Shear(ling) Love

from sarah the sewist

Josh's birthday is coming up next month, and since he made me such a fabulous gift that I know was a real labor of love, as well as a major pain in the butt, I feel compelled to make something for him that's he's going to love as much as I love my gift. Plus, my husband's just generally awesome, and he deserves something special.

When our latest Burda World of Fashion magazine arrived, Josh was thrilled because it actually contained three men's patterns. He was immediately taken with the snazzy faux shearling fisherman's coat.


(You can check out the line drawing here if you're so inclined.)

I've never made anything out of shearling, faux or otherwise, but I thought this would be a wonderful birthday gift for my sweetie. It's certainly not something that he'd make for himself (even though I believe he'd be perfectly capable, despite his recent spate of self-doubt). And, faux shearling items are still so popular, that they're quite overpriced. I've also never seen anything in the stores, even Nordy's, that has quite these unusual lines and interesting shape. (Working just a few blocks from the downtown PDX Nordstrom can be a bit dangerous---I'm always checking that place out.)

What I didn't know is that faux shearling is really expensive---like $25-30 a yard. That seems a little insane for something that's basically fancy polyester. But I'm sure there's a good reason. Anyway, these prices forced me to do something I never do---brave Fabric Depot on one of the 40% off days. Worse yet, the Saturday of the two 40% off days. Hardier souls can handle this, but I'm just not that tough when it comes to shopping. Anyway, I grabbed my fabric and ran (after paying, of course).

This looks to be almost identical to the fabric in the pattern photo. It's your normal white fleece inside, with the outside of the fabric being a dark brown faux distressed leather. I think it's pretty masculine, unlike the pink-on-pink that was also available.


So, I haven't actually done any work on this pattern. Haven't even traced it out of the magazine. But, I'm thinking about it a lot. I hear the this stuff is a nightmare to sew with, but I'm in denial. It'll all work out just fine. And if I keep telling myself that, it just might be true.

Oh, in case you're wondering... It's (obviously) not a surprise. Kind of hard to hide a sewn gift in our house, since the trusty Kenmore's in the living room.

Oops!

from josh the sewer


The dog and I got a kick out of this. The Sewist accidentally mixed up the back piece and one of the arms on her current rain coat project. She did fix it quickly, though I thought it would be much cooler to leave it with the trunk opening. I am sure she will have more to add shortly.

We sewed quite a bit during this rainy and cold weekend. I am working on another pair of pants (this a pair of jeans made out of velveteen, I love Bolt, because I always find the neatest fabric) and a flannel shirt. The Sewist is keeping my head spinning with her multiple projects, which are all coming together at once.

Out of the Trenches

from sarah the sewist

My Indygo Junction Trench Topper that I was sewing as part of the Great Trench Coat Sew-a-long on Pattern Review is finished and I broke it in by wearing it to work today. I was a little uncomfortable with it just because it's a lot louder than most of my wardrobe, but it worked with dark jeans, a white collared blouse and my black cowboy boots. Someone even told me that it gave off a "vintage cool vibe," which sounds good to me. Not to mention, Josh and I went out to The Screen Door (yum!) for dinner this evening, and he claims that two diners noticed on my jacket. My style is generally not that noticeable, more cute than anything, so it's kind of nice to have something distinct and eye-catching.


I wrote about my progress here and here and it was really fun knowing that there were quite a few other folks working on a trench at the same time---although mine is more of an indoors jacket, rather than the outwear most of the others on Pattern Review are planning and sewing. It's funny, I was planning on sewing this jacket, but it jumped to the top of the queue when the sew-a-long was announced. The super-cool Amy Butler print from Bolt in an unusual cinnamon color and the lovely pink Moda fabric from Fabric Depot for the contrasting bands were a fun combination.

I covered the issues that I had with this pattern in my last blog entry, but I do want to re-iterate that while I had some problems, they were completely fixable and Indygo Junction seemed very happy to get the feedback about the errors in the pattern drafting. The other thing I noticed with this pattern is that it's already rather petite-ified. By that I mean that I didn't shorten the sleeves, and only took in the shoulders a smidge---which was great for me. My fix to the belt issue worked, and I think it looks like it was supposed to be this way.



