It's a Coat! It's an Accessory!

TOC:

• Silhouette Patterns Swing Coat, #1855
• Fall Vogue Patterns
• JillyBe Update
• Birthday Outing

Silhouette Patterns Swing Coat, #1855

Sartorial info:
Dress: wool doubleknit blogged here
Necklace: felt, blogged here
Bracelet: pewter, purchased last spring on my visit to Hakone Gardens gift shop
Earrings: resin and silver, purchased last March at the Tacoma Museum of Glass in Tacoma Washington (on my trip to Puyallup)
Leggings: purchased from Uniqlo
Boots: over-the-knee style, purchased two years ago at Urban Outfitters

I've made my first Silhouette pattern by Peggy Sagers!

Yes, this IS a coat, but Peggy thinks of it as an accessory, and I think she's right! You can hear this in her own words in her "Spring 2015 Looks" podcast, where she is wearing this coat. She starts talking about the coat at 28:30.

This coat is my version of Silhouette Patterns #1855, made in metallic-coated stretch denim.

This pattern is designed as an unlined, lightweight, swing coat with a back inverted box pleat, French darts, single welt pockets, 3/4 length sleeves with a folded back split cuff, and a wide dramatic collar.

What attracted me to this pattern was the dramatic collar. I really wish that pattern companies would realize how flattering a good collar can be, particularly for a mature woman who might want to draw attention upwards, towards the face. I would love to see more patterns that feature a wider variety of interesting collars!

What didn't work for me on this pattern was the swing shaping with the back pleat, so I removed that. My only other alteration was to narrow the shoulder by 1". Silhouette Patterns use their own sizing system (sizes 1-4 and 5x-8x) and come in cups A, B, C and D. They include finished measurements on the pattern envelope, not body measurements. Peggy's theory is that everyone likes a different amount of ease, so you should choose a size knowing how you like your clothing to fit.

Currently, my high bust is 40" and my full bust is 45". I chose the size 4, which lists a finished measurement of 45-1/2". I cut out a D cup though, in reality I am far larger than a D. I did not do an additional FBA. The sizing, except for the too-wide shoulder (typical for me), was fine. As mentioned, the only other alteration I did was to remove fullness at the hip and the pleat at CB, as I look better in a straighter silhouette.

The metallic coated stretch denim was quite easy to work with, though I did use a silk organza press cloth as a barrier between the iron and the metallic coating. Without the organza, the metallic finish transferred to the iron. But the fabric was otherwise a delight to sew and press. (I just threw the fabric in the washer/dryer before cutting, and it came out fine.)

I had a few minor issues.

Peggy doesn't recommend interfacing, which is rarely used in RTW - her primary influence is RTW. The metallic coated denim I used had a lot of body, so I didn't use interfacing, but be aware that you might want to interface the collar, cuffs and front areas. I would probably interface if I made this again, particularly if the fabric lacked crispness.

Also be aware that the pattern doesn't include a pattern piece for a back neck facing. I should have just drafted one myself, but I didn't, so the raw edge (which I serged) shows at the back neck. I do not care for that sort of finish, so I would definitely draft a back neck facing next time.

The pattern was well drafted, but there is a small problem with the production. The first review of this pattern on Pattern Review warned that it was hard to locate the proper markings for the pleats on the collar. Forewarned is forearmed, so I took special pains to locate the pleat markings when I was cutting out the pattern tissue in a size 4, D cup. Oy. It was almost impossible to read these markings. This is not a drafting problem, but a production problem. I spent quite a bit of time on this and, in the end, I pretty much had to guess. I had the same problem with the pleats on the bottom of the sleeve. Luckily, the precise location and size of the pleats seems to be fairly forgiving, but be aware that it's tricky.

I enjoy watching Peggy Sagers' free podcasts. You can access her back episodes on her website.

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Fall Vogue Patterns

Have you seen the new Vogue patterns for Fall? There are some great designs in the mix! I don't have time to do an actual review of the offerings, but I am really looking forward to the next BMV sale to get my hands on some of them, particularly Marcy's coat and pants pattern, and Sandra Betzina's tunic. Sandra's tunic is practically designed to flatter my figure.

Marcy's jacket and pants, Vogue 9140
Sandra's tunic, Vogue 1456

There is lots to like in the Fall 2015 pattern collection!

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JillyBe Update

Those of you who know and love JillyBe's blog can't help but notice that she's been quiet in the last year or so. Jillian has been dealing with some serious health issues. She is overcoming them, but she has a ways to go.

