28 January, 2010

Red "Chanel" Suit: Baby It's Cold Out There!

My laptop's still in the hospital, but the patient's expected to live. Or so I'm told.

In the meantime, I've managed to put my "what to do next" pondering time to good use. When I say I'm a stingy cutter, I mean it! I bought 2.25 yds of this here red boucle, and I managed to turn the scrap left over from the jacket into a matching skirt. Tadah! Here's my fuzzy little butt-warming outfit, and not a second too soon, considering the howling you-don't-want-to-know-the-windchill gale out there tonight. A lovely Arctic blast.

We're entering prime Rideau Canal (=longest skating rink in the world, it's in the Guinness Book of World Records) skating season. We need it to be cold. We LOVE the cold!

We know how to dress for the cold. So, the front:



Both top and bottom are underlined with organza, painstakingly stitched to the ff, and all four pockets have double silk lining, so you can slip your fingers into them without catching on the fuzzy boucle. The jacket's weighed down with a hem chain. And that's not all: altogether too much hand sewing, I tell ya. But it had to be done.

I'll post a "live" photo on the GCGH blog, and probably - I hope - review it on PR. Or maybe not. I'd rather be sewing than computing whilst on my own time, seeing as I spend pretty much all my time in front of an ugly square screen at work, and not watching sitcoms either. Bear with me.

I had JUST enough trim to do all that you see - with a 1 cm scrap left, I kid you not. As I didn't want the skirt to turn into just a great big boring red bottom, I did this:



A nice exposed heavy gold zipper all the way down. Maybe it'll tweak someone's imagination. I hope.

Is this all? No indeed. One of the sites I love to stalk is Style.com. Today I found Thimister - I know, I've never heard of him before either. But take a look. Did you? So, never mind the shoot'em up bloodstained clothing theme, what I did like about the collection is the fab-fabulous colour combination of drab olive with red and white. Eminently doable! Here's the jacket with the very first thing I ever reviewed on PR - a New Look skirt, and being a total newb back then, I never bothered to post the skirt I made (in olive microfibre):



I like the skirt enough to wear it regularly, and now I can feel fashion forward in it. A hooray moment?

7 comments:

  1. Hooray!! It looks amazing!! I have a little scrap left over from my jacket that I have been contemplating turning into a skirt - better got on it! I love the exposed zipper!

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  2. That's very fashion-forward. Totally. And a terrific way to spice up a pencil skirt. Nice sewing!

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  3. Wow, your outfit is festive, chic and cozy, fabulous.

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  4. You should be extremely proud of yourself. That is a beautiful chanel suit!

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  5. So I'm thinking...pretty suit...nice job...like how you used the trim...AND THEN I scroll down to the next picture...BAM! What a wonderful out-of-the-box moment that skirt is!!! You have come up with your own couture suit! Love it!

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  6. Beautiful! I love it, the trim the zipper the pockets. You did a fantastic job.

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  7. It looks SO GREAT! You have done a beautiful job and I hope you love wearing it. So do you live in Ottawa? I was there a year ago for work and remember the canal. I had an Obama tail, I think it was called. And just from walking in the cold from the car to the canal and back, I got some kind of cold shock that kept me in bed all evening with the biggest headache I've ever had.

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