Au Bonheur Jeans Funkiness!

I made the Au Bonheur jeans a third time. The first time, I tested the pattern in black ponte. The second time, I made a pair using stretch indigo denim.

This time I wanted to make a pair that showcased the funky aspect of this pattern. For this pair, I made the following changes:

• The original pattern calls for contrasting fabrics for several of the pattern pieces. For the first two pair, I used the same fabric for the entire pants. For this pair, I created my own contrasting fabric using my needle felting machine (also called an embellishing machine).
• I changed the back pockets. I started with the pocket shape from the Jalie Jeans and made a pocket design that incorporated a contrasting element and echoed the angle of the yoke.
• I made this pair 1" longer.
• I used white top-stitching thread.

Materials and Notions:

• Stretch black denim from FabricMart, purchased a year ago. I don't remember the lycra content, but 5" of the fabric stretched to 7". I prewashed the denim many times.
• White Guterman top-stitching thread (color #20).
• Scraps of lining and double-faced cotton to finish the lower edge of the front knee gusset and the front and back pockets.
• Frixion pens. I used these to mark the back of the denim to mark the darts, where the pocket backing would be exposed, etc. These worked GREAT! After I was done with the markings, they were easily removed with steam from the iron.

Conclusion:

I LOVE these jeans! I have been wearing the blue pair quite a bit and they are SO comfy. And they STAY UP! I just barely managed to get them entered into the jeans contest on Pattern Review. I had to drive to my DD1's place yesterday to use her Mac and struggle with an unfamiliar environment where I didn't have my tools or my passwords. It took me two hours, but I managed to get it done.

If you are a member of Pattern Review (either free or paid), you can VOTE, if you wish.

Pictures Galore!

So happy to get my computer back, I am dancing!


Needle felting the front knee gussets. The knee gusset on the right has the darts sewn in but not yet topstitched.

Front knee gusset, completed.

Back knee gusset, completed.

All of the needle felted bits. Notice the flowering tree in my back yard? In February? It really has been a beautiful spring this winter.

Back pockets. I started with the Jalie Jeans pocket shape and then drafted my own version.

Front pocket backing. I only needle felted the part that shows.

Yes, they are United Nude shoes.

A "Mom Jeans" butt? I am not sure...

Butterick 5423 - Felted Jacket

More pics

Wow, I feel like I haven't blogged in forever, but I haven't had much to share. February was a low-productivity month, between work and illness. I also have been working on more intensive projects, which forces me to slow down. However, I am glad to have finished jacket #3! Or mostly finished. I can't find the jumbo snaps I bought last week to complete this jacket, and the light was fading fast this evening, so I took the photos sans snap.

At last month's ASG meeting Ronda Chaney, head of the Fashion Department at Canada College, gave a presentation on FBAs and other bodice alterations. For February's meeting we were encouraged to work on a garment incorporating a technique that was presented.

I'd been mulling this jacket pattern over for some time. I like the big band that goes around the outer edge. I like the shaped front edge. I like the opportunity to use two contrast fabrics. I wasn't sure about the dolman sleeves - it's not my most flattering look - but the opportunity to needle felt the contrast, combined with an idea from Ronda, pushed it to the top of the pile.

My "twist" on the FBA was to convert the FBA dart to tucks (or gathers) into the front band. For my thick fulled wool, I converted it to 5 small external darts, and for the silk charmeuse lining, I used gathers.

Alterations and Modifications

• Lengthened the jacket 3".
  
• Added an unconventional FBA: Created the FBA after cutting the pattern in half (in prep for lengthening). I slashed up to the bust point, then up to the shoulder notch, then slashed in from the front to the bust point (NOT to the side seam). Added a second slash from the front to the bust point, as if I were adding two darts. Angled the bottom piece back, so as not to add any more width. Then I lengthened the piece 3".
  

  This may not make much sense, but I've been experimenting with FBAs that won't add to the overall width of the garment below the waist. The two slashes I created at the front can be sewn as either tucks or gathers, depending on the fashion fabric.
  

  

  I think you can see my alteration here. I sliced off the bottom before doing the FBA. The added width was tapered back to the original width and then the piece was lengthened 3". I created two slices in the front which can be sewn as darts, tucks, or gathers.

  

  Dart closeup

• At the back, there is a pleat at the bottom of the band. This creates a very strange silhouette. Ronda suggested extending the tuck up throughout the band and this looked much better.
  