When she told me of her diagnoses a year ago (of liver cancer and that she would likely need a new liver), she told me that she didn't want people to feel sorry for her, she wanted them to tell her a joke! Jillian's attitude, which I sometimes characterize as "fiercely positive", has helped her weather the last year in good spirits.

If you'd like to learn more, please read Angels for Jillian’s Liver Transplant.

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Birthday Outing

Last week was my birthday. That, in itself, is not newsworthy, but I had a great, photo-less afternoon and evening visiting with two sewing friends: Ronda Chaney, and Patti Ferguson (along with her husband and son). On Saturday, I spent the day with my daughters.

Yes, this is indulgent, but I like keeping track of these outings, or I'd forget the details! :)

Hiking in Henry Cowell State Park
Lunching at Gayle's Bakery in Capitola. Great food! These are my daughter's shared desserts.
Shopping in Capitola's downtown
Hanging at the beach. I was grateful for the mild 75° weather!

Ending up at Harts Fabric in Santa Cruz! (Where I did not buy a thing!)
Have a great week!

Denim Duster with Grommets

TOC:

• Why did this take so long?
• The fabric
• The pattern
• The result

It was foggy, chilly, and very windy when I took these pics!

I've finished!!!

I've finally finished my denim duster with grommets and bellows pockets!

This thing took me weeks to sew. More than a month.

Why did this take you so long?, you ask?

Excellent question!

It took so long partly for the usual reasons (daily, long commute which saps energy, now walking over 11,500 steps a day which also takes time), but mostly for the following reasons:

• I flat felled every seam on this coat by hand. Normally I enjoy hand sewing, but this fabric did not cooperate. It resisted every single stitch of the needle, giving me damaged, sore fingers and, more than once, driving the back of the needle into my middle finger. (You guessed it, I do not use a thimble.)
• I set close to 288 grommets into this coat. How do I know the approximate count? I bought two gross of grommets and used most of them up.
• There were problems with my grommet supplier. In my first order, I ordered a gross of several sizes of black grommets to test out. I didn't open the box until the July 4th weekend. (Big mistake, but I normally do not have problems with my orders.) That's when I realized that the gross of the size I preferred had been left out of the box (leaving me only the 44 pair of grommets that came with the setter), and I couldn't call to fix it until Monday after the 4-day weekend. I called that Monday and they sent me the gross, which arrived on Friday. I spent the weekend hammering grommets and realized, horror of horrors, that I needed another gross. All of these delays slowed things down.
• Installing 2 gross of grommets... well, that just takes a little time. Your back needs a break from the vigorous hammering now and again. :)
• Lots of stuff going on outside of work, which eats into the sewing time on my weekends. For example, this weekend, I celebrated my birthday with my daughters. We hiked for hours in Butano State Park, eating Artichoke Garlic Herb bread and Olallieberry Pies from Norm's Market in Pescadero. Yum. (The Olallieberry is similar to a blackberry.)

Foreground: Olallieberry Pie on the left. Artichoke Garlic Herb bread on the right. My friends assured me that this bread is worthy of Bucket List status. It is quite tasty.
Ahem
My progeny inherited my silly gene

But finish I did! I had decided some time ago that I was tired of sewing quick and easy garments every weekend in order to have a weekly post. I do like posting at least once a week, but I was putting too much pressure on myself and wasn't able to dive into meaty, more interesting projects. So I've let go the idea that I have to post every week. And I hope to be showing you more of a mix of the more interesting, along with the quick and satisfying. There is certainly a place for both in every wardrobe.

And now, on to the knitty gritty details.

The fabric:

I keep calling this fabric a denim, but I lie. Sorta. What is denim? The wikipedia definition is a good one:

Denim is a sturdy cotton twill textile in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. This twill weaving produces the familiar diagonal ribbing of the denim that distinguishes it from cotton duck.

It is a characteristic of most indigo denim that only the warp threads are dyed, whereas the weft threads remain plain white. As a result of the warp-faced twill weaving, one side of the textile then shows the blue warp threads and the other side shows the white weft threads. This is why blue jeans are white on the inside. The indigo dyeing process, in which the core of the warp threads remain white, creates denim's fading characteristics, which are unique compared to every other textile.

