particularly exciting. Something that actually suits me? that’s not black, or navy?!!! Take my money!!!

Having said that… it’s not the most wonderful raincoat fabric in the world and I had struggles APLENTY but more on that later.

Patterns!! I loved the Kelly anorak pattern, and it did work really well for me as a raincoat, however I have this maybe erroneous belief that a raglan sleeve is better suited in a raincoat… I think that a rounded armscye seam could lend itself to a higher chance of leakage. I could be totally wrong there though, but I just think it anyway. I’ve been looking out for a good, raglan sleeved jacket pattern that would lend itself to being a good raincoat, but to no avail. So I made my own pattern. My previous, blue, raincoat was a pattern I’d worked out for myself; inspired by a cheapie old RTW one that I’d bought for Tim when he was a young ‘un, and which I’d inherited down the track as he grew out of it. I devised some rather unusual pockets for it, and actually totally loved how they worked out. I dug out the pattern, made the modifications to bring it into line with the shape I wanted for my new raincoat. Everyone’s heard of the famous FBA… well I have no use for a full bust adjustment, but in a raincoat I could definitely use a FPA. What is that? a Full Ponytail Adjustment, of course!! I have pretty much never had a raincoat, rtw or me-made, with a hood that accommodated a ponytail comfortably. The hood is always pulling back off your head and exposing your forehead, which is annoying. I’m happy report that this hood is so far perfect!

I’d originally bought some soft tulle to line the raincoat. I’d managed to get some soft netting to line my first, blue raincoat and it worked a treat, and I wanted something similar for this one. But the tulle was horrible; just not soft enough and too scratchy against my sensitive snowflake skin after all, so I’d ended up ripping it out. The raincoat is actually fine without a lining, because the inside of the mustard shell is a rather nice, soft woven stuff.

the white sports fabric seen in the pic is a ventilation panel, hidden underneath the upper back flap

The outside is laminated, actually the fabric could best be described as a lightweight, thinly laminated, woven cotton. The plastic laminate was obviously downright hideous to sew. For one thing, it had quite a sticky waxy coating on the laminate, which gummed up the needles, and the eye of the needle, making re-threading the needle a freakin’ NIGHTMARE. I wiped the laminated surface with a lightly soapy solution before sewing, which did help a tiny bit, and occasionally wiped down the needle too, but it was still pretty bad. When it came to top-stitching, well there was absolutely no way the laminated side up was going to move underneath the foot at all. I cut strips of tissue paper to stitch over, and tore them away afterwards; fiddly, but not a difficult thing to do (above).

seam sealing, also a view of the fabric’s wrong side

Sealing the seams; I used a no-name seam sealer from BCF, a local boating camping and fishing store. It’s supposed to be used for tents and sails I think, but it works beautifully for raincoats too! I used a cheapie old paintbrush to work it into the stitch-holes, and seal everything thoroughly. Since then, it’s been out in three very heavy downpours, and I’m happy to say has stood up to the task beautifully! All the traumas, and it’s been worth it! It’s early days, but I think I’ve found my new favourite wardrobe item!

Want to read all my tips for making a raincoat? They can all be found in my original raincoat making post, here.

Oh, and I made a new little skirt too, but it’s not nearly so exciting. Well, I had a small piece of coffee-coloured, wide-wale cotton corduroy, leftover from when I made this dress, and when I was dyeing the fabric for my Sherlock Holmes jacket I’d also tossed in the coffee-coloured corduroy. And it came out a nice shade of golden-mustard. So I managed to squeeze out this little skirt. It’s not made up to any real pattern really, I basically put an invisible zip at centre back, held the front and back up to myself and pinned the side seams and where I wanted darts. Pretty ~~lazy~~ genius, huh? It was a very small piece of fabric, and the resulting skirt was too short for a hem. I edged the bottom edge with a chocolate linen bias-cut strip to finish, and the skirt is lined with pale golden polyacetate lining fabric, itself also leftover from something else, can’t remember what.

And that’s it… until next time!

Later edit: this skirt now has pockets!