• I added a flat piping on each side of the band at and the sleeve hems.
  
• I did not shorten the sleeves and you can see they are quite long, which I liked for folding back. But the pattern calls to line the sleeves to the edge. Because I wanted the wool to appear when the cuff was folded back, I drafted sleeve facings and shortened the sleeve lining accordingly.
  
• I added small shoulder pads.
  

Materials

• Peacock blue wool from Fabrix, fulled in the washing machine/dryer. This fabric really thickened up, like a fuzzy wool blanket. I had been planning to use it for another project, but it was too thick after machine fulling.
  
• Royal blue pebbled Vera Wang silk for lining. From FabricMart, this was left over from my Sandra Betzina Motorcycle Jacket.
  
• Variety of merino wool batts, New Zealand corriedale fiber, dyed mohair locks, merino wool/silk blend fiber, and other exotic fibers and yarns, from Living Felt.
  
• Giant 30mm brass snap (not pictured).
  
• Small raglan shoulder pads from Britex.
  

Felting

Felting samples

Needle felting such a large area was intimidating. I started with the back: I sewed the darts into the back shoulder, then sewed the back together at CB. I made several samples using various fibers. I found that it worked best to tack the fibers loosely in place with a hand needle before taking it to the felting machine. It worked best to build the background in layers. Once the basic band and fronts were complete, I sewed them at the shoulder seams and continued layering. The curly mohair locks and novelty yarns were felted at the very end.

As I worked on the felting, I thought it looked bad at first, but I had faith. As I continued, my faith wavered as it appeared to become uglier and uglier. Finally, at the end, when I was adding the yarns, I decided it wasn't so bad and that I actually liked it. Being artistic requires cojones. :)

All my supplies, ready to go. Intimidated much? (Yeah, I should have ironed it first. ;) )

First layer complete. This layer consisted of wool batting in "blobby" shapes

This layer consisted of a merino/silk fiber in squiggly shapes. Not pictured is the next layer, which consisted of curly mohair, loosely felted. The final layer of novelty yarns was completed after the shoulder seams were sewn.

I love the contrast of the royal blue lining with the turquoise wool.

What's Next

Me-Made-March begins this week, so this weekend I moved my handful of RTW garments to a remote closet, so they won't be in my way. I'd like to create a few more pants/tops for this coming month, but we'll see how far I get. My goal of sewing coats/jackets has definitely slowed me down, as much as I love how they fill out my wardrobe. :)

As a total aside, today I spent 6 hours at a photo shoot for my daughter. I arranged for this as a graduation milestone and the photographer specializes in working with dancers in outside locations. It was fun, but WOW it was exhausting, partly because we got up at 4am to start in the dark. At the very end I asked him to snap a photo or two of my daughter and I, so I might end up with a decent picture of the two of us. We'll see. :)

I hope you have a great week!

Vogue 1198 - Sandra Betzina Motorcyle-Style Jacket

You might remember back in November I won some beautiful boiled wool in Sandra Betzina's coat/jacket contest. The fabric, donated by Stone Mountain and Daughter, is a hard-to-describe royal blue/periwinkle color. (I first referred to it as purple, but it really is more of a royal blue.)

I decided it was fitting to make this fabric up using a Sandra Betzina pattern. I chose Vogue 1198, View B, which I'd been wanting to make since the motorcycle-inspired jacket pattern came out last fall. I also felt it was fitting to purchase the notions from Stone Mountain, who donated the fabric, so I headed off on New Year's Day to buy zippers, thread, and maybe a piece fabric, or two. ;)

I recently reviewed the Palmer/Pletsch DVD, "Full Busted?," and I applied techniques from the DVD to this pattern.

LOOK MA, NO MUSLIN!

One of the biggest tricks I learned from the DVD is how to prepare a tissue pattern so you can use it as a fitting tool. I usually do a rough fitting using the tissue pattern, and then do a final fitting in a test fabric. Previously, I found it difficult to get a good fit in tissue without ripping it to shreds. The Palmer/Pletsch technique worked fairly well. I did spend much longer than usual fitting the final jacket, but I saved the muslin stage, so it was worthwhile. I certainly knew that the final jacket would be large enough to make fitting possible and that is critical.

