Rain, rain, rain....

Well, what a soggy day! At least I have the perfect jacket for keeping dry! I made this using the Bernina My Label Barn Jacket pattern and the fabric was a combination of raincoat fabric from Michaels Fabrics (which suspiciously resembles Burberry) and a very nicely coordinating Bamberg lining from G Street Fabrics. The lining was a dead on match for the inside of the raincoat fabric.

I did the front zipper as a concealed zipper and put some snaps on to finish the closure:

I made the hood detachable so if I care to remove it I can. I used buttons to attach the hood.

I did a pretty interesting welt pocket, great as I always need a place for keys and such:

This made me feel pretty stylishly dry today!

Adventures in denim...

I wanted to make a denim jacket and perfect timing - Bernina My Label released a yoked pattern jacket. For those who aren't familiar with My Label it's a custom pattern drafting pattern and includes a virtual you to try clothes on before printing. This gives you an opportunity to check the fit and preview the fabric. This was the same technology shown on Tim Gunn's show Guide to Style.

I copied the front pocket detail from a Michael Kors denim jacket I have. I also borrowed the idea of quilting a lining with fusible batting and fusing it to the inside of the jacket.

I added some embroider to the front and a coordinating design to the back. This was done using the multihoop program in the Bernina Embroidery Designer Plus software and using a Hoop-it-All to position.  This was done on my Bernina Artista 165E but on the Artista 630E I could have used the Mega Hoop and auto split it. I didn't have that machine yet.

I did find one really useful thing about pattern software. As I hate to tape stuff I invested in a 24" HP plotter so I can print pattern pieces whole. What a time saver! Colin likes the plotter - he calls it the muscle car of printers!

Yikes, don't try this at home!

After I finished the blue shirt I went on to the white with metalic thread. After cutting it out, doing the darts and pressing, this is what happened!

This came from Mood in New York - I think I'll send them an email on this. I just got back from G Street and got some much nicer white on white Pima so I'm on to that instead. That is as soon as it's pretreated (it's currently in the washer).

Tailored shirt finished!

This is the shirt I made from Bernina My Label software and using David Coffin's shirtmaking instructions. I got the placket down, got the roll hem to work for everything BUT the hem (I rolled, basted and edge stitch that) did the flat lock seams my way of doing them (not quite as narrow). I couldn't quite figure out the cuffs and color but came relatively close. Next I'm doing this in white with a narrow silver thread stripe - that'll be for the Tim Gunn Sewalong from Patternreview.com.

After seeing this on Project Runway....

I want to try this! I'm thinking of making a day dress with fabric from Spoonflower. As much as I really love this one:  Tetris Fabric, I think I want to make my own. I've got the samples and the fabrics look really nice. Also the prices are not nearly as high as I would have thought! So when I have some time (right, what's that?) I'll try playing in Microsoft Paint and see what I can come up with!

My trusty sewing sewing companion

Since I pretty much sew along I have my trusty assistant, "Coco", help me with fitting. This was made with me being wrapped in plastic, wrapped in surgical bandages and standing quietly for 1/2 hour (not easy for me). After, cut out of the bandages, varnish the inside then reasemble the bandages to a form and coat with soap on this inside.Then pour quick rising phone, get plaster off the form, wrap in fabric and mount on stand! The stand wasn't very stable orignially but my great Father in law fixed it for me and now it's very stable. I would say next time I would coat the plaster with a good release oil - the soap had plaster sticking to the form and it was a pain to get off.

Two projects at once again

Well, as usual, I'm into more than one project at a time. I'm doing a blue striped dress shirt using Bernina My Label's tailored shirt pattern and David Coffin's shirtmaking techniques. Last night I figured out the lapped seams last night. Amazing that there's always something I've never tried before!

Alternately I'm working on this sweater:

This is with Araucania Panguipulli yarn from Yarnmarket. This would be a good project for watching TV to except Bailey wants to chew on the bamboo needles! I'm working on the front right now but I don't expect this to be another 20+ year project like the one I just threw away! If you can't finish a sweater in that time you might find you don't even like it at that point. So I decided instead of letting it torture me, I would just let go!

Well here goes.....

Never did a blog before but I thought I'd give it a shot. It might take a while to get up and running. Anyone who knows me knows my life includes sewing, crafts, theatre, pets and a whole lot more. So we'll see where this goes......