Not-black Jalie jeans: I'm not colour blind

Remember my black-grey boiled wool Jalie jacket, at the end of its completion I said, "I need a pair of black jeans to go with it"?  Made'em!  Only they aren't black:  I used a great little length of python-printed blackish-greyish denim.

Python print jeans!

I used the same Jalie 2908 stretch jeans pattern as before, only folded out the Oh So Sixties bell bottoms and lengthened the hem about 2" so I could wear them with heels.  My hubby aka my greatest appreciator, is in love with these new jeans:  so they must be make me look darn good.

I made them exactly per pattern except: 

1. lengthened the hem by ~4 cm, 

2. straight leg below the knees, to go over all of my born-to-be-seven-feet-tall-will-always-love'em-to-death high heeled boots:

3.  I sewed the waistband onto the body in halves, and then used the menswear approach to making sure that there was no gaposis at CB.  NOTE TO SELF:  the right waistband has to be longer by 5 cm (2") than the left, otherwise it's too short to fit over the fly shield.

4. to help the buttonhole and riveted button at CF behave better, I interfaced the waistband near CF.

5. instead of 3 belt loops per side I made 4: finally, my belts are properly lassooed onto the waistband!

Four belt loops per side hold the belt nicely in place. (the t-shirt is a Jalie pattern too!)

All that - positive, right?  Of course right. I cut and sewed these over the course of a few weekday evenings, finishing this fine weekend morning. AND????....you're not going to believe this.......... 

I sewed these jeans with GREEN thread.  Yup - green.  All these evenings I was convinced I'd grabbed dark GREY out of the drawer - and yesterday, just as I was finishing them, I discovered my uber-error in the cold harsh light of a Saturday morning.  And, you know what:  the joke's on me.  My husband had a pair of dark grey slacks tailored once, and the buttons were sewn on with blue thread, which seemed to me to be the epitome of in-your-face-shoddy tailoring.  Haha, now I know how that happened!

Trench coat: pattern test drive

As the saying goes, there's no time like the  present.  Killing two birds with one stone, I cut out jacket length (5255 D), though I plan to use all of the pattern details of jacket C, for a snazzy red jacket to test drive the 5525 body with the sleeve from Simplicity 4084 (another great trench coat pattern), and basted it all together.    

The body is a straight size 12, with the back neckline dropped a whole 2.5 cm (1") to compensate for my over-erect (yes that is the correct technical term!) back.  Good thing I did that - it brought the shoulder seams to where they should be:  when I forget this step, my garments show a severe backwards drift:  yuck! 

The fit is great - but I like more ease (the stuffed sausage look is So Not For Me), so I narrowed the SA's a tad at the front and back  princess seams starting at the hip bone, leaving the CB and side seams per original design. That added about 4 cm (1.5") to the hip area. 

I also intend to lower the CB vent by about 2-3 cm (~1"), as I do NOT want my butt's high water line to push it open!

The sleeve took a bit of work:  first I measured the original 5525 armscye circumference & compared it to the 4084's.  In the latter, the circumference is 15 mm smaller and the sleeve length 2.5 cm (1") shorter.  So I added 4 mm to each of the half sleeve sides, and lengthened them by a breathtaking 7.5 cm (3").  Just as well!!!!!  

 In the above pic, the sleeve hem is folded 5.5 cm (2 1/4") from the bottom, and it doesn't look too long, does it?   The lovely purple elastic, you ask?  it's there to imitate the sleeve tab/belt, which serves to cinch the sleeve and keep freezing rain and wind off my bony wrists.  

There was no way to ease this sleeve into the body.  The fabric is totally non-easable, so I made a few tiny pleats at upper back (you can see a couple of them in the pic).  However - I think what I'll do is add a little more ease at the side and front princess seams for my bust, just the upper 10-15 cm, and that'll increase the armscye a bit and make the task of sleeve easing easier ;) in the actual construction.  

So, what next?  

