My Sewing Space

I'm not one to mess with a good thing. Ottobre 1/2010 #14 has worked well for me to give to new nieces (See here . And here . And don't forget here ). The nieces just keep coming and I'm happy to come up with some new looks from this pattern. Truth be told, I'm rather behind. The niece receiving this coat is almost 18 months old already. I did trace off the pattern again, a couple sizes larger than the other versions. Said niece is above average in many ways for an 18 month old, most notably in size. The fabric is a dark red wool that I picked up at a thrift store awhile ago. It is beautiful fabric, but the piece wasn't large. It isn't a coat-weight wool, so I lined it with a quilted lining. I really like how it makes the inside of the coat look, but it was not fun to sew with. The fabric is quilted to a very light batting and then a layer of foam. That foam is super grabby and would not go through the machine. To make it work, I had to put a stri...

When I thought through my spring sewing plans, I came up with five things I really wanted to make for myself. That was the short list and I'm not sure I will actually make it happen, so I thought I would start with the most involved project. If I left it for the end it certainly wouldn't have gotten done. This is McCall's 5525 in my very favorite color - sour apple green. The pictures don't really show the color accurately. It's pretty bright, but I love it. I should have noted the date when I actually started this project because it feels like it took me forever - partly because I just didn't have significant chunks of time to work on it and partly because I did some tailoring work on the lapels and the collar. That meant that I had hours invested before doing any assembly. I haven't done much classic tailoring work at all up until now. This book was a big help to me and I followed the machine method outlined in it. I also referred to this book an...

I have more fabric than will fit in my fabric closet. It seems that a purge and reorganizing effort is on the horizon. But, before I get to that, I've queued up projects for some of the bulkier fabrics. I need the space that they take up. The first of these projects is a new coat for me! The fabric... I purchased this orange coating fabric over a year ago when all the clearance fabrics at Fabricland were $1.00/meter. However, this is not a high-quality piece of fabric. It is mostly polyester and I don't expect it to wear well. I suspect it will pill. For that reason, I didn't invest a lot of time in the construction. Also, I'm thinking that I might get tired of an orange coat more quickly than something neutral, so I didn't see the need to use lots of elaborate techniques on this project. The lining fabric was given to me by a destashing acquaintance. It isn't particularly fabulous, but it was on hand and perfectly serviceable. The entire coat is und...

This pattern is now a three-peat for me. Lucky me - I have another new niece, so I made another version of this very sweet coat! The first was in denim , the second in corduroy , and now the third in a tweedy wool blend. The pattern was all ready to go, so it came together pretty quickly. I lined it with a quilting cotton featuring a lavender motif (not fireworks as suggested by The Preacher). For extra warmth, I added a layer of flannel to the bodice and skirt pieces. I used a traditional lining for the sleeves to make getting them on and off easier. I had this ribbon on hand that matched really well and added that at the neck for a hanging loop. The sleeve tabs might be my favorite part of this pattern. I really like this pattern. One of these days I may just have to sew a coat for one of my own kids!

I hesitate to consider this the "big reveal" because the coat does look very incomplete without buttons and because the pictures are really lousy. Uncooperative weather and an overly busy photographer have conspired against me. It was really windy outside when we took these pictures. This was the only one where the coat wasn't flapping in the breeze. I should have pinned it closed. It doesn't look so good here. The shoulders/chest are a good fit when the CF's are pinned how they will be buttoned. I used red thread to mark buttonhole placement on the right front and to loosely tack down the other button locations. I really like the seaming on the back and the back latch. But, I feel really defeated by those sleeves. They look beautiful from the front, but they aren't smooth in the back. I think they look worse here because of how  I'm holding my arms, but maybe not - it's hard to know. I matched up the marks, but it seems like they must be rotated...

I'm just really not very good with in-progress posts. I thought it might be a good thing for a longer project like this coat, but I still just sew along without thinking to stop for pictures. Oh, well. I think this will be the last progress post before it is complete Woohoo! Let's see...where are we? The collar, which I didn't need to be so afraid of, is in. After thinking about a few options, I decided to use weft-insertion interfacing in the collar and stand. To give the collar a bit of a roll, I used a lot of steam - first on just the undercollar, and then on the whole collar (upper and under) after it was together. After attaching the stand to the collar, I attached it around my pressing ham with pins, steamed the whole thing and let it sit overnight. I don't know how much of a difference that all made, but it didn't hurt anything. The sleeves are set in with sleeve heads and shoulder pads. They're also hemmed and lined. The lining is partly ...