Details:

Raincoat; my own pattern, made from thin, plastic-laminated cotton
Skirt; my own design, dyed cotton corduroy
Bobbly top (just above); Burdastyle 04/2014;111, details here
Tights; made by me, details here and my tute for making your own custom-fit tights pattern is here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp boutique

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Clara, coat, daily outfit, jacket, own design, raincoat, skirt

Elementary, my dear Sherlock

15/07/2018 3:21 pm \ 14 Comments \ Carolyn

Yes, I know; a complete mis-quote of an already mis-quote… *braces oneself for outraged Holmes enthusiasts*

But wot is this new thing I’m wearing ‘ere then?! Is it a jacket…? no, a cape…? some tweedy, distinctly Holmes-esque thing, somehow exuding English-ness, an air of briskly strolling in the country, of hounds-at-dawn, roaming in-swathes of fog and mystically swirling mist, stalking the streets of London or out on the Baskerville moors? Fittingly, I’m accompanied here by my very own hound, who while certainly a fearsome and diabolical creature at times, is however sadly lacking a Baskerville lineage.

So, I was mindlessly browsing Le Internet, checking out new-to-me pattern companies, something I am wont to do, randomly, late at night and way past my bedtime,… and clicked Add to Cart on the Cape-Sleeved Jacket by Trend Patterns. Followed by… Purchase. So daring!!

It’s a rather interesting and lovely style, not something I’ve seen anywhere else: a longline open jacket with notched collar and interesting “sleeves” that are more like an intriguing hybrid of sleeves and cape. I searched my stash for a suitable victim, and unearthed a grey/black houndstooth-y check suiting; given to me yonks ago by ?I think? Mum, though I’m not totally sure. It had exactly the right weight and style for this design, but the colour was pretty dead and cold and flat and looked absolutely terrible on me… so I squandered more time than I care to admit to, attempting to dye it. It was a rather large piece, so I’d started out leaving it to soak cold in a large tub of yellow dye. This had almost no effect, so I added orange for synthetic fabrics. This had a tiny teeny little effect. So then I dried the fabric, and cut out the jacket pieces, which made for a smaller bulk of fabric for the dye pot, and boiled it all up with the same dye mix. Finally; SUCCESS!!!!

helping…

from left; original colour… after soaking… after boiling

The new shade of tobacco was rather warm and pleasing, and deemed acceptable. Of course the big problem about dying pieces, already cut up; as opposed to one single piece of fabric, is that the pieces frayed a bit, and also got stretched out and distorted somewhat in the boiling/dyeing process, and so I’m not 100% confident that my final jacket is all that perfect or beautiful… but I did my best! carefully steaming everything back into the shape of the intended pattern piece.

Lining; fully lined with chocolate polyacetate lining fabric, from my stash, probably originally from Fabulous Fabrics since it’s a really nice quality.

below; see how the front armhole is open right up to practically shoulder level? I think it’s worth pointing this out since I actually had no idea it was like this from the line drawing and remained ignorant right up until it came time to add the cape facing…

That’s not a criticism btw, just an observation. I really love my new Sherlock Holmes jacket, and I really loved making it too; but I’ve admit; it was not a particularly easy project. Even given the fact that I complicated things for myself a. dyeing and b. deciding I absolute HAD to have in-seam pockets – which were a big success in the end if I say so myself. I’m so glad I put them in. Actually I can’t imagine a jacket without pockets of some kind.

How did I put in my pockets? so I remembered to take a few pictures but not many, so hopefully my written explanation will suffice… I cut the front armhole piece (below, at left) and the front panel (below, at right) as pictured; and in addition, a pocket opening facing piece (below, middle) with the same upper edge as the slanted edge of the front panel (at right) I also cut a pocket lining (not pictured) from the same chocolate polyacetate lining fabric used throughout the jacket… it’s the same size and shape as the pocket bag extension (at left) and with a slanted top edge equivalent to that of the pocket opening (at right)…

the pocket opening edge is that slanted edge showing out from under the square inner edge of the paper pattern piece, and that little extra piece is the pocket opening facing. The facing is interfaced (see below), stitched along that slanted edge leaving a 1cm free at either edge of seam, and under stitched. I cut a pocket lining using the same chocolate lining fabric that lines the whole jacket and stitched this on to the lower edge of the pocket facing. Then stitched the pocket and pocket linings together around the long curved pocket edge. The remainder of the jacket construction proceeds as normal, and the pocket is nicely hidden away between the jacket outer and lining

So; what was tricky about making this jacket…? well, the steps are illustrated with photographs, not drawings; so if you’re the kind of person who often goes on the illustrations then it’s not always clear which pattern pieces or which seam you might be looking at in this photograph or that one…. and there are 27 un-numbered pattern pieces… Maybe I’m just dumb, or losing it or something, but I’ve been sewing clothes for myself for over forty years and there were bits where I was scratching my head and had to read and re-read over a couple of times to “get” it.