I need to decide on a whole lot of things:

1. do I need to interface the whole fronts, per pattern instructions?  this fabric is like iron - maybe interfacing isn't necessary?  maybe I could, like I did with my most recent jacket, just underline with silk organza and add a bit of hair canvas to the lapel bit of the underlining? 

2. do I need to worry about waterproofing all the seams?

3. for the red jacket, what sort of lining?  fancy silk (dig through the stash, Digs!), or basic black bemberg (which I already have)?  

4. what about the topstitching?  contrast or self colour? self or thick thread?

4. how about some amazing piped edges (for the red jacket only)?

So.  This was a well spent Sunday.  I think, since I really-Really-REALLY want to have a trench COAT  before the month is out rather than a JACKET, I'll now set this little red baby aside and plow straight into the tan.  :)   :)  :)

Trench coat plans!

A serious Bur6erry ;) knockoff has been on my to-do list for a long time: ever since Michael had a sale of the raincoating fabric, which I think was some time in early 2008.

Fabric:

The fabric is amazing. It's made out of two layers of cotton twill bonded together, one plain colour, the other patterned in a nice tan/black/white/burgundy stripe.  Both sides are waterproof and shed water beautifully. [Edit: when I started to wear the coat I discovered the double thickness and waterproofing make the coat very windproof as well, and consequently surprisingly warm.]

I bought three lengths, in tan, red, and blue, all from Michael's, plus a length of matching lining from Denver Fabrics.  I still have the receipt for the latter, dated June 2008!  

Tan coating on the right (4.8 m) with matching rayon lining (2.4 m) on the left.

Sky blue (1.6 m) and fire engine red  (3.0 m)

I'm not quite sure why I got these lengths. It was in the early days of my sewing, and I was building up a stash, maybe? Or, probably more likely, I had had no idea whatsoever what lengths were needed for say, a coat (the tan), or a jacket (the red)?   I think the blue was destined for my baby boy, but ahem, he's much bigger than I now, way too big now for such a miserly length to be useful for him.  But, blue combined with the tan could make a colour-blocked jacket perhaps. 

I love how water beads on this fabric - clearly it's been waterproofed!

Patterns:  

I have two - the Simplicity 4084 (Threads) and McCall's M5525.  I know there are others - Jalie, Marfy, and Burda, and may find them eventually for info purposes, but I plan on using a combo of the two I have.  

Alterations:

I like the M5525 upper back yoke and front gunflap, and the rain tab on the collar stand.  I prefer 4084's two piece sleeve, the direction of the side front pocket welts, and the buckle on the belt.  In addition, instead of what these patterns provide, I plan to make fold-over epaulettes (skinny underside), buckled rather than buttoned sleeve tabs, hanging tabs on the belt, and four instead of two belt holders.  

The under collar will be bias-cut and show the wrong side.  Buttons and buckles will be classic horn style.  Top stitching?  perhaps burgundy, to match the thin stripe of the underside and lining.  

I know some of you out there have used this cloth - I'd love to post links to those successful projects, so if you know where they are, please post in the comments section - thanks!  I'd also love to hear your comments and advice - this is a big project and your help will definitely go a long way to giving it justice!

1.1m jacket: finished at last!

At long, long, very loooong last!

None of you will remember my "1.1 meter challenge" post from waaaay back in May..... I know you won't, the blogosphere moves at such a rapid pace, it's not possible.

It's been an impossibly hectic spring/summer/fall here Chez StraightJacket. Pulled into a gadzillion directions, I've been.  And I'm happy to say that finally, many events and continents and thousands of miles/kilometers behind me, here I am again... finally occupying my oversize dining table with scraps of fabric and the clackety sound that my boys love so much.

One of my personal pet peeves (have I mentioned it before?) is the abandonment of unfinished projects.  Yes, I know we all have UFOs (unfinished objects).  Guilty!!!!  But I hate, I detest, I truly despise them.  An abandoned project is the epitome of wasted resources:  fabric, patterns, electricity, all those other resources that equal cold hard cash, but most of all, the queen of all non-renewable and precious resources, time.

