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”?

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.

My take on the Burberry Kensington Trench

Well I did enter the Bargainista Fashionista contest. I've had this trench coat fabric around for a few years and decided this was a good excuse to get it sewn. We were to take an expensive garment as inspiration and make our own version of it for a lot less. Challenge on!

This is my inspiration:

My pattern was my venerable Bernina My Label pattern but I did see a Burda and Sewaholic pattern that could be used instead. The good thing about my pattern was I already made it once (a way less complicated version) so I knew it fit quite well.

I did some snoop shopping at Bloomingdale's and frankly I think my fabric was even nicer that the original. It came from Michael's Fabrics so no surprise about that. I, of course, couldn't get the Burberry cotton lining but I got some really nice 100% wool from Mood and it turned out to be perfect for this. Once again, I prefer it to the original lining.

I did have to figure out how the collar worked. It has a collar stand that has a clasp on it so it can be closed for bad weather. I found some very nice brass hardware from Ebay which worked quite well as the D rings and tongues on the buckles were brass. Speaking of the buckles the only ones I could find didn't have tongues but Potomac Cobbler  could add them for me. Well worth it! I added the D rings to the belt in the back a-la-Burberry. The buttons and D rings came from Wawak.  I did promise the lady at Potomac Cobbler I would wear the coat in sometime. Apparently there aren't a lot of people that make this request.

I did welt pockets as opposes to the inseam pockets on the pattern. One thing I realized while working on this coat is the fabric was a bear to work with! Nothing turned out to be easy! But I'm very pleased with the outcome.

I also added epilates to the shoulders. I had to draft the back shield as there wasn't one. I also added the straps on the sleeves if it is needed to tighten the sleeves in a storm. Also I noticed they lined the undercollar in the lining fabric so I did the same. Kind of a nice touch.

So here is my version:

And, without further ado, this is the lining:

Okay, so here is the the breakdown of the cost:

$1.90 for D rings

$3.57 small leather buckles
$1.65 for the larger leather buckle
$15 for the tongues for the buckles (they didn't come with theme but a local cobbler shop could put them in. A shout out to Potomac Cobbler in Woodbridge VA!
$1.99 for thread - put it in here because of all the topstiching
$45.00 for the wool plade lining from Mood
$45 for the Coat Fabric from Michael's Fabrics
$2.70 for the brass neck closure fond on Ebay
Total cost: $125.13
Burberry Kensington coat: $1798.00

93% saved!

So that project complete and we'll see what happens next!

The iconic jean jacket - Denim and Leather edition

I've done this pattern several times but I thought why not do this for the Pattern Review Natural Fabrics contest? This pattern is a basic jean's jacket.  I know there are several patterns out there for this but I have the program for it and decided to use that. A quick muslin confirmed the fit.

The denim, leather and very interesting lining material came from Gorgeous Fabrics. The denim is some really high quality black denim and the leather is glove soft. I did interface the leather with Pro Weft Supreme Medium-Weight Fusible interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply. I can't say enough about this interfacing! It doesn't need to be preshrunken and it fuses beautifully. 

For the front I used the leather on the yoke. On the back I used it on the yoke as well as the strip in the back. I also did the cuffs with it.

The jeans thread came from Wawak as well as the buttons. A word about this thread from Wawak. It came in a very huge cone - I think enough for me and maybe a few generations after me. But the price was good. The gray thread looks pretty striking against the black leather and denim.

To fuse the interfacing to the leather I used a cool iron without the steam. It took to the underside very easily. I do have a shoe on my iron so I didn't need a press cloth.

I set up the Bernina B580 with black thread for the denim and leather construction. I put a leather needle in and used the very interesting leather foot - it sort of looks like it's on one training wheel:

I threaded the B780 up for topstitching. I used the jeans thread with a denim needle and put all purpose thread in the bobbin. I used the jeans dual feed foot with the dual feed engaged and it did a wonderful job on topstitch both the denim and the leather.


I did create a lining out of a really interesting looking cotton fabric. I thought it was a pretty nice touch to inside. I didn't flat fell the seams because it was lined.The other modification I made was to make the rounded collar more pointed. Just more my style.

I'm glad I finished before Fall totally set in as it's the perfect weight for that season.