It’s also pretty important to mark the marks, notches and dart lines carefully and securely. As far as this project goes, this is where my brilliant plan to dye my fabric pieces fell apart a bit since a lot of these little marks were dislodged and lost while dyeing, and notches disappeared in fraying edges, and it was pretty hard to re-instate everything accurately. To be honest, there were several times I felt like heaving the whole lot in the bin and starting over anew, with fresh new fabric, particular since I hadn’t even liked my fabric all that much in the first place!!

I think numbering the pattern pieces would have been a HUGE help, and then to use those numbers in the instructions. Another thing, the instructions are…. kinda sparse. The term “bag out” is used several times … I’ve always been a little thrown by the term”bag out”. I mean, I know what it is… basically just another way of saying stitch the outer and lining layers together. See, I grew up under the tutelage of the long-term pattern companies like Vogue, McCalls and Burda; and “bag out” is not a phrase that ANY of them EVER use, as a rule. Also, “bag out” is incidentally Australian slang for picking on someone, like rudely giving them a really hard time, so seeing it pop up in sewing instructions is always a moment for pause 😉

After all this; I actually quite happy with how my jacket turned out, and am even little keen to make it up again. I think my attempts to dye the fabric just made the project a whole bunch harder than it needed to be, and I’d like to give the pattern a second chance, and to do it properly, make a really good and proper tailoring job of it next time. I would also like to add a few more pockets, to the inside and the lining, like a mens’ suit jacket has.

Details:

Jacket; TPC13, the Cape-sleeve Jacket by Trend Patterns, grey tweed overdyed with orange dye
Shirt; the Closet Case patterns Carolyn pj shirt, white cotton, details here
Skirt; Burdastyle 10-2010; 136 (the Karl Lagerfeld skirt), in black suiting, details here
Tights; my own custom fit pattern, details here
Shoes, designed and made by me, details here

My cape-sleeve jacket feels so very very Sherlock Holmes to me that I couldn’t resist just popping over to London for a more appropriate photoshoot location….

jk, of course. Hurrah for the wonders of photoshop!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: cape sleeved jacket, Clara, coat, daily outfit, dyeing, jacket, pattern review, photoshop, pocket, trend patterns

suits me to a tee

22/09/2017 5:36 pm \ 56 Comments \ Carolyn

So, a new year, a new Refa shioners challenge…last year we did jeans, this time the thing to be updated is A SUIT.

Most disappointingly, I could find no one in my family or circle of friends to donate a suit to the cause. 😉 Well of course not… let’s see; these things are a) expensive and b) made to last a lifetime. It takes a lot for a man to give up his suit. And let’s not forget to mention the biggie; c) suits are usually beautifully tailored things and the very thought of giving one to somebody who is just going to take the scissors to it is a pretty big ask. I know I wouldn’t give one up either!!

before…

So I went along to the the opshop and bought one. It was $22. Even then, I still felt pretty bad about chopping it up, and found myself mentally apologising to the unknown tailor the whole time. My suit is a Sax Altman: Sax Altman has been making high quality, traditionally tailored suits in Australia using fine Australian wool since 1977.