So today,  give me and all UFO finishers a little bit of applause. But not TOO  much applause:  I missed the opportunity for an outdoor photo op on the last beautiful day of the year, and until it stops raining, hanger pics is all I can do for the moment.

The jacket is the exclusive design from BurdaStyle Magazine Oct. 2008, pattern 131.  I cut size 38, and lengthened the hem 5 cm.  It's fully underlined with silk organza and lined with bemberg rayon.  The usual suspects (cuffs, collar, belt ties) are interfaced, so the interfacing is fused to the organza.  I added a wedge of fusible hair canvas to the lapels for extra oomph.

It's a lovely little pattern, if rather boxy.  I was attracted by the unusual collar-lapel treatment:  it's not often you see a collar laying over the lapels this way, and I wanted to try this technique.  The collar actually takes a 90 degree downwards swing at the corner of the neckline, and attaches to the facings!  Sneaky!  

Since I decided to omit shoulder pads, I had to shave the sharply angled curve of the raglan shoulder down a smidgeon. (I'm of the opinion that summer jackets have a duty to imbue the wearer with a certain summertime casualness and je ne sais quois,  thus no shoulder pads).  Everything is top stitched to death, but I used self thread, not wanting any contrast. My machine, sigh, is an aged lady, and I no longer have trust in its stitch consistency.

The back side:  central pleat, and waist tabs.  The edges of the pleat are stitched to help them keep their ever-new knife sharpness.  The waist tabs were a surprise!  I chose to use buckles with teeth rather than a prong, thereby avoiding making holes in the straps.

A year later, and I still haven't had a chance to wear this item.  Here are some extra photos showing the front and back details, including the collar-lapel construction detail that so intrigued me.

The roomy back can be cinched by the little side belts to provide some shaping.

The raglan sleeves and centre back box pleat also add interest to the back view.

The pocket welts are inserted into the vertical darts.

Collar band is sandwiched between the lapel and its lining. Aha!

And what is that purple thing peeking out from under the jacket (in the original photos)?  Ah, well, that's another no-longer-UFO (another round of applause?).  A poly chiffon top, and tube scarf out of its remnant.

I used my tank top TNT, and added a new variation:  there's a seam across the bustline, allowing me to give the sides dart-like shaping, and a central pleat in the lower section.  Those two things let the chiffon drape very gracefully, if I may say.  

Well, with all that, I was on a roll.  Not sewing last summer didn't stop me from buying fabric!  During the summer I visited an Indian sari shop in Montreal, and they had a crazy sale on silk scarves.  So, I grabbed this delightful red crepe - it's overprinted with a subtle paisley-ish pattern, which is unfortunately completely invisible in the photo - and I managed to make a top AND a scarf out of that today.  Hah!  The scarf is just a flat length, not a tube like the one above. 

This one has a pleat at the centre neckline (it only looks like it's pleated at the hem, but it's not), and two opposing pleats at the hips.

Whew. I'm all blogged out for today! And all sewed out. Then again... A beautiful lightweight light beige wool  destined for trousers to go with the jacket has finished drying on the couch- I might get it cut tonight if I regain some oomph after dinner.   I'm thinking of using a simplified version of the Jalie jeans pattern for the trousers. What do you think of that, sewers out there?

Paris, je t'aime!

Apartment living in the most beautiful city in the world:  les huitres au citron, un peu de vin, tout en  plein-air. 

What I'm wearing:  my post-Kandahar summer wardrobe.  I love this little draped adaptation of a one-shoulder Burda top. The slacks I love a little less - though I'm fighting to regain the weight I lost at KAF, it's hard work, and all my bottoms - skirts & pants - are still too baggy.  Much of the time I look like I'm playing dressup in my mother's closet:  NOT a great look anywhere, but especially not so in très chic Paris!

Yum, yum!

I made this little Burda jacket nearly two years ago, but never actually had the occasion to wear it till now - and how's this for perfect colour coordination with the environs? I'm practically invisible.  

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And speaking of invisible:  le Panthéon est bien grand et impressionnant, mais ou est Waldo?