I know this is a much-neglected blog I decided to get back to it! I entered the Pattern         Review activewear contest and actually, for the first time, won! It's the Waffle Patterns Momjii walking jacket and this is a piece of the review:

I made this jacket for long walks and hiking in the Poconos where I have another house and we're retiring there in the next year. Lots of cool trails up there and we live in a very hilly neighborhood.
I made all the pockets. This included a sleeve ticket pocket with zipper, a breast pocket with zipper, a pocket with exposed zipper and a pocket with a zippered pocket over the hand warmers. This gives me room to carry my iPhone, vax card, ID, a credit card if needed and lots of snacks. Pretty much anything I can think of!
I like the handwarmer feature as it will get my hands out of the rain if needed.
I made the hooded version as I've frequently get caught in a flash rainstorm there!
The only thing I alteration I made it lengthening the sleeves by 1 1/2".
Also, one of the pictures shows it open so if it gets warm it's not an issue!

I've entered many, many contests but this was a first! The pictures are from my neighborhood in Woodbridge, VA but I love long walks in the Poconos of Pennsylvania, so this struck me as a perfect thing to make. Since we're on Lake Wallenpaupack I think I'll use my Discovery Trekking outfitters gift certificate for some swimwear! I'm beyond excited!

Anyway, I'm back and promise to keep up this time!

Style Arc Romy Jacket

I am totally taken by Style Arc patterns. They are drafted extremely well and the fit is perfect! Well, except for the full bust adjustment I need to make but I'm quite used to that at this time. I just can't have enough jackets these days. It's been totally soggy around the DC area lately and this is a perfect jacket for this season in this part of the country.

I'm standing in front of the Studio Theatre in DC in these pictures. I will say the neck is pretty tricky. I found the best approach is not totally construct the collar before attaching.

I did line this. The pattern didn't call for it but I thought it was a good idea. The fabric, an all weather 2 ply Supplex from Seattle Fabrics needed it anyway. I also got this lining from them - a good nylon lining for outerwear. Also got the separating zipper and toggles from them, the cord came from Amazon.

 

This jacket has raglan sleeves which makes it easy to set. It has a belt that attaches with belt loops (I love my Babylock cover stitch machine for those) and it has a drawstring in the hem.

 

 

The pockets are box pleated. I decide to make use of my Kamsnap press and use snaps to close the pocket flap. I also used them on the neck snaps.

 

 

Upon leaving the theatre the temperature dropped! So time to snap closed the collar!

This was a fun jacket to put together! I can see making it again, maybe a different color, maybe with a hood. I totally recommend Style Arc! And frankly shipping from Australia isn't that bad - my 2 - 3 weeks for super saving shipping. And our dollar is  pretty strong against theirs right now!

 

Ziggi and me! The Ziggi Biker jacket!

To answer this question up front – no, I don’t have a motorcycle. But I couldn’t resist making the Style Arc Ziggi Biker Jacket. Kind of an odd choice for my first Style Arc pattern but I’ve been fascinated with this jacket. The draft on these patterns are legendary so I thought I would give it a try. I’m definitely a convert! Just made the Issy knit top and love that too!

This is what it looks like zipped up:

The back is pretty interesting. It has a peplum on it to give it some shaping and ease:

My wonderful Mother in Law gave me a very generous birthday present and it was enough for the leather of this jacket. Actually I have a whole lot left as I ordered an entire cow hide! I spoke with a very helpful sales person at Hide House and she guided me to the correct leather. It’s called Moto so you can guess it’s pretty thick. I did say I wanted something suitable for winter – this sure is!

I have to say Style Arc is not really great on directions. But there were lots of tutorials out there to assist me on this. This pattern is not for the faint of heart!

As shown in the illustration I quilted the shoulder and sleeve top. I thought that gave it an extra designer touch. The zippers came from Wawak and the lining was a Bemberg Rayon Twill from Gorgeous Fabrics. It’s a heavier coat weight lining. 

There were a few tricks I learned about working with leather. If you get unintended sewing holes of course they don’t just go away with an iron like with a woven. As a matter of fact you can’t iron the stuff anyway! I used Leather Weld to fill the holes and a leather conditioner to blend them in. Worked quite well.

To get the seams to be easier to get through the machine I used a skiving tool to shave the leather down in bulky places and a rubber mallet to sort of pound seams down. My Bernina B790 got through the jacket with little complaint.

Also adding the lining was a bit different. I couldn’t bag it through the sleeve seam as I would just about any other jacket so I left the opening at the hem and tacked it there.