Supplies and Notions:

• Royal blue boiled wool from Stone Mountain and Daughter
  
• Royal blue pebbled Vera Wang silk from FabricMart for the lining. (Purchased last June, originally for another project. I bought this Vera Wang fabric in both pebbled and non-pebbled versions, but the pebbled was closer when I grabbed for it. :) )
  
• Black, lightweight fusible interfacing
  
• Scrap of cotton/rayon fabric for interfacing the hem.
  
• 24" YKK zipper - "Brastique" in black. (The pattern calls for a 20" zipper, but I knew I would be lengthening the jacket as part of the FBA process.)
  
• Two 7" YKK zippers - "Brastique" in black
  
• 1/4" Wonder Tape
  
• Black wool batt from Living Felt.
  
• Needle felting tools (needles, foam, Janome FM725 felting machine)
  

Alterations and Modifications:

• Lowered the bust fullness 4.5". (Which was a bit too much, but I was able to fix this when fitting the final fabric version.)
  
• 3" Princess seam FBA.
  
• After fine tuning the fit, I decided to omit the gathered back belt.
  
• Narrowed the cuff 1".
  
• Removed fullness at the side hip.
  
• In the final fitting, I removed some of the fullness from under the bust, down to the hip, at the front princess and side seams. On the princess seam, I removed fullness from the side panel only because the bottom of the left front was already quite narrow and I didn't want to interfere with the line.
  
• Though I am a huge fan of topstitching, I didn't want it for this project. The zipper pockets are supposed to secure the zipper using topstitching, but I hand picked both zippers. This also avoided any risk of needle breakage on the brass teeth of these substantial zippers.
  
• At the very end, I shaved off 1/2" from each shoulder, before attaching the sleeves.
  
• The first time I hemmed the jacket, I was not happy with it. It was too unsupported, so, inspired by Ann Rowley, I frogged the hem and made a proper, interfaced hem. The result is so much nicer. :)
  

  

  

  Interfaced hem, in progress

More Needle Felting!

Tszuj it up!

As I was working on this jacket, I had the nagging feeling that I needed to tszug it up a bit. I was pondering over various techniques when Annette, one of my favorite reviewers on Pattern Review, and who is participating in the "12 Jackets in 12 Months" sew-along on Stitcher's Guild, became inspired by my needle felted jacket.

The concept of dry felting was new to Annette, but she eagerly jumped into it with both feet, and I advised her on her first order of supplies. She was then gifted with a needle felting machine and, within a week or two, she had completed a new coat, which featured a needle felted collar. I loved the camouflage-style design she created. (The clever girl couldn't wait for her wool roving order to arrive for the coat, so she felted the collar using dryer lint created when she machine washed/dryed the brown Shetland wool.)

She gave me ideas. :)

I immediately ordered the same needle felting machine she was using, a 5-needle Janome FM725, which is for sale on many sites at a clearance price (they have to make way for newer models). I bought mine from Fabric.com, so shipping was free.

While waiting for the machine to arrive, I wanted to get started with the needle felting on my collar and cuffs. I used the black wool batt I bought from Living Felt for my last project. (It as part of their monochrome set, but one of the only colors I did not use for that project.) I played with a free-form technique using both a single needle and the 4-needle tool that I purchased after completing my last project.

I made several samples before I was ready to start on the actual garment pieces. The samples were critical to the process, because I really didn't know what I was doing, but I liked how the samples were turning out, so I felt ready to attack the actual pieces. To prepare the final collar and cuff pieces, I fused interfacing to the back and then proceeded to apply the batt in the "squiggle" free form design that I had practiced.

See? I can do things besides circles. :)

The collar and two cuffs took me an evening to felt. At the end of the evening, I had broken several needles, but the swirls of black batting were fairly securely tacked. The wool was not as "melded" into the fabric as I wanted, but I knew I could accomplish that pretty easily once the felting machine arrived.

You've heard how long it took for the felting machine to arrive, so the project languished a bit. Once it came, I was delighted how quickly I was able to meld the black fibers thoroughly into the collar and cuffs. It's such a satisfying process.

Cuff on top was hand felted. Cuff on bottom after machine felting. I really wanted to meld the fiber into the fabric and was able to accomplish that with the machine.

Finally, the jacket could be finished. But wait, work intruded with an all-weekend emergency. As soon as I delivered my part of that project, I immediately came down with some form of plague and sewing was out of the question. I am still not over it, but am functioning, thank goodness.