Just so you know, this is a pretty good innings by Australian standards… It’s actually pretty difficult to find suits in opshops here, men hang onto them forever. Lots of orphaned sports jackets and some suit pants, but not many matching sets. I initially honed in on this suit just because it wasn’t black! it is a deep charcoal-y/chocolate brown with subtle blue and grey pinstripes.

the fabric is pretty beautiful…

Once I got it home and had got a good look at it I could appreciate its quality; it’s beautifully made and let me tell you it was pretty darn hard to make that first snip… I’d decided already that I would make something that would honour the original tailoring, and keep as much of the important bits as I could, this one had it all; the interlined padded fronts with hand-padstitching, horsehair interlining, bias cut strips of organza everywhere on the inside to stabilise various areas, taped fronts, and tonnes of inner tape everywhere; sometimes bias cut organza, sometimes a sturdy cotton, sometimes strips cut from the selvedge… these were variously used as stay tape in different spots, hidden inside. It was all pretty heavily and exquisitely engineered and one thing’s for sure; I could never produce something like this myself!!

What I did: I wanted for the jacket to be quite close-fitted to my shape, so I opened up the lining at the lower back hem and took in the suit jacket through ALL the seams here… the centre back seam, the back princess seams and the side seams, at the same time, I took in the jacket lining through the seams inside too.. I didn’t touch the front darted seams because they ran into the front pockets and altering them would have ruined the integrity of the pockets. Oh, I’m pretty pleased that I managed to keep EVERY SINGLE POCKET of the original suit… I really didn’t want to sacrifice any, I thought if I absolutely had to I would… but I managed to keep them all. THE SANCTITY OF THE ALMIGHTY POCKET MUST BE UPHELD!!! (kidding)

I removed the sleeves and trimmed several inches off the shoulders, and cut off the lower half of the legs to use for new kimono sleeves, binding the lower armhole with bias-cut wool harvested from a sleeve.

The leg hemline had a really nicely turned up cuff, which I liked, and kept for the new sleeve hem. I love the new bracelet-length sleeves! if I did have to nit-pick, in an ideal world I think I would have preferred a wider sleeve but you know refashioning, sometimes you just gotta make it work with what you have!

I turned in and stitched a new front opening line for the jacket, making it a long, diagonal straight front coming to a point with a single button closure (above). I cut so as to remove the lower two buttonholes, keeping the original upper button hole and repositioning the upper button over a bit to give the front more of a “wrapped” kimono-inspired look.

That’s the jacket!!

The new skirt nearly drove me mad…. men and women are not built the same (duh); we women want width for our hips and hemline, and a narrow waistline… men’s clothes are made to be the total opposite. And also, the CUT! because of course the legs and the fly of men’s suit pants are cut differently against the grainline to how a skirt is cut, this makes it extremely difficult to transform them into a skirt! Fortunately the trousers were big enough I had a bit of extra width to play with here…. first of all, I took off the waistband and unpicked nearly everything except for the side seams where the side hip pockets were attached.

I removed the old zip which had gotten a little rickety over the years, and installed a new black dress zip. This entailed truing up the grain lines at centre front and creating a completely new fly and fly shield.

you can just see at the top; a strip of organza that was used to stabilise the waistline… I kept as much of these superb “hidden” structural details as I could, too

I wanted a flat-fronted look to the skirt, so made wide long darts at the front waistline to pull in the extra width there, these I topstitched down on the outside, continuing the topstitching down seamlessly to become stitched pin-tucks down the full length of the skirt front. This is exactly where the pressed line was for the trousers.

The skirt front is straight, but those back trouser legs are cut so as to curve IN, just where you don’t want them to when cutting a skirt, so I’d cut a triangular godet from the jacket sleeves, taking in the sleeve cuff buttons/buttonholes and the original sleeve hem. I was a little disappointed that these were fake button-cuffs and can’t be opened… but they still look pretty nice you know, you can’t win ’em all 😉

I inserted the godets in the lower skirt side seams along with a long inverted pleat so the skirt back kicks out over the godet. I actually love this little detail.

I don’t even want to say how many pinnings and bastings it took me to get this silhouette that I wanted; a flatt-ish skirt front and a slightly flippy skirt back. LOTS

Finishing up… shortened the waistband, reinstalled it stitched the belt tabs down again… oh and still managed to maintain that little coin pocket that sits right beneath the waistband… pretty proud of myself that I finagled that, hehe: and BAM! finally done!! A fresh new womanly suit made from an old discarded men’s suit, albeit a rather nice one. I’m very happy with the long-line jacket with slightly kimono-y vibes and a short, structured-yet-flirty skirt. I feel like it’s very very me 🙂

And I still had a few leftovers from a sleeve… so I made a bandanna for Clara, and a new little zipped pouch to hold her poo-bags. *

*it’s the law in Australia that if you are walking a dog, you MUST be carrying little placky bags so you can pick up after your dog, there’s a hefty fine if you’re caught without them! I just used to tie them on to Sienna’s lead and then for blog pictures would try to hide them because they’re so ugly… or take her off her lead for a bit… you can see them in an earlier picture here… anyway I don’t know why I didn’t make a little bag like this aaaages ago!

