Spring Linen Jacket

 It seems I have been making a lot of jackets lately.  This one is  McCall's 6516.   It is a very draped loose fitting jacket.  My fabric is a aqua linen with a rectangle design woven into it.  I love the color.  I haven't had a chance to wear this jacket yet as it has mostly been to cold here.  But I think this will be an easy to wear casual jacket.

My Doily Coat

 I have had this coat idea in my head for quite some time.  I finally made it into a reality.  And I love the way it turned out.  I am not sure what the fabric content is but it feels like some kind of silk.  It was a gift from a friend who worked in a drapery workroom.  I love using home dec fabrics for clothing.  They usually have a heavier feel to them and I think home dec fabrics are perfect for jackets.  While looking through my stash of vintage doilies I came across this crocheted one with pink trim.  When I put it next to this fabric I knew they were meant to be together. 

 I wanted the lace to be an accent around the waist as well as the collar.  While the doily was pretty large I still had to plan carefully to use the doily to the best advantage.  One part of the doily was to damaged to use so I had to work around that part.  I picked The Catherine Coat pattern because I liked the separate skirt with the slightly gathered bodice.  And the large collar would be good to showcase the doily as the collar.  The doily was just large enough to fit the skirt at the waist of the jacket.  I had to do at bit of adjusting to get the rest of the doily to fit around the collar.  For the buttons I stacked two buttons together a vintage ecru shell button on the bottom with a smaller pink button on top.  I love the results and the fit of this jacket.

http://sewingwiththesparrows.blogspot.com/2011/07/catherine-coat.html

I have used this pattern before but it has a completely different look.  The pattern has several suggestions for different looks even a robe version.  It is an unlined coat but if you used a heavy wool or fleece fabric it could be an outerwear coat as well.  A good pattern to be creative with.

Aurelia Cardigan

 This is the second time I have sewed this pattern.  The first one can be found herehttp://sewingwiththesparrows.blogspot.com/2012/03/aurelia-cardigan.html.  The first time I made this my fabric wasn't quite stretchy enough.  I do wear it but I feel like the sleeves are too tight and I would have liked the front to be a bit fuller.  So this time I made a few changes.

The first thing I did was to use a fabric with more stretch.  I used a cotton knit from JoAnn Fabrics.  The ruffle contrast fabric is a woven cotton voile as the pattern suggest.  I added about a half inch to the width of the sleeves.  I like the feel of the sleeves much better.  I also added some to the side seams so that the front over laps more.  I like this better too.  The pattern envelope shows this cardigan being worn with a belt so I thought I would give that look a try.  I am not sure if I like this look yet.  I think I would be constantly trying to keep the belt in place.  There are no carriers for the belt  but I may add them in case I do wear this with a belt.  I may add a bit of elastic at the center back because I don't like the way the back stands out.  The elastic would keep the back in place without the need for the belt.  And I could still wear it either way.  Overall I do like this cardigan and it was easy to sew.

A New Dress Coat

I made myself a new coat and I love the way it turned out.  I used  Butterick 5515 a See & Sew pattern.  It is a lined coat in two lengths and two different sleeve styles.  I made view B with the straight sleeves and the mid knee length.  It also has side seam pockets.

 The fit is perfect as far as I am concerned.  Some would say the sleeves are to long but that is the way I like my sleeves on a coat.  It keeps me warmer to have my sleeves covering my hands.

 The fabric I used I got about three years ago at The Sewing Expo.  I think I need to go back this year as I haven't been in several years.  The fabric is a very soft wool and silk blend herringbone weave.  It feels lovely.  The lining is a lightweight silk print.  I thought it went nice with the grey coating.  I like using prints for my linings.  I think it adds interest to an otherwise boring inside.

The coat has only one button on the front and a snap on the inside to hold the flap level.   The pattern envelope says "Yes it's Easy"  and yes it was easy.  The princess seams make for a nice fit and it is pretty straight forward sewing.  I mostly followed the pattern except for the hand sewing the pattern suggests.  The pattern called for hand sewing the sleeve lining in place at the cuff and hand sewing the lining in place at the hem edge too.  I did all that by machine except for a small area in the center back hem that I needed an opening for turning the coat right side out.  And I hand sewed the button and the snap on.  The coat also has shoulder pads which the pattern called for hand sewing in place.  I sewed these in place by machine too.  I am a tailor for my job and over the years I have learned many shortcuts in construction by examining the clothes I am altering.  Most ready to wear has very little hand sewing.  I am not against hand sewing I even find it very relaxing at times.  But machine sewing is so much faster, so if I can make it look nice using my machine I will.  I love my new coat and plan to wear it often.

 

 

 

After wearing my new coat I decided to make a few changes to it.  First thing was I didn't like where the inside snap was placed.  It was on the lining and I had to catch some of the outside coat fabric to keep it secure and from tearing the lining.  But that made the coat pucker on the front while wearing it.  So I moved the snap so that it was just at the edge of the facing and I added another snap about 2" below the first one.  This looks much better.

 

The second thing that was bugging me was that the side seam pockets would not lie flat.  The coat was not to tight which would be a reason for the gaping pockets.  The pockets needed to be anchored to keep them from drooping down and causing them to gap.  To fix this I used some bar tacks at the top and bottom of the pocket edge.  And I also used a chain thread tack to hold the inside of the pocket to the edge of the front seam.  This solved the problem and the pockets look great.