A nasty case of pink eye slowed me down a bit over the weekend, but I am still working away at the coat. Some details... Yoke with tabs: Pocket with flap: The pocket is lined. To ensure that none of the lining peeked out to the front, I slipstitched the pocket to the coat before topstitching. I placed the stitches on the underside of the folded edge of the pocket to prevent a flattened look. Burda's instructions don't include lining for the pocket, but a lined pocket feels so much nicer. Back latch: Burda calls this a "latch." North American patterns would probably call it a belt? I kind of like latch. I really like the seams on the back. Construction thoughts... This project is a bit of a stretch for me. My experience with tailoring and jacket/coat making is pretty minimal. It seems like something I might want to do more of someday, but right now I just don't have much need for tailored clothes in my life. So, for this coat I've been relyin...

After muslining, altering, lining drafting, and cutting, the sewing has begun. And I think it's going to be better, easier and more enjoyable than I initially thought. In case I found that I needed to make adjustments to machine settings or technique, I decided to start with the small parts of the coat. That way if I messed up anything too badly, I could still re-cut it and start over. So far, so good: These are shoulder tabs (2 sets), sleeve tabs, back latch pieces, and pocket flaps. Heh, heh...the tabs struck me as finger-like...I couldn't resist. The pieces aren't perfect, particularly noticeable when they're all lined up next to each other, but I'm still happy with them. Even though the pieces are small, it took awhile to finish them since each needed to be stitched, trimmed, turned, pressed and topstitched. This fabric doesn't like to be turned - it seems a little velcro-like and wants to stick to itself rather than sliding over. The pressing par...

It feels like it has taken me awhile to get to this point, but I'm finally moving forward with my coat. This is a strange time of year to start making a winter coat, since we're so close to spring. Right? Spring is coming, isn't it? Actually, right now it is very windy and snowy outside my window and the temperature is well below freezing. Maybe it's a great time to start a winter coat. Sigh. I mentioned this awhile ago , but the real reason I'm starting a coat now is that The Preacher and I are going to New York City at the end of March and I'm hoping to bring this coat along and have the buttonholes professionally done at Jonathan Embroidery . I haven't actually tried it, but I suspect that my machine wouldn't be very excited about doing buttonholes on a coat. Initially, I was going to use Simplicity 2508 - specifically the view made in white on the right side of the envelope. I made a muslin to check the fit and found it to be okay, but after thi...

Right after I finished this coat , I made one more just like it for another new niece. I really liked the pattern and having it all out and being familiar with it made it come together very swiftly. For the second version, I used a corduroy fabric that I have been hanging onto for awhile. I really like the fabric - both the print and the very soft feel of the corduroy - but I was having a hard time knowing what to do with it. This coat pattern seemed like a good match. I used covered buttons on the front and the sleeve tabs. The lining is a lighter shade of the pink flowers in the corduroy. You can see some of the lining fabric used for the under collar to reduce bulk. Ideally, that wouldn't peek out. Oh, well. Such a great pattern. I'm sure I'll come back to it again sometime. What? Another coat that fits me but isn't for me?!? Oh, the injustice...

I'm so pleased with how this little coat turned out, I hardly know what to say about it. It is a gift for my newest niece and I had so much fun making it!  The pattern is in the Spring 2010 issue of Ottobre magazine. This is the third Ottobre pattern for me - the other two ( here and here ) were much simpler than this one. I was so impressed with this coat pattern that I cancelled my subscription to Threads and started subscribing to Ottobre. I've been subscribing to Threads continuously for 10 years now and haven't been impressed with the last couple of years at all. There are a couple of reasons for that. I'm not completely dissatisfied with Threads, but it seems like a good time for a change. Threads and Ottobre are entirely different sorts of magazines, but the funding for them comes from the same place so I had to choose one or the other. Okay, back to the coat... It is fully lined with a printed plaid (aka difficult-to-match plaid). The buttons came home w...