I used an old zip and attached a jump ring and a little swivel clip so it can clip onto her lead. The swivel clip was a leftover from when I made my winter boots… they’re not terribly robust so I plan to replace it with a mini carabina when I can get hold of one.

The only new things I used for this refashion were: thread, the zip in the skirt, and the zip, jump ring and swivel clip in Clara’s bag. Not too bad!

Details:

Jacket and skirt; my own design, finagled from an old mens’ trouser suit
Bodysuit; the Nettie by Closet Case patterns, from paprika stretchy stuff, details here
Shoes: Misano, from Labels boutique

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Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Clara, coat, daily outfit, jacket, own design, skirt, suit, Wardrobe Refashion

Sydney jacket

20/08/2017 11:52 pm \ 57 Comments \ Carolyn

have you guys seen COLOSSAL… ?

Bet you can’t guess where I am here… Yeah, I know, it’s a tough one. Some locations are just so obscure and far off the beaten track, but I do like to seek out these especially quiet and sleepy, tucked-away little spots to highlight here on ye olde blog… GO me.

Yeah, so I’ve made a Sydney jacket… I bought the pattern from Tessuti’s in Melbourne back during my March trip away there with Mum, Cassie and my niece Tiffany; and have finally got around to giving it a whirl… I think I first saw this design on Sue, at one of our meet ups and was instantly interested. It’s a pretty nice design with a true shawl collar and not just your usual body with two set in sleeves. This is like my wearable muslin, if you like.

I used a very blankety-like wool-mix from Spotlight, which I think is definitely a lot more “mix” than “wool”, haha! but that’s fine by me! I tossed it in the machine when I got home and it washed up beautifully, absolutely zero shrinkage and just a bit of light “fluffing”, which was equally ok with me; in fact any and all fluffing is totally welcome in all my winter clothing, thanks.

I agonised for ages over which side to use; one side was more vibrant but “flatter” with a more pronounced twill to its appearance; the other side is fluffier, and with more muted colours. I loved both sides equally! and couldn’t decide… finally I asked Craig and Cassie to choose for me. They both voted vibrant OUT, fluffy IN. Hurdle number one; cleared!

It’s a lovely fabric really, warm and cosy and with that richly colourful blocky weave, the perfect drape; and I loved the idea it for this particular jacket pattern… however! the Sydney instructions have a big bolded announcement on the first page… IMPORTANT: Not suitable for woven fabrics that fray when cut What is my chosen fabric? only like the most fray-able of fraying fabrics ever invented by mankind. Typical of me, so stubborn. I’m like… Oh, I’m not supposed to use a fray able fabric? JUST WATCH ME THEN mwahahahaha.

Solution; I edged the visible raw edges with bias binding… oh I’d bought a mid blue poplin for my bias binding, but it was a bit bright.. so I sludged * it up nicely with a bit of iDye in Brown, to make a nice deeper dirty blue; a much better colour for my fabric. I think it turned out a rather nice match!

Hurdles two and three; cleared!

new colour, with scrap of the original colour on top…

*”sludged” as a verb. along with the associated adjective “sludgy”, are technical terms used a lot around here… where Brown dye is employed liberally and frequently to tone down the overly bright colours beloved by commercial fabric designers and that form about 99.99% of commercially available fabric, so they better suit those of us who look hideous in said brights.

