Whale of a Jacket

from josh the sewer

I have working on another big fall project. Earlier in the summer (and summer lasts for about 4 more hours as I write this), I found this St. Louis Americans jacket that I really wanted to replicate. The Sewist and I decided to use Burda Pattern 8135 and gray corduroy. For the trim I found braided, folded-over cording in navy blue. This project is not going to be solo, it is by far the hardest sewing project I have undertaken. The pattern has twenty some pattern pieces!

Instead of doing a straight replica of the St. Louis Americans logo, I decided to do make the whale part of the Chicago Whales (of the short lived Federal League) logo. I went back and forth on making an "authentic" piece of sports wear, but I didn't want to make a Cincinnati Reds jacket (my favorite baseball team---insert loser reference here) or a minor league team from Dayton, (the original hometown) or Portland (the permanent hometown and birthplace of the Sewist). Instead I decided to create a fictitious team the Portland Whales, I should also have a nice fake back-story written in my mind on completion of the project.


Anyway, so far I have sewn the back panel together and decided to eliminate the vents (I hate vents, and my digestive system has matured enough where they aren't an occupational necessity). At this rate I should have this project ready in time for Summer '09.

In the Trenches

from sarah the sewist

The Pattern Review Great Trench Coat Sew Along has proved just the motivator for me to start planning and working on some fall jacket projects. I'm working on the Indygo Junction Trench Topper in view 1, which is a lovely, princess-seamed (woo-hoo! my fave--I love princess seams!) trench coat. I'm creating a light weight cotton jacket that should serve me well this fall---particularly in my insanely cold office building (my fingers literally turned blue one day and I thought I was having some sort of circulation episode, but it was actually the a/c---I wish I was joking).

The Sewer, with his amazingly sharp eye for fabric and design, found this Amy Butler Fabric for the body of the jacket, and I'm using a complementary plain pink cotton from Moda for the bottom panels and bell sleeves. (In case you haven't noticed by now, 50% of the fabric I by is pink, which is weird, since almost all the clothes I bought in my 30 years are some sort of shade of blue.) Anyway, it's a gorgeous cinnamon color that's not at all orange---I don't share Josh's fascination with caution orange.

I have been completely spacey with this project, though having already forgotten to cut out THREE pieces. Yes, I, with all of my sewing experience and my somewhat advanced skills, didn't both to check to see what pieces I needed to cut out. I just cut out what I had, and didn't do any accounting of the pieces. Low and behold, I had dropped the piece for the front side panel, and neglected to trace the back facing at all. Absolutely brilliant.



As you can see, the omitted piece was a fairly critical component of the jacket. Oh, yeah, and did I mention that I griped about how the pattern called for way too much fabric, and so I wasn't at all careful with how I cut out my pieces? So, of course, we had to go by another yard of fabric. Of course.

So, I've sewn a grand total of one seam on this thing. So, far, so good.



It doesn't look like I've sewn anything backward, upside-down or wrong-side out, does it?

(By the way, Josh is making some slow and steady progress on a jacket of his own, but I'll leave it to him to update you.)

Pants-Pants Revolution!

from josh the sewer


I have this friend who a couple of years ago was obsessed with Dance-Dance Revolution. He and his wife used to have dance offs and he was always getting off the phone to play the game. I have never played it before in my life, but I dedicate the title to him (and puns make good titles for blogs).

Anyway the pants I made were the second go 'round of the Simplicity 3891 cargo pants. Like the first time I left off most of the pockets and decided to pass on using the zipper on the leg, but instead of cutting the legs out at the pants line I cut them at the zipper line to make the legs narrower than before. This resulted in a much more reasonably-sized leg circumference.

The pants are made with Robert Kauffman Kona Cotton in chocolate brown and the facing is made with the same fabric in caution orange; both were from Bolt. While at Nordstrom not too long ago I noticed a great pair of chino pants that were this color brown with orange top-stitching and details, the problem is I don't pay $150 for chinos; while there is nothing wrong with this, I just can't do it. In that same vein, to give the pants a more finished look I decided to take inspiration from Nordy's and the Sewist's latest skirt and use the twin needle to add some detail. I used brown thread to twin needle the pockets and the inseam. To do the hemming on the pants legs and to sew the facing down, I used the orange thread with the twin needle. I had some orange thread left over from a long ago project and when I bought the second spool I got the same color except it was made from cotton instead of silk, I like the effect of the subtle differences in shade.