You'll note that one of the defining characteristics of denim is the twill weave, which causes a diagonal ridge on the face of the fabric. My fabric has a plain weave, not a twill weave, but it is woven using threads you would find in any denim garment. The warp threads (the long direction) in this 100% denim-like cotton are solid indigo blue. The weft threads (that are woven up and over the warp threads in the loom), are indigo blue and white. This causes a subtle pinstripe design across the grain of the fabric (from selvedge to selvedge). I wanted the stripes to go up and down the body, so I cut the pattern out on the cross grain.

My cutting table, littered with "grommet holes" (similar in concept to donut holes)

For some reason this fabric often photographs as grey, but it's indigo colored. The grommets are a matte black. I had 4-1/2 yards of this 60" wide fabric in my stash and it is a very crisp, unyielding denim, so I tried softening it with Coke. It did not work. This project used almost all of the 4-1/2 yards.

The pattern:

I used a dress pattern, Very Easy Vogue 8983.

Vogue 8983

This pattern has great lines. It features armscye princess seams, front and back. (Lots of opportunities for fitting.) The front princess seams are offset - they do not go directly through the bust point. This is why there is a short dart from the bust point to the princess seam. Don't ask me why, but I like this design feature and I saw more of this sort of princess seam in the recent Vogue offerings. (For example, Vogue 9019.)

This dress also features the recent trend of a mullet, or high-low, hem. In general, I am not crazy about mullet dresses, particularly extreme mullet hems. (I do like a more subtle mullet hem.) But the extreme high-low hem seems like a trend that will go by the wayside very quickly. Despite that, I kinda liked the mullet on the pattern drawing. I posted the question "Mullet dresses. Yay or Nay?" on my Facebook page and got a lot of interesting answers, but the prevailing opinion was "nay". When I pinned the paper pattern together, I quickly realized that this was a fairly extreme mullet hem. The front of the dress ended at my knee (yuck) and the back ended near my ankle. So I lengthened the front over 6 inches, leaving the length alone in the back. This affected most every pattern piece, since it's a gradual change.

When I had the garment sewn together and on my body, I quickly realized that I hated the mullet hem. Hated. So I lopped it off, removing about 8" of length at CB, but leaving the length I had added at the front.

The primary reason I chose this pattern, other than the princess seams, was for the front band that goes around the neck and down the front in a continuous line. I wanted to fill this with grommets, creating a kind of self "trim".

Other pattern alterations:

• Lowered the bust dart by about 2".
• I decided I did not want to do my usual FBA, for long reasons that I won't go into here. Instead, I graded the bodice up so it would fit around my bust. (I have new thoughts about my FBA in certain garments, which requires a separate post.) This was a lengthy process since there are so many vertical seams and I added 3/8" to each seam.
• The dress does not have pockets. I wanted some interesting pockets, so I used my Pulmu Pocket pattern, which I copied from a RTW coat from Korea (via the thrift store). This bellows-style pocket has a large opening, which didn't hang well in the stiff denim, so I contained the fullness by creating a pleat and securing it with a larger grommet. Only the top part of these pockets are attached to the garment, leaving the rest to hang free.
• The sleeves on this dress are short with a straight hem. The pattern shows them folded up. I wanted a longer sleeve, but not a full length sleeve, as this is a lightweight "summer" coat. (Keeping in mind that summer in San Francisco can be pretty darned cold.) I drafted a 3" sleeve band to create a sort of lantern shape at the end of the sleeve - it tapers just above the wrist.
• When I graded up the dress, I decided I didn't want closures - so I made it just meet at the bust. Closures would detract from the grommets and I couldn't find hooks I liked that were subtle enough.
• The seam allowances are 5/8", as with all McVogueRick patterns, but I used 1/4" on the very outside seam, when attaching the band facing to the band. I did this because I wanted to make the band just a bit wider for the grommets.
• Omitted the belt.
• Added the Pulmu Pockets.
• Grommeted the heck out of it.
• As mentioned, I removed the high-low hem.
• Flat felled each seam by hand. Hemmed by hand. Then topstitched most seams and the hem with black top-stitching thread.
• Made liberal use of the mallet for the thick areas, such as when a seam crosses over another seam and I needed to top-stitch over that, creating even more layers. Hammering these areas really does make it easier for the machine to handle.
• I was considering raising the neckline, but when I tried on the paper pattern tissue, I decided to leave it.

The result:

As I was working on this project, Margy asked me once or twice if I liked it. I wasn't sure. Now that it's finished I can say that I do like it. (I don't know that I love it, but I like it.) I hope I wear it. I don't usually think of wearing a long coat in warmer weather, even a lightweight coat. But I really like the heft that the grommets give to the coat. Time will tell.

