Hello! So, in the never-ending saga that is my making journey, blah blah blah; I want to try and make at least one thing per month for no reason other than it satisfies my creative desires. This is kinda important since lately I actually seem to make a lot of things that don’t satisfy me creatively at all … strange, huh? anyway, it’s just something I want to make time for, for my own personal happiness.
It doesn’t have to necessarily be “useful” or practical either… just something that I want to make, just because. While also being entirely from the stash, the other important proviso of course!
Something that’s bothered me for a while is that I have practically zero purple clothing… and nothing purple in the stash either. Also, today is the 10th anniversary of BTS debut, and being a reasonably recent fan (more on that later) I thought I could observe this milestone and fill the gaping purple hole in my wardrobe at the same time.
I had some cherry red cotton corduroy, originally from Mum’s stash… and I also have plenty of old jeans. I think these ones were also Mum’s actually! Thanks, Mum!
Plans were made, patterns were perused, discarded, dyes checked out. I worked out I could cut out the Named Maisa jean jacket from my corduroy, and also get a little matching skirt out if I cut some of the pieces from the old jeans. To make everything purple, I would dye the cherry red corduroy with navy blue dye, and the blue jeans would get a red dye bath, This may or may not have been a disastrous adventure, but you know me, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I was so excited to see how it was going to go!
Stuff cut out. Here are the bits and bobs. The leftovers (middle right) are, I’m proud to boast; practically nothing. I did save some of them for another little project, yet to be realised…
I made up the body part of the Maisa jean jacket first, and overlocked the edges of the other red jacket bits, for dyeing.
I cut out a few extra pockets… I wasn’t sure where these would go exactly but I just cut and dyed them anyway, thinking I’d find the right spot for them eventually.
The second stage was to make the skirt. The design is my own, that I’m planning to make into a pattern for mine and Cassie’s tiny little company this year, if possible! It has deep pockets, and no zip, instead closing over a hip pocket. I made this completely including lining, before dyeing it as a whole in the same dye bath as the jean jacket body, just with a little bit of extra blue added. I used a green lining fabric (why not, ’twas in the stash) and some leftover pink linen from my Lennox dress to line the waistband. This is how they turned out after the dye job. I’m really happy with how (to my mind) gorgeous the colours look together!
Last step was to construct the jacket sleeves and collar, and dye these and the rescued jeans pockets in a red dye bath. I’d added a tiny bit of blue to this bath too, on a hunch; and am quite happy with the level of purple achieved. Then I finished the jacket construction. The two extra corduroy pockets got stitched onto the denim sleeves of the jacket, and the rescued denim jeans pockets got stitched to the body of the jacket. Of course I’m thrilled to have some useful pockets on the jacket!
Some details: I used copper jeans buttons, these were the only things bought new for the project. For the most part, I used black thread or a dark khaki thread for the skirt lining and some other parts; and navy blue overlocking thread throughout. For the skirt; I had two purple buttons already in my stash, which was handy.
Final verdict; well of course all that strong red turned out more raspberry than purple; though the jacket sleeves are decidedly purple. I still love it though! and am very excited to wear it a lot during winter. Although I “wanted” purple; raspberry is of course one of my favourite colours; so how could I not be happy?!
* “borahae” actually kinda translates to “I purple you”, and is a BTS thing… So I’ve been a low-key fan for a few years, but it wasn’t until I started making wedding dresses and spending a lot of time listening to youtube videos and bingeing on BTS Run while I hand stitched tiny lace motifs onto silk and tulle bodices that I really got into them a lot more. Then during the making of Lainey’s wedding dress, I finally finished viewing the entirety of BTS Run and of course anyone who has watched the show knows you cannot help but eventually became hopelessly addicted! Aaah! I’m not going to say any more, because it’s a little bit embarrassing, at my age! but anyway there it is. I’ve said it now! 💜
Oh, hey, I made a dress! and not just any old dress but this the final thing in my little mini make-nine challenge which of course was actually make-twelve! So happy I managed to squeak it in for the end of the year! Phew!
I’m so thrilled with how my dress turned out… in the end! It has a few features that I shall now proceed to explain…
I’ve made up the first of my indigenous fabrics that I bought back in … June? I think, and 
I bought the chocolate brown grosgrain ribbon from Spotlight. You can see here a patched bit in the brim lining… I didn’t do this because I didn’t have enough fabric, I have plenty! I actually have enough leftover for a little skirt sometime down the track too, but only if I was a bit devious with my cutting out here. I decided a small patch in the brim lining was a small sacrifice to pay to leave myself enough fabric for that future skirt!
First thing to get made was a shirt for Tim… He has a job now where he has to look smart, so I decided to make a business shirt… I bought the really lovely deep maroon, mini-scale gingham cotton shirting from Tessuti’s in Melbourne, and used Burda 6874, my kinda go-to shirt pattern since I semi-retired Burda 7767. d’you know 
For Kelly’s top, I’d chosen the asymmetrical cowl top from Pattern Magic 2; the shape of the cowl is dictated by the shape of the facing. It’s always a bit of a challenge to draft your own patterns, but well I love a challenge! and I knew the shape of this top would be super flattering for Kelly and suit her beautifully… I cut the pieces on the bias and inserted a maroon invisible zip in the left side seam, so it zips down undone… however Kelly says she can squeeze into it without having to undo the zip which is cool. I think the bias-cut is what gives it that little bit of stretch.
Next up! a pullover/sweatshirt for Craig! truth now… I was running out of time, and steam! and this fair near killed me!
With the bias binding facing up, and following the previous stitching as a stitching guide, topstitch the pressed edge of the bias binding down. Since you’re using the previous stitching as a guide, the width of your double-topstitching will be nice and even from the outside.
And, last but not least! I also made a few more little hardback notebooks… just fun little things, however I do know that the recipients do actually use notebooks regularly so I know they will be useful too! I used mostly a mixture of leftover and old papers; from old scrapbooks, some with the children’s scribbles still on them! I’m sentimental that way 😉 , various papers, musical paper, some pale coloured wrapping paper, writing stationery; just lots of different stuff.
O hey!
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 
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.
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!
Then I vaguely thought maybe a navy blue skirt would make it a nicely complete set, and she desperately needs skirts for work too … and lo and behold what should be lounging languidly about in the very next aisle but this teal blue suedette, which is a PERFECT colour match for the rooves. BAM! DECISION MADE. Lugged them both to the counter without a second thought, brought them home, tossed into the washing machine.
The suedette “looks” nice and perfectly suede-y, but it frays like billy-o. I finished all the raw edges on the overlocker, and the lower hem with a bias cut binding cut from a scrap of purple/blue micro fibre. 
The Tshirt is made up just like the pattern, except for the neckline… I’m lazy with my Inari necklines and have pretty much finished them all off like this! Just overlocked the raw edge, turned it under and topstitched from the right side. Since it’s quite a wide neckline and doesn’t stretch out when you put the Tshirt on and take it off, the stitches won’t snap and this kind of finish works perfectly well.
The lower hem is finished with my twin needle. Lisa asked about channelling with a twin needle.. all I can say is that I’ve never had channelling and what’s more I have no idea how I’ve avoided it so far either!! Only thing I can think of: I always finish the raw edge on my overlocker, then topstitch with the twin needle, and that’s it! Maybe the overlocked edge stabilises the fabric and that’s what stops a channel forming? That’s the only reason I can think of anyway. 🙂
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Funny story; I made this nearly two months ago… and risked 
