Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Blue Spring Coat

You guys rise to the occasion! The consensus is overwhelmingly in favour of a coat.
Blue Spring coat
I am going to use Butterick B5145 and one of the longer views like C or D (pink or blue), with the regular collar. I will cut out the tabs for the back and sleeves, even if I'm not sure if I will use them yet.
Blue Spring coat
I am not sure how long a skirt I can get out of the fabric I have but I'll try for about knee-length. I am also not sure if I will put more than the three buttons down the front part of the bodice. In a wind, the skirt will fly open if it is not buttoned down. When it's 20 below, that is a big deal. But since this is only a Spring coat, we're not talking 20 velow.
Blue Spring coat
I was hoping to make the cutting easier by folding the fabric in half but when I did that, the selvages didn't match up, even though I carefully folded the fabric along a particular white line. This means I will have to cut each piece out of a single layer of fabric. sigh.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

I'm back!

I'm back! It is two weeks now, after the last chemo, and my energy is slowly coming back. And I have the comfort of knowing that I won't be getting zapped again next Friday, as I have been for the last 5 months, every third Friday, so I am feeling even better about that mentally! My DH is out all day Saturday taking a cooking course and after I finished the newspaper and felt at a loose end, I went upstairs and did the ironing. After that, finding myself still in my sewing room, I started looking at patterns and fabric.

I have been day dreaming about my fabrics and patterns, wondering what to do next. I have this blue acrylic fabric that, when I bought it, I thought "jumper".
blue fabric
The photo shows it is not very thick fabric. But I think it is entirely too busy, too "much" for a jumper. So I started thinking about a jacket or even a Spring coat.
blue fabric
But did I want to line it? But did I want an unlined coat? Not really.
blue fabric
Then I was watching "What Not To Wear" and this really short woman was being told that short, fitted jackets would suit her and I remembered the unlined, short, fitted jacket pattern that is really flattering on me. And so why not make a little jacket out of this blue stuff?
blue fabric
So of course, I have 2.5 metres of the stuff and therefore have enough for a skirt too. Would a skirt and jacket be "too much" like the jumper? I could always just wear them separately. Or maybe I should make a lined, Spring coat with one of the patterns I have not used before and make my mistakes (if any) using this stuff from my stash. What do you think?