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."

Working on the patterned skirt

I decided to get the other skirt finished before I continued on the blue jacket, partly because I wanted to be able to wear a new skirt and partly because someone made a comment on an old Flickr photo about under-stitching and I thought I could show a little of that this time.

Here is the skirt facing, sewed on, trimmed and ironed with the seam allowance pressed toward the facing.

Here I am, sewing the trimmed seam allowance to the facing by under-stitching. There's a bit of confusion in this photo because I folded back the first part that I sewed, so you could see the underside and the tops side all in one photo. Unfortunately, it looks like I've sewed the two parts together because I put them so close together in the photo.

However, here is an extreme close-up of the finished facing, inside and out, with the under-stitching showing.

After that, I needed to fold under the ends of the facing and then fold the whole facing to the inside of the skirt and tack it down, near the zipper and at each of the other three seams. A good press and...

... the skirt is done! I hung it on top of the blue skirt I finished yesterday and now it's back to the jacket.

The Blue Jacket and Skirt

Forging ahead with the blue fabric, I have finished the incredibly easy four panel skirt.

It will go with everything, including of course, the green jacket.

Except for the bands (cuffs and bottom) here are the contrast pieces. I tried doing the topstitching in blue on both top and bobbin threads to see how it would look. I used the tabs as test pieces because they are small and you never really see the undersides of them. I didn't like the way it looked (as I suspected) and so I did the rest of the contrast topstitching with blue on the top and white on the bobbin.

I also did the buttonholes on the flaps and tabs before sewing them to the jacket. I often do this because it's just easier to put them under the buttonholer but couldn't do it with the green jacket because I had not got the buttons yet. In this photo, you can also see the way the topstitching looks on both sides.

I am including this photo of the inside of the back yoke because of how I like to press things really flat. Even though the seam allowances get pressed up, I first press them open and then press them up. One more step but I think it makes the finish worthwhile. I tried taking a photo of the right side with one half only pressed up and the other double pressed but you couldn't see the difference in the photo. Of course, I can tell the difference in real life! Truly. :)

Here is the blue jacket on Rose, about half done, with one pocket flap artfully pinned up to show the contrast.

Continuing the jacket prep work

I was wrong - my mother noticed the weave. It was a pleasure to have my parents here for the Mother's Day weekend, especially after all the health problems Mum had in the winter. Dad had something he had to do on Friday after they got here, so Mum came upstairs with me and sat in my sewing room, reading, while I cut the fabric out. She would find amusing passages from her book and read them aloud to me while I hunched over the cutting table. It was most companionable.

As I was cutting, I asked Mum about which side of the twill she thought was the "right" side and she thought the more visible weave with the diagonal markings was the right side and after we talked about it, I agreed.

After I had cut out all the green pieces, I sorted out which pieces I needed to cut the underside in blue and pinned them to the blue twill and cut them out, leaving a half inch seam allowance on the collar, cuffs and bottom bands. Then I cut out the corresponding pieces in interfacing and arranged them all so I could make sure I hadn't missed anything.

Finally, I sewed together the blue and green pieces, using an old leftover green thread for the bobbin and the blue thread for the top.