Vogue 1311 - Koos Bag

When this Koos bag pattern came out in late April, I was smitten. I decided it was just the thing to make now that I am replete with red FabMo fabrics.

Auditioning FabMo samples for the sides and straps. The bag bottom, completed, is underneath.

I hoped it would be a quick project but, like all bags, it took longer than I expected.

This bag has some interesting details. First, it is shaped like a squat cylinder, however the location of the straps means that it falls into a spherical shape when held. Top-stitching on both sides of the circular seams at the top and bottom, flatten the seam allowances and further encourage a spherical shape.

Strap Holes:

You might recall when I made the Koos coat that it had wonderful buttonholes. In fact, I recommended that you buy the pattern, if only for the buttonholes.

The bag uses the same design element, except this time they are used for inserting the ends of the straps.

Strap holes, in process.

One thing I did differently from the pattern: it instructs you to fold the raw edges to the insides of the little squares. To reduce bulk, I mitered those corners.

Interfacing:

The pattern calls for fusible hair canvas interfacing. I used fusible fleece. Once I applied the fusible fleece to each piece, I stitched in the ditch along the piecing seams to quilt the fleece to the outside layer. This shouldn't be necessary, but I find that fusible fleece peels off fairly easily.

Straps

The fabric I used for the straps is double sided. So I pieced the straps to use both sides. Also, the last few bags/totes I've made have had straps that were too short. So I lengthened these by a bit over 3". I used the fusible fleece inside the straps, as well.

Zipper:

The bag calls for a 16" zipper. I started the project last weekend and I was not in the mood to leave the house for a zipper. My zipper box did not have anything appropriate, when I noticed a white zipper, approx 18" long. This was a nice heavy duty separating zipper with metal teeth and two zipper pulls. I bought it, long ago, for a few cents at Fabrix. It had a white cotton tape.

I decided to paint it. (At first I thought I'd dye it, but I had no red dye and did not want to go out to buy that either.) I bought fabric paints a couple years ago when I was experimenting with silk screening, so I painted the zipper with Metallic Crimson Lumiere paint by Jacquard.

I hung it outside to dry...

steam set it with the iron, and shortened it (from both ends) by approx 2".

I was very happy with the new color. There was some paint on the metal teeth, but most of it seems to have rubbed off already. Lumiere adheres to fabric, but not to metal.

Piecing:

This pattern has two views. I made view A. View B is similar, but has overlays and bias binding covering the edges of the overlays, similar to the recent Koos swing coat pattern.

Pattern pieces are provided for the piecing. I used the provided pattern for the top and bottom of the bag, but I was not satisfied with the 5 pieces provided for the side of the cylinder.

I ended up using 10 pieces for the side, instead of 5.

Note that if you wanted to make this without any piecing, it would be easy to do. They provide pattern pieces for the interfacing and lining that are not pieced, so you could use those for the outside, as well.

Lining:

View A has no pockets. View B has one pocket. I made two pockets, using the pattern from view B. I like these little pleated pockets. They are sewn to the lining so that they extend over the upper seam that attaches the circle to the side.

I did not have any FabMo lining fabrics long enough for the side, so I pieced together five silk samples, changing the direction of the stripe. Hanging off the ironing board is one of the original silk samples.

I finished the bag last night. It's ridiculous. It's big, like an overnight bag, and I love it! It makes me smile. I just need an overnight invitation to use it. ;)

When I did my photo shoot today of the finished bag, I decided that it resembles a pumpkin, so I plopped it into some plants that resemble pumpkin vines. (I'm informed that these are nasturtiums.)

Coincidence...

Recently, I've been checking the Vogue website daily, waiting for the Fall patterns to be revealed. When I opened the site this morning, I saw they are featuring this pattern on the front page.

Vogue 8819 - Pleated Woven Jacket

More pics

I loved this Very Easy Vogue pattern when it came out at the end of April. I immediately ordered it before the BMV sale ended. When it arrived, I was a bit surprised. On the Vogue website, they show the jacket on a live model:

However, when the pattern arrived, there is only a diagram on the envelope:

Strange, no?

Anyway, this pattern went on my short list. I don't have a lot of striped knit fabrics in the stash, and the pattern specifies a knit, so it awaited the perfect fabric.

Meanwhile, some months ago, I ordered a pleated woven fabric from Marcy Tilton. (It's no longer on her site.) This fabric is very interesting. It's reversible - striped on one side, and plaid on the other. Being pleated, it's rather stretchy. However, it's also rather stiff. When I machine washed and dried it, it became even more pleated. I really liked it, but had no idea how to use it, so it marinated.

One day, it occurred to me that I might use the pleated woven for the cardigan. The fabric has lots of ease, due to the pleats, as well as the bias cut. Why not try it? I decided to avoid a dart and take advantage of the bias. The pattern also has a peplum, which can be difficult to fit, so I quickly whipped up a sample garment using black ponte. It needed a few tweaks, but I decided it would work for the pleated woven.

I decided to sew this jacket completely by hand, including felling of the seams so the inside is neatly finished. Sewing a pleated fabric by hand gives you more control of the pleats. It might not have been necessary – I didn't really experiment with sewing the fabric by machine. But I do think that some of the construction would have been much harder by machine. I enjoy hand sewing, and this is a simple garment, but it did take me awhile.

I made the longer version. I cut the pattern out along different size lines: smaller in the shoulder, larger in the bust, and so on.

Alterations and Modifications:

• Widened the sleeve. This pattern has a fairly narrow sleeve.
• Narrowed the shoulder.
• Lengthened the peplum in front to accommodate my bust.
• For the back neckline, I used the reverse side of the fabric.
• Eliminated the facings. Instead, I finished the front and hem with rayon grosgrain ribbon from Britex.
• I didn't have enough fabric for full length sleeves, so I used 3/4 length sleeves and added a contrast band, using the reverse side of the fabric.
• The jacket is not designed to have a closure, but I added a single button closure. The perfect button is from Britex and the corresponding button loop is a short length of elastic.
• I had some problems with the armscye. Though I widened the sleeve, I found that the armscye is rather snug. It also hit me strangely on the body. The front was too wide and the back too narrow. It took a fair amount of fiddling to get a reasonable fit at the armscye. I will be wearing this over a shell.
• Added a patch pocket. I didn't want to distract from the bold graphic design created by the stripes, so I carefully matched the stripes to make the pocket as invisible as possible.
• When I cut out the bias, I cut the stripes going in a different direction that shown on the pattern.

Vogue arranged the stripes