Ready to rock 'n roll (almost)

I'll wear this on the plane with pants, I think. Warmer on the legs than a skirt. Now to pack!

Brown outfit done!

Whew!

I have to cut the buttonholes open and sew on the buttons but I have time to do that tomorrow morning. The skirt I finished earlier today. So my brown outfit can go travelling with me! I bought this fabric for the colour and because it was a substantial cotton with a touch of Lycra but with its peached finish, I am surprised how much like faux suede it looks. It's my neutral with all the bright colours I am planning to pack. Of course, once I start packing and see how little space I have, things may change.

Peter came home as I was toiling away and snapped this photo for me. Why is my face always so red? Anyway, I was putting the pocket flaps on. I think it's an optical illusion that the jacket looks so long, but time will tell. The skirt is about half done. I may get this finished yet!

The brown outfit

I'm doing my assembly line kind of sewing, where I pin together as many things as possible and then run them all through at once, so I don't even cut the threads between pieces until they're all sewed. Once I amass a pile of sewed pieces that need ironing before I can attach them to other pieces, then I turn them if they need turning right side out and iron them all at once too. So far I have done the four pockets, their flaps, the collar, the front facings and four tiny darts in the jacket fronts. I could have done the sleeve vents but I forgot. No time for pix! But later, maybe.

Yellow jacket finished!

Well, I guess it's like watching water boil. Nothing happens for the longest time and then suddenly, there it is!

I am happy with how it turned out, collar issues notwithstanding. I had to whip-stitch where the collar joins the body to cover up the "issues" but I can't even see it now. The sleeves are about 1/2 inch too long but so what, it's a casual jacket.

Now I have cut out the brown fabric. I am making the safari jacket with 4 pockets and long sleeves but no belt, and the flippy summer skirt that I have made several times now. I won't have to wear a slip with the skirt as the cotton is quite substantial. I think it's good that it also has a little bit of Lycra in it too. If I can get these made by Monday, I'll take them on the trip!

Yellow jacket

I am not making much progress!

Here, I have put the sleeves on. Now I have also added the cuffs. But when I went to put the collar on, I didn't read the instructions and did it "my way" instead and now I am having issues with the front bands. Argh. More sewing, less talking!

Yellow jacket

I am working away on the yellow jacket but on Friday, I wore the reversible coat I made a while back. I haven't worn it since I made it because it was too tight (it looks like it fit in the original pictures but it really was too tight)! Since I have been working out however, it now fits. Peter snapped this photo on Friday after work. The background is just the small mall near where we live and he chose it because the red complimented the coat.

I wanted to try to get an accurate photo of the colour of the yellow and realized that it is a little lemony and makes my mouth pucker but what the heck - I like bright. These are swatches from the two skirts I will wear with it.

I put this photo in because when I sewed the top of the pockets, I continued sewing a line of stitching all around where I would fold the raw edges in, to make it easier to fold accurately.

Finally, this is about the best colour representation so far. It may be a tad warm. I have the sleeves on and now have to do the cuffs, collar and front bands and the buttons last.

S.W.A.P. for a trip

I'm going on a 2 week trip to France in a warm month (i.e. soon) and all I'm taking is a 35 litre MEC backpack as carry-on (it's under travel packs called "the Shuttle" if the link doesn't work). I'm also allowed a purse type object and will take that too but most everything has to fit in the backpack. All winter long, when I walk everywhere because I don't ride my bike in the snow, I carry a smaller (about 25 litre) MEC book backpack (they don't have them any more I guess - I couldn't find the one I use on the site) so I prefer a backpack, am used to one and think they really work for carrying things. I carry groceries home nearly every day in it and sometimes have crammed as much as 10 kilos in there. Clothes and shoes won't weigh as much as bags of milk so I am not concerned about the weight in the pack on my trip. But now I am starting to consider what I should put in there. Of course, I can always wear five layers of clothing on the plane and kind of cheat a little that way. And I may buy an umbrella there. But we went for a bike trip for two weeks last August and carried everything in two panniers so I don't see why I shouldn't be able to do this.