This jacket has a total of five zippers on it. One for the front, two for the pockets and two for the sleeves. That’s quite a bit of hardware. 

Well, it was cold enough to wear it today and one of my coworkers asked me if I road my bike in or drove a car! Of course I had to answer “what bike”?

A clock for the lake house sewing room!

I wanted a nice clock for my Pocono sewing room. This design came from Emblibrary and I did it one hooping with the maxi hoop on my Bernina B790. The quilt background was done on my Bernina B580 using some quilt scraps. I found the frame, plexiglass and clock kit on Amazon. This room is really coming together!

Let's hear it for the wrap dress! 40 years and counting.....

For those who don't know this the wrap dress is now celebrating it's 40th year. It's a style that looks great on everyone it's obviously a classic.

I am in possession of a book called "Sew Many Dresses, sew little time". I saw it and thought that's well worth getting! It has some great pattern blocks as well as a lot of ways to work them.  There is a variation of a mock wrap I thought would be great for the summer. I decided I wanted mine to be short sleeved as I'm not a fan of sleeveless as a rule. There was a pattern block for capped, short, mid and long sleeves.

The fabric came from Elliot Berman Fabrics in NY. They had a great sale on 4th of July and I got some really wonderful fabrics from them as well as a special gift of a yard and half of Nanette Lepore cotton. That project is yet to come.

This is the front of the dress:

I opted to go with a straight skirt with a slit in the back. A bit more modern take.

Lining was a bit of challenge. They showed it with facings. I attached the lining to the front pieces, then added the lower skirt. After that I created the back and attached it. The sleeve lining is bagged and the bottom hem is tacked.

 

I'm really please with this dress. It can be used for all kinds of occasions as well as worn to work and good for a night on the town after!

 

G Street Fabrics and demise of clothing fabric stores

Well, I guess it had to happen. G Street Fabrics is closing both of it's stores in Virginia. The only remaining one will be Rockville. Honestly, three interstate highways to get there will probably make it too tough to attempt on a regular basis. Centerville was on my way home from work with a minor detour.


For those of us who love to sew clothes this will be a bit of a problem. We have an amazing amount of quilt shops around here but the clothing fabric stores are on the downslide. We lost Fabrics Unlimited in Arlington, Couture Fabrics in Alexandria, Curran Square Fabrics in McLean and now this. Exquisite Fabrics, formerly in DC is now in Culpepper, VA.


Guess it's time to go check out A Fabric Place in Baltimore and take a trip to Culpepper to check Exquisite Fabrics new digs. And there's Sew Smart Fabrics in Scranton, when I'm up there, to check out. After boating season that is. And Manhattan is only two hours from the lake house so there is the Fashion District there.


And I guess online will be the other option. I like when I know there's a brick and mortar attached although I know that's not always the case.

And idea for Jeans and how it went

I entered these into a jeans contest and of course I didn't win. I'm never optimistic about winning because the group of people who enter are extremely creative. The fun thing is looking at what they do and stealing ideas for the future!


The base pattern I used was one I self drafted. I took several classes in drafting and decided I needed to give it a shot. I did use my Bernina My Label jeans pattern for things like pockets, yokes and other details. I looked a Jalie 2908 for reference for the cut of the legs.


For fabric I used this really nice denim from G Street Fabrics. It was 97% Cotton and 3% Lycra so not a whole lot of stretch. I did buy some stretchier denim from Mood but I'll be I'll be using it to try out the Jalie pattern in the future. I was suspicious it wouldn't meet the 95 Cotton 5 Lycra requirement.

This is the front:

This is the back:

I had this fairly nice soft black leather blazer with a torn arm. So far I've cannibalized it to make details in a hounds tooth skirt and for the yoke and pocket trim on these pants. 

I recently bought this snap press from KamSnaps as well as pliers to remove snaps that don't work out.
Wow is this thing heavy! Of course I got it in powder blue! I find the bottom of snaps work quite well as rivets.  I used the leather as trim for the pockets:

I interfaced the leather with a medium weft interfacing and lined it with the same fabric I used for the pockets:

My embroidery for the back pocket and front and back leg was Dressed in Damask from Emblibrary. I've used it before and I just love how elegant it is. My Bernina B780 embroidered this denim very easily.

My topstitch thread was from Wawak. It's a huge spool and I'm sure I'll eventually have to figure out who to will it to! It's enough for several generations!


My setting for the picture was the dock of my Mother in Law's house in Cocoa Beach, Florida. I love water as a backdrop! And this was a nice break from Winter. These were taken in March and WOW that was a wild month in Pennsylvania! However, when I got back to Virginia Spring has seemed to arrive.