Anyway, since this jacket is unlined, and since the Sewer and I don't have a serger (waaaah!), there was a lot of seam finishing on this jacket. Which was a colossal pain in the butt. Well worth it, but a pain, nonetheless.


I also faced the pink bands at the sleeves and bottom so that they'd have more of a structured look and flare out a bit more. Which I think turned out pretty nice, since the two fabrics were different weights. The contrasting bands actually, oddly, toned down the busy look of the main fabric, which is sort of interesting.

I must have placed the three stupid button on this jacket at least three times. Each. It was really difficult to figure out the right spot for the buttons, and I still not completely satisfied with the way the buttons look on the jacket. I am really crappy at hand sewing and avoid doing so at all costs. Our sewing machine does a lot for us---including auto buttonholes and it's really easy to use the machine to attach buttons. However, like I mentioned in a previous entry, the buttons I chose for this jacket were too big for the auto buttonholer, and it turns out, also are too big to sew on with the sewing machine. Which sucked. So I spent all of last evening sewing and re-sewing the buttons.

Basically, the buttons won.


I'm planning to make this trench again, especially since I've worked out all of the weirdness with the pattern, and since I have a decent stash of raincoat fabric on hand.

New Fabric

from sarah the sewist

One pink, one brown. Both Robert Kaufman stretch "Vera" sateen. Had a plan for these, but reconsidering said plan. For some reason pants and a shirt just don't seem interesting enough. Lots of projects to go before I have to commit either of these to a pattern.

Both were procured this weekend at Bolt. They also had red. The red was pretty awesome.

Back to the Rose City Textiles Sale

Columbus Crew Major League Soccer team jersey fabric. White on white.

Need we said more?

Sporty Fabric Haul

In our ongoing quest to identify and procure the perfect vintage-style baseball flannel (more on that later), we visited Rose City Textiles deep in the heart of Portland's Northwest Industrial District this weekend. We'd read that they sold fabrics mostly for active wear, and thought they may sell the perfect stretchy wool flannel. They didn't. But it was an experience nonetheless.

We walked in, and were greeted with, "Are you here for the sale?"

Looking at each other, "Uhhh, okay."

We were led through the store (Sarah was momentarily distracted en route but some interesting-looking bamboo knit) to the back, which was an enormous warehouse with rolls of fabric of all colors, textures and types piled on shelves. Our friendly guide to the store then said, gesturing at the piles,

"All this back here is a buck a yard."

We stood there and watched him walked away. It was a heady, overwhelming experience, because this place sells fabric that's from all of the big active wear retailers: Nike, Adidas, Columbia and lots of the designers and boutiques. Literally, there were piles of stuff that we civilians can't normally buy.

Sifting through the piles and piles of huge bolts of fabrics, we found some gems. Josh discovered what's probably the coolest fabric in the haul---a strechy fabric for basketball uniforms from Nike that was the fabric worn by the USA Men's Basketball Team. Does it get any better than fabric AND basketball? Josh also found some interesting red and white soccer jersey fabric and felt the need to purchase quite a bit of red ribbing---and they through in the trimmings from the ribbing as well, so we now have a big pile of red ribbing sitting on the sewing room floor. Sarah found great high-end raincoat material in both brown and blue (the cool satiny stuff) and then went a little crazy and bought who-knows-how-much smoky-purple organic cotton knit that was the EXACT same as her favorite hoodie from JJill. Because you really need lots and lots of purple hoodies. Oh, yeah, and we won't even talk about the hottest of hot pink knit that made its way home with us as well.

All and all, it was pretty awesome. Thirty-eight dollars (and at least 50 yards of fabric---they threw in extras), we loaded the loot into the MINI Cooper---which was a story in and of itself---and headed home, high on the excitement of scoring the weirdest lot of random fabric ever...