I already have my next project planned. It requires some pattern drafting to take advantage of a beautiful fabric, but shouldn't be too time consuming to construct. I do plan to muslin it, since it is a special fabric. Have a great week!

July 9th!

Happy birthday to me!
I was fifty three!
But not anymore -
I'm now fifty four!

This is something of a landmark birthday for me. Fifty four was the last birthday my mother celebrated. She was a vibrant, healthy, active woman who, shortly before her death, married her second husband, went hiking through India and Nepal, and sewed amazing clothing to wear to her job as a Comptroller for a high-end architectural firm.

One day she found a suspicious mole that was removed and the doctors believed that all was well. One year later she realized all was not well and, one month later, she was gone. I was in my 20s and losing her was one of the most devastating experiences of my life. Though I am grateful that I could be there, care for her through that last month, and hold her hand at the end.

My mother was also my friend - we shared a passion for sewing. I still have her sewing machine and her serger and I hope they last me forever. (Well, I wouldn't object to a newer, self threading serger. ;) Her Rowenta iron, by the way, died many years ago, long before my marriage was over.)

I don't have many pictures of her, but this is a school picture taken when she was 13. Can you believe the hairstyle for a 13-year-old? lol I keep this photo in my sewing room.

Here's to you, mom! I still miss you. Thank you for everything!

Post Birthday Reflections

DD2 made birthday Oatmeal Raisin cookies.

I want to thank each of you for your kind birthday wishes!

I don't know for how many more birthdays I will be able to play with the kids – who knows where they might end up post college. So I will enjoy it while I can.

We first ran to Fabrix for a piece of birthday fabric. DD2 quickly discovered a polka dot brocade. Only 1-1/2 yards was left, and it may end up as an overnight bag.

The reverse side of the brocade is shown on the left. The fabric is photographed with something I gave myself. I ordered the latest Alabama Chanin book, which was waiting for me at the end of the day.

We then went to North Beach (Little Italy) and behaved like tourists.

We started with cappuccinos and biscotti and then proceeded to eat our way through North Beach.

We enjoyed the shops and ambiance of the neighborhood. The most interesting boutiques are closed on Monday, which saved me from any temptation, but I peeked in plenty of windows. This gate belongs to a very cool jewelry store.

And, I should mention, that today featured our typical chilly, coastal, windy, summer-in-San Francisco weather, so warm clothing was the order of the day.

I have three garments completed that I want to blog about. I have not yet taken pictures. Hopefully I can trot these out over the next few days, once I get some photos taken.

July 9th!

Happy Birthday to Me!
I'm now fifty-three!
Blah blah blah blah blah blah
Blah blah rhymes with Me!

Remember last year when I thought I was fifty three? I was fifty two. The advantage of this mistake is that I remembered my age all year. ;)

I'm playing with my daughters today. Happy Monday to you!

Post Birthday Reflections

I want to thank all of you for your wonderful birthday wishes! I was really touched by all the comments here, and on Facebook, wishing me well.

The day was great! My daughters planned to take me out for the day. They wanted to treat me to lunch and to a gift of my own choosing. We headed for the east bay, first to the Stone Mountain & Daughter fabric store and then to my favorite shopping area in Berkeley, called Fourth Street. I hadn't been to Fourth Street in many years, but at the Bryn Walker store I managed to find a beautiful pewter necklace that the girls bought for me, as well as another necklace and bracelet I bought myself. At the Japanese import store I found a couple pieces of Japanese fabric, as well as a gorgeous scarf. And, of course, there was a bit more stash acquisition at Stone Mountain. (I think I must be part Ferengi.)

We also had fun at the Bare Escentuals store and later, at home, we had a marathon makeup session.

It was much better than last year when both kids forgot my birthday. <ahem> :)

We had a heat wave last week, so I planned to wear my silk organza top. I put it on and tried to take some photos, but it was freezing cold, foggy and windy, so I changed to another outfit. I need to try again to get some photos before I can post that top. I also have another pair of StyleArc pants almost finished, so look for that post too.

Meanwhile, let me leave you with some eye candy I recently discovered. This fiber artist has created some truly wonderful designs that you can see in person in New York, Paris, and Sao Paolo: Yasmine Studio. Make sure you look at all three of her collections! I want to be her when I grow up. :)

July 9th!

Happy Birthday to me,
I'm now fifty-three!
Or maybe fifty-two,
I'm forgetful too!

(Seriously, I can't remember.)