What else is there to say? I lengthened the sleeves to bracelet length… I really like them at this length, and even though I wasn’t very serious about it at first I absolutely love my jacket now it’s finished. It’s rather Lagenlook, yes? I’ve worn it two days in a row since I finished it… and that’s just about unheard of for me! who pretty much has to mix it up some every day… There’s just something about this rather simple yet inherently dramatic style that prompts the adoption of random flamboyant poses. My enthusiasm for photoshop going only so far, you’ll just have to imagine the appropriate backdrop in each case…

exhibit A, supersleuthy spy… the scene: nighttime; the main gallery of the Louvre in Paris, a dim light glistening off the polished parquet floorboards, while painted masterpieces look on silently

exhibit B: busy woman-about-town hailing a taxi on the streets of some mega-metropolis no, not in her garage, oh no not at all) the scene; outside the New York stock exchange, close of business, important business-y types milling about on peak- hour sidewalks

exhibit C: Victoria’s Secret model strutting down the runway.. except she forgot her wings and is instead clad in rather unsexy but warm, warm winter woollies in lieu of the cute little bejewelled bikini. Or alternatively; Rio de Janeiro’s Jesus… or a tightrope walker…

Because the wrong side/underneath of the fabric shows around the neckline I applied the bias binding on the inside of this centre back seam here instead… it’s not super visible, under my hair and all, but you know… I made a little hanging loop too…

So that’s it!… oh wait, one last thing to add; and that’s my method for dealing with a frayable fabric in a pattern that calls for un-frayable fabric. In this pattern the seaming is the simplest method possible; seams are formed by overlapping the raw edges and simply topstitching in place… and using my method you first bind the upper raw edges with bias tape, so you end up with all the seams thus highlighted throughout.

First step; overlock the raw edges of the underneath edge… the bias binding will be applied to the upper edge only.

Cut bias binding strips 2.6mm (1″) wide… this allows for a seam overlap of 1cm (3/8″) For patterns calling for a wider overlap, the same method applies, just cut the bias binding strips correspondingly wider i.e., for a 1.5cm (5/8″) overlap, cut bias binding strips to be 3mm (1 1/4″) wide.. etc.

Stitch bias binding to the upper side raw edge in a 6mm (1/4″) wide seam.

Press over and around to enclose the raw edge.

Position the upper side edge over the underside raw edge, with the overlocked edge even with the bias binding edge. This corresponds to a 1cm (3/8″) overlap, as required by the pattern.

Topstitch the two pieces together by stitching in the ditch, or if preferred, just inside the bias edge.

Topstitch a second time, with a second pass of stitching a scant 3mm (1/8″) just inside the folded bias edge of the upperside.

For the opening edges, lower edge and sleeve edges; I simply applied the same bias binding and slip-stitched it down inside just like a regular bias-bound edge…

Voila! Jacket made the same way you’re supposed to, and using the forbidden fabric to boot! Ha!

Details:

Jacket; the Sydney jacket by tessuti patterns, wool-mix blanket fabric from Spotlight
Top; twist top from Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi, green stretch, details here
Skirt; Jade skirt by Paprika patterns, in red stretch knit, details here
Tights; self-drafted, details here and my tutorial for making your own custom-fit tights pattern here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp shoes

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Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: cardigan, coat, daily outfit, jacket, pattern review, seams, sydney, tessuti patterns, tutorial

named maisa denim jean jacket

30/05/2017 8:06 pm \ 54 Comments \ Carolyn

O hey!

What am I doing? not much, just hanging around in my new jean jacket that until very recently was actually a few pairs of ancient old jeans!!! OHYEAH!

A jeans-to-jean-jacket project has been a long-term “thing” in my little bucket list of refashions that I have in my head. and one of the reasons I’ve been collecting my children’s old jeans for only like, forever… recently I was asked to speak at the 20th anniversary celebrations of Australian Sewing Guild, a huge honour! and in the general chit-chat heard mention of their Castaway to Couture competition… where you take some cruddy cast-off clothing and transform it into something new and spectacular of course; obviously my ears pricked up … I LOVE wardrobe refashioning!! I really the challenge and the FUN of repurposing old unwanted fabrics into something new, and I love the good self-backpatty feeling you get from being economical and not wasteful, in both the money sense as well as in the planetary resources sense as well. I’ve done quite a lot of it in my time but not for a while… I mentioned my intention to participate in the comp on IG back on the 2nd May, and knew straight away I would finally get on with my “bucket list” jeans-to-jacket. The only things I bought for this were the buttons!

before…

after…

I used the Named patterns Maisa denim jacket pattern, and three pairs of my children’s old jeans, above. Actually, technically I used only two and a half pairs of jeans, which I feel pretty good about! I picked out the most similarly coloured ones, for a cohesive look, and the widest legged one in my stash; pretty sure these were all Tim’s, he used to rock the wide legged style A LOT! I needed the wide legs so I could cut out the widest pattern pieces such as those upper sleeves. A few pieces, like the hem bands, the collar, and the back yoke were too wide, so I had to cut these laying up and down the leg.. i.e. cutting across the grain, rather than on grain.