 

The third thing was I felt the shoulders where a bit to broad, they just felt to big.  So I reduced the shoulders by about 3/4".  Now I like my coat even better.  Now it is just right.

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Pleated Jacket

This was a super easy jacket to sew up.  I used a silk loose weave with multi colored yarns.  There are blues, greens, white, grey and black threads in the fabric.  I have had this in my stash for a few years.  I think this pattern is out of print.   I like the style of this jacket and it does fit me well.  It has a swing style with pleats in the front and a large pleat in the center back.  It has three quarter length sleeves that fit rather loose.  I may make either the dress or the top included on the pattern. 

The fabric had such a loose weave that  I had to do some extra stitching to keep everything from raveling apart.  This is an unlined jacket so I used  mock french seams to enclose the seams on the inside.  That made the seams stronger and will prevent raveling and also gives a nice finished appearance to the inside.  Although you can hardly see it I used one of my tacking stitches on my Bernina 200E right about each pleat.  The stitch is an arrow tack stitch.  One royal blue button and a buttonhole finish the jacket.  An easy jacket to make and a nice jacket to wear.

Brocade Jacket

I bought this fabric about three years ago, I finally got around to making something out of it.  I love this brocade fabric.  It is reversible one side has grey background with royal blue flowers and the other side is reverse of that.  I used the grey background on the top part of my jacket with the blue background on the pleated skirt and pleated cuffs.  The difference is very subtle but nice.

I love the style of this jacket.  I like the longer length and it fits me very well.  I used Simplicity 3523.  It is a Sew Stylish pattern from the publishers of Threads.  There is also a shorter style of the jacket in the envelope, as well as a dress, top and pair of pants.  I may try the top out.  The dress I am not so sure about even though it is just a longer version of the top it just doesn't look all that flattering.  The pant are the pretty generic pants that seem to be included in every pattern with a wardrobe look.  I do plan to make some pants to wear with my jacket I just will not be using this pattern.

This pattern calls for using large snaps as a closing with buttons sewn on top for a finished look.  I opted for the same finish since it uses large buttons.  I used some of my vintage buttons from my stash.  They are black buttons with a carved star burst design on the surface.  I think the buttons finish the jacket off nicely.

http://images.patternreview.com/sewing/patterns/simplicity/3523/3523.jpg

Wool Dress

I used Butterick See & Sew 5168 for my two piece wool dress.  The pattern is out of print but I have had it in my stash for quite some time.  It does have a vintage look to it but I have not had it that long.  This style was very quick and easy to make.  A shift style dress and a swing style jacket with raglan sleeves. 

I used a charcoal grey lightweight wool for my outfit.  I added some vintage lace trim to the hemline of the jacket as well as the dress.  I think that kept this rather boring grey from being to frumpy.  And since the fabric was a bit sheer looking I decided to add a lining to the dress because I didn't want to wear a slip with it.  Also a lining helps to keep the wool from being itchy against the skin.  I didn't put a lining in the jacket,  with it's swing style a lining was just not needed.

I looked through my stash of vintage buttons and had many that I was considering and ended up with these fairly plain cream colored buttons.  I had some lacy looking buttons that I thought would look good  but they seemed to fragile.  My other options either I didn't have enough of them or they were just a bit to small or to large or just a bit to white to go with the ecru vintage lace.  I have so many buttons I didn't want to go out and buy some just for this jacket.

 

I tried wearing the jacket with pants and it was only OK.  The jacket really needs to be about 2 inches longer to look right with pants.  But I wanted to wear it to work and I don't like wearing dresses to work.   I think I need to take in the sides of the dress a little but other than that I like how everything fits.  The shift dress is a good basic dress pattern the goes together fast so I may use that pattern again.  I like the jacket but I probably will not make another one.  I have several other jacket patterns in my stash I want to try.  All in all this is a good project that I am happy with the results.

The Catherine Coat

I have been popping over to Hawthorne Threads from time to time to enter their giveaway contest. Well you know that after a few visits I couldn't resist placing an order for some new fabrics. One of the fabrics that I purchased was this lovely cotton by Micheal Miller called Delilah. I didn't realized until it arrived that is had glittery gold incorporated into the print. I didn't know what I was going to use it for which is often the case when I buy fabric. I decided it would make a nice lightweight jacket I could wear to work in warmer weather. I used The Catherine Coat Pattern by Serendipity Studios. I had some light grey sateen weave cotton leftover from a pair of pants I made last year. There was just enough to make the collar and the faux pocket flaps. I thought it coordinated nicely with the Delilah print. This jacket is unlined and quite simple to put together. I pretty much followed the pattern except for the sleeve. Where the pattern had a separate cuff that the sleeve was gathered into I opted for a 3/4 sleeve with one pleat in the center. I had some vintage gold buttons to complete the look. I used four on the front and one on each sleeve. I like the look of this jacket and it fits very well. The only thing I wish I had done differently is match the print on the front. I never thought about it until the jacket was complete. A bit to late to do anything about. It would have been nice to have those large motifs match at the front. I have worn it several times already. The fabric does shed a lot of glitter for the first few times of wearing. I will probably make this coat again. I already have some fabric picked out for the next coat. I am thinking about incorporating a vintage doily into the design.