Of course, all this planning is making me think about coordinating clothes and how, while I certainly do have some (okay, lots), I would like to have some more that coordinate well.

I have been buying some new patterns lately and have been looking for "the perfect jacket". I still have not found that one yet but I have been wanting to make different variations on my standard jean jacket pattern that I love but admit that it is a little boxy. I found these two, unlined jacket patterns and got them with no particular fabric in mind. The Butterick 4741 is more of a jean-type jacket, with the pockets and bands and such. I am planning to make view D (the red one on the envelope) for the trip. The Vogue 8208 is sort of a safari jacket and I think I will make it in the long sleeves but I am not sure I need the belt.

I have been thinking about what main colour I should have on the trip and since I like bright colours and have bright colours, I am thinking I will go with a red/yellow combination. Red will include pink and orange too so it's all warm colours. Here are some existing skirts and jackets. I have a red and an orange jacket and three printed skirts in those tones. And I have a yellow and pink shirt. I put the beige corduroy outfit I made recently on the bed as a neutral.

Then I put away the print skirts and placed three solid colour skirts I have had for years with the same jackets and shirts. I think I like a few prints in with the mix - all those solids are too much.

My idea when I went shopping today was to get two pieces of complimentary twill - one in a print and one in a solid, in warm colours. Unfortunately, I couldn't find such things and so I ended up buying two solids. That yellow is warmer - not so green as in the photo, and the brown is a warm fawn colour. I plan on making the Butterick jean-type jacket in the yellow twill. It is too sheer (yellow is like that) to make a skirt unless I line it so I just got enough for a jacket. The brown twill has 3% Spandex and is thicker with a nice peached finish and I plan to make the safari jacket and an unlined skirt out of it.

So now I am really SWAP - Sewing With A Purpose. Head down and nose to the feed dogs and go. I am rehearsing the phrase: "Je l'ai cousu."

Silk suit finished!

It only took me another 5 days! Please pardon the model in the pix - they were taken at 6:30 am with no make-up. Zzz.

First: the buttonholes.
I realized, especially after thinking about what Lorna wrote about taking a lesson for bound buttonholes, that I was not making "real" bound buttonholes. I made real ones on my faux fur winter coat. You make the tiny welts and turn the welt fabric to the inside of the jacket front, which is inside where the interfacing is, between the front and the facing. Then you finish the buttonhole on the facing in a similar way and bind them together. I sewed the "welts" to my silk jacket, sewing through all layers at once and turning the welts to the inside but where they showed on the facing. The above photo shows one finished buttonhole at the top, from the outside. The second buttonhole has the welt fabric zigzaged to it from the outside. There is a line of basting in dark green thread running down the middle of the welt area. That's where I cut the buttonhole open.

I know I showed this before but here is the buttonhole from the inside - the facing side. I have tucked under the raw edge on the short sides of the "welt" and pinned them down.

Here, I have sewed the fold on the short ends down to the jacket facing. On your right side, I left the needle in to show the scale and the stitches. The stitches are very small but not invisible. But the silk fabric is very forgiving and doesn't show all sorts of insults. Then I had to tuck under the raw edges on the long sides of the "welt" and sew them down too. You can click on these pix and make them larger at Flickr for detail.

Here it is on Rose last night. I am having an "issue" at the moment with the top button area not wanting to lie flat. I am not sure I will want to button it all the way up to the neck but I should press that and maybe it will work better.

I decided to model it with a yellow t-shirt because, a) I haven't decided what shirt to wear as it is only -2C out there right now and b) the yellow suited the pink because if it's warm background - it is not a blue-pink.

Here it is all buttoned up with the top button "issue".

And here she is with the top button undone. Whew. I guess I should make the satin blouse next but I haven't decided.