While I lurve a patchy aesthetic to my clothing, and of course the beauty of a thing like a jean jacket is that it’s supposed to look a bit beat up and NOT a work of beautifully tailored perfection… I still wanted it to look at least a little bit intentional and not too bunged together. There was plenty of colour variation even within each single pair of jeans as well as fashionable distressing effects everywhere too, so I carefully cut so as to make sure the colour variations were matched symmetrically all over the jacket, for example; the upper arms are cut from the same area of one pair, the side fronts also both from the same area of another pair, ditto the two side backs, etc etc, so as much as I possibly could the lighter blue areas are balanced out nicely and symmetrically with the darker blue areas on the jacket.

I think this resulted in a fairly cohesive look, one that hopefully doesn’t scream “MADE FROM CRUDDY OLD JEANS” anyway.

I only kept ONE thing that even vaguely hints that this is a recycled product; for one of the cuff facings I unpicked a rear pocket from one pair of jeans and cut the facing for a cuff from this area… it’s just facing, so it’s on the inside and can’t be seen unless I roll up the cuffs. But I like that it’s secretly tucked away in there 🙂

For near total re-cycling, I even re-used the pocket lining of one of the pair of jeans for the new pocket lining of my jacket! well, it was a rather nice blue plaid and after unpicking the coin pocket there was just enough for my own new pockets.

Oh, yes, pockets! The Maisa doesn’t come with pockets like this; it does have two breast pockets but funnily enough I really prefer pockets that you can actually put things in and also take them out easily… so I decided to see if I could wrangle some hip pockets in there somehow. And I did!

I made two little welt pockets situated in the front/side front seams. On the inside, the bottoms of the pockets are sandwiched inside the button bands, for a neat look on the inside. They do work… however they’re not perfect by any means! because they do happen to have a button and a buttonhole respectively at the bottom edge of each one! hmmm, yes well… that was unavoidable. Maybe, just maybe a bit of a hacking fail, however I’m really really glad still that I’ve got them. I knew it was a risk since the cutting lines in the front of the jacket are very close to the centre front, and a pocket like this would work better if the seams were situated further out towards the side seams OR if the front closed with an open ended zip instead. Both criteria would have given a better result… BUT well, we live and learn… at the very least I can put a little bit of stuff in them, so not a complete and utter fail! I’m ok with them, and they do work! 🙂

Thoughts on the pattern: description says a classic, unlined, button-down denim jacket with collar; short and loose-fitting design with flap pockets at the front; sleeve vents and wide button cuffs, wide band at the hem. Well, hmmm, I’m not going to start ranting about my pet hate; the incorrect use of the term “button-down”. Noooo, I’m not. Apart from that! everything else about the pattern is pretty awesome. A slight negative; it is a bit more loose-fitting than I anticipated. Not 80’s loose, but still pretty loose. I’m ok with it really… I will certainly wear it anyway! it’s so comfy and feels absolutely fantastic on! plus I’m only wearing it over a thin little Tshirt here and of course a bit of oversizedness is a good thing when I’ll want to wear it over cardigans or long-sleeved woolly tops in the winter. I think when I get a little time I might have a go at re-jigging the pattern to be a little more form-fitting, for the future. I still have plenty of pairs of jeans that need refashioning, so a second, differently styled jean jacket might even happen. One which even has bigger and better functioning hip pockets!

Design decisions: all the raw edges are finished with overlocking in dark blue thread, and I double top-stitched all seam allowances down with two different colours of thread; a coppery brown, and a creamy ivory. These are both Gutermann upholstery thread, I actually prefer this to topstitching thread because A) it is tougher and B) it is less prone to fraying, so is easier to thread a needle with it. I’ve used it for all my previous jeans, as well as for all my Alabama Chanin projects too, of course. I decided to go with the two different colours, because it’s a detail I’ve noticed in some rtw jeans that I like a lot.