So I persevered and it's done! WOOT! Jacket #2 is complete, at last. :D

Wearing the collar open

OK, I've bathed, put on make up, but I still look sick. At least I hope that's my sick look. ;)

Au Bonheur des Petites Mains - Coat with Round Collar (10011)

Let the Year of Twelve Coats and Jackets Commence!

#1: Au Bonheur Coat with Round Collar and Needle Felted Embellishment
More pics here

I was excited about this coat when it came out a couple months ago. I was doing an Au Bonheur order for some friends at the time, so I took the opportunity to buy a couple for myself and this was one of them. I especially liked the princess seams and silhouette of this coat, but the circle embellishment also gave me ideas.

This multi-sized pattern contains sizes 36 to 46. Size 46 is about 6 inches too small for my bust, so I did a whopping 3" princess seam FBA. I made no other changes and sewed it up using another castoff floral curtain from my daughter's room.

I was happily surprised that it fit quite well with no other alterations. It was a bit long in the sleeve, which is typical for me. But this pattern is beautifully drafted, even if the instructions are in French, skimpy, and rather vague where clarity is most desired.

For the fabric, I ordered some wool-blend boucle from Fabric Mart. I was surprised to see that this fabric is very similar to the boiled wool I won in Sandra Betzina's contest last month. It's a fine wool knit that has been fulled - it is technically a knit, but a very stable knit. And, just like the fabric from the contest, it has a wonderful drape. This fabric was a joy to work with and you might want to buy some before it's all gone. :)

To pre-treat the wool, I used the pre-shrinking technique that Pam features on her blog, Off the Cuff. Basically, I threw both boucle fabrics into the dryer with a large wet towel. It's best to use an older towel that has minimal lint because you don't want the lint to become embedded in your wool. I dried it for 40 minutes. A great, easy technique, and you should check out her blog for more information.

Materials:

• Wool-blend boucle (60% wool 40% rayon) in burnt sienna and black from FabricMart
  
• black fusible interfacing from Fabrix for the buttonhole placket and facings
  
• Merino Cross Felting Batts from Living Felt Felting Supplies
  
• Felting needles - size 38 - and foam, also from Living Felt
  
• Set of circle cookie cutters in graduated sizes (from ebay)
  
• Black embroidery floss
  
• Black 30mm sew-in snaps
  

Needle Felting

After the coat was constructed, I needle felted the circles using cookie cutters as templates. The original pattern used sewn felt circles but I was happy to find an excuse for needle felting. If you go to youtube and search for "needle felting cookie cutter" you will find examples of the technique.

Needle felting supplies

Auditioning the wool batting

In progress. The needle felting took me one full day. Sewing the circles on took me most of another day.

I used the two smallest cookie cutters as templates and 11 different colors of batting. I felted circles onto scraps of black boucle and then trimmed them with either a round or a square border and affixed them to the coat using a combination of the running stitch and the back stitch. In the end, I made 32 circles in the two sizes. This part of the construction is left up to you. The pattern directions are "Customiser le bas du manteau selon vos envies" or "Customize the bottom of the coat according to your wishes."

Felting inside the cookie cutter

Finishing the felting without the cookie cutter.

The back side. The fuzz on the back gave the piece some dimensionality when I sewed it to the coat.

When it came to the button treatment, I originally planned to buy buttons from Britex. In the end I decided to use needle felted circles as faux buttons. I had plastic rings in several sizes (the cookie cutters were too large) and I made several samples. Once I found the right size, I made up five "faux buttons." The coat is closed with 4 30mm black snaps that I secured with 3 strands of black embroidery floss.

Working on the faux buttons, which are smaller than the appliques

Other Construction Notes

• In the process of translating the instructions, I added a couple more phrases to the French sewing glossary.
  
• This pattern has no pockets. I added in-seam pockets.
  
• The coat is unlined. I spent time debating whether to line it, but the fabric reminded me so much of a sweater knit, with its wonderful drape, I decided to maintain the feeling of a sweater coat and left it unlined.
  
• Because this is a fulled wool, the edges can be left raw. The hem and the collar have raw edges. The black contrast was laid underneath the brown wool and held together with a running stitch. I sewed it once with matching thread and then again with 3 strands of contrasting black embroidery thread for a decorative effect.
  

  

  Closeup of the contrast embroidery

• I also used 3 strands of the black embroidery floss to sew on the giant snaps. I took pains to make the stitches as even as possible.
  

More pics!

Here's to an excellent 2011 for each of you! Stay safe, warm, dry and healthy. :)