I also went with the caution orange zipper, just to pull the whole look together. Creating the fly was much, much easier this time and required far less intervention from the Sewist.



I love the way these pants fit and look. This was my first attempt at making something fancier than the pattern called for, which was a nice way to be creative and not go too far above my skill level. It was also the first time I actually changed any major component of a pattern (I've left stuff off, but never really altered anything intentionally.) Oh yeah, I should add that I used a button to close the pants instead of Velcro as called for (actually, I did this in the first pair as well)---I am committed to keeping my pants from falling down in public.

This also marks a major milestone in my sewing---this is my first completely seam ripper-free completed project.

Another Burda WoF Skirt

from sarah the sewist

Between my Burda World of Fashion magazine subscription and my Sew What! Skirts book, I will never, ever have to purchase a skirt pattern again. This is a good thing, 'cause I'm cheap and skirt patterns always seem like a waste of money, since I'm probably not going to make a bunch of the same skirt. Pants, yes. Skirts, no.


This is the most recent skirt I've made thanks to Burda WoF. This is from their current "Plus" Fashion magazine (see minor rant on their "plus"designation here). It's sort of view "A" and sort of view "B" of style #406. I used the technical drawing for 406A as my inspiration, but the shorter length of 406B.

Wonderfully, Burda has enough sense to include---in all their magazines---a variety of styles for different body types, and I'm loving the fact that this skirt was already sized for those of us who are not exactly tall. (I'm 5'4", but the fashion/sewing pattern industry has decided that I'm some sort of super-short freak, even though that's just a smidge shorter than the national average of 5'5". I often try on pants and they're probably 7 inches too long.) Anyone, wonderfully, there was no petitizing of this pattern for me, which fabulous.

I made this in the lovely brown stretch cotton sateen I got a Bolt awhile back, the same stuff I used for my super-awesome pink Hot Patterns shirt. I probably could have made better use out of this fabric by making the Hot Patterns Razor Sharp Classix Nouveau pants that I had been planning, but it's fantastically comfortable for a skirt, just doesn't drape and flip like Burda intended for this style. Which is fine with me.

I added a little pizazz to this one by taking a cue from the technical drawing above and adding a lot of topstitching.



I topstitched on either side of the panel seams with the twin needle, switching to a single needle when the panels split and the gores are inserted. (Does that make sense?) I also twin needled the seam when the yoke meets that panels and the hem. All together, it really creates a tailored, professional look. (The rich brown doesn't hurt either.) Oh, and you'll be relieved to know that after four and a half attempts (!!!) I finally conquered the invisible zipper that just wouldn't cooperate.



(I'm still not sure about the Built by Wendy blouse I'm wearing in this picture. I've made it twice, but it's not been quite right either time.)

Cat-tastic!!!

We don't have a cat. In fact, both of us are horribly allergic, and our dog thinks that cats are extremely suspect. So, no cats for us. However, we've got a lot of kitties in our extended family. Since we're beginning to embark on our Great Making Everyone's Christmas Gifts Odyssey, we decided that Josh's dad's cat, Lieutenant, really really needs a Kitty Tunnel from Amy Butler's In Stitches book. (We'll review the entire book soon---promise.) Not only that, Lieutenant needs, really needs, a funky-fresh, Miami Vice-style lime green flamingo print Kitty Tunnel lined with hot pink fluffy fur.


This is a super-basic "pattern" in the book. There actually aren't any pieces included, you simply go off of some measurements Amy provides to draft a tunnel and drawstring that's lined with faux fur. Basically, it's like a tube that closes on the end---apparently cats like to have options in their Kitty Tunnels, sometimes they want to go all the way through the tunnel, other times, they want to snuggle up in a cave.


The picture from the book really shows a nice Kitty Tunnel that seems to fit in with the decor in a tasteful way. Our finished product is not exactly what normal people would call "tasteful." Josh's dad will love it. Love it. Seriously, it sort of sucks that we have to wait a few months to send it, because the result is so bizarrely awesome, that we know it'll be a hit. Even if you don't go a little over the edge like we did, this is a quick-to-sew, simple, inexpensive project that will probably thrill the cat or cat-lover in your life.


Our dog's stuffed raccoon toy had to stand in for the cat in this photo shoot. Needless, to say, the dog was not impressed.


(We swear, we don't encourage our dog to get in the pictures. She's camera ham. If we get out the camera, she's there. It's been that way since she was a puppy.)