For the breast pockets: I originally double topstitched these in the two differently coloured threads too, however it just didn’t look very nice. To be honest, something about the curved edge; cup-shaped pocket shapes topstitched onto the front just suggested “topstitched boobs”, to me. Maybe that’s just me being weird… but I couldn’t stand it and unpicked the ivory and restitched the second line in the same copper brown as the first, as above. It’s less obtrusive now and I think looks better. Sorry, if that all sounds super weird, but just saying….

Some purely gratuitous details shots…

cuff topstitching and bar tack…

collar …

topstitching …

breast pocket…

waistband…

Details:

Jacket; Named patterns Maisa jacket, made from old pairs of jeans
Skirt; Vogue 1247, details here
Tshirt; Closet Case patterns Nettie bodysuit, white jersey, details here
Shoes; made by me and my own design, details here

location: the sundial at Cottesloe beach, Western Australia

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: coat, daily outfit, jacket, maisa jacket, named patterns, Wardrobe Refashion

a Kelly for Kelly, and one for Cassie too…

16/10/2016 1:14 pm \ 25 Comments \ Carolyn

O hey-a! After finishing my own Kelly anorak and having it admired to the nth degree by family members, I made a few more! a pale grey one for Cassie, and I also made a deep cobalt blue one for Tim’s girlfriend Kelly. Well, it seemed only right that she should have a “Kelly” too!

I quickly snapped that top picture of an unsuspecting Cassie waiting to meet up with me in town before she noticed me heading towards her… I know it’s a bit blurry and not very posed to show off the anorak to modelly perfection, but I just really like it nonetheless… to me it attests that she’s been wearing it a tonne, in fact every single occasion that I’ve seen her in the past three weeks since I finished it and gave it to her she has been wearing it. There’s no greater compliment to a seamster than that! as well as a testament to the pattern being an absolute style winner. Kelly’s worn hers each time I’ve seen her since I gave it to her too, but I’ve not taken any pictures of her in it.. will update if she sends me one 🙂

This, taken when I presented it to her three weeks ago, and probably the only time it’s been worn with the sleeves unrolled like this. It does look a little more wintery like this. I have to admit, it does look a lot trendier and suits the casual, “heading into summer but still need a layer” look to have the sleeves rolled up.

Both the anoraks are in a nice weight cotton drill from Spotlight, in fact, all the other bits and pieces are from Spotlight too. In both anoraks, I added a few inches to the length of the body and modified the pockets to have separate pocket flaps so as to close the pockets; otherwise these are both made up exactly to the pattern.

This picture below of Kelly’s anorak has been my most “liked” picture on instagram ever! far more than anything I have ever made for myself! Interesting, no? Well, I think it is, anyway 😉 I don’t know what that “says”, if anything at all, but maybe something. Social media is such a funny phenomenon. Something else also interesting to me is how a person, any person, can have a certain number of followers and the number of “likes” never ever reaches anywhere close to that number. Honestly, I have no idea about how or why this is so, but it’s just a curious thing.

I’d got enough of the same white cord for Kelly’s anorak , but since I’d found a nice, perfectly colour-matched blue zip for hers’, and used blue thread for all topstitching and there was no other white anywhere in the jacket; the white cord looked all wrong. And naturally there’s no such thing as blue cord in the whole of Perth! so I just had to dye it. And, when your regular dye-pot is HUGE and there’s just one little length of cord what’s a mad maker to do? but of course, improvise.

Yeah, I know this looks uber-weird, but determination breeds resourcefulness… and it gave me such a laugh to watch this crazy little dye-pot bubbling on the stove! I’d tossed a pair of the same white plastic stops as I used for Cassie’s anorak in with the dye bath and it was very satisfying that they dyed up a nice deep blue too. I’d bought some silver stops just in case but fortunately the blue dye did the job beautifully 🙂

Different day, still wearing it. Yep, like I said, she’s worn it literally every single time I’ve seen her in the past three weeks. I’m calling that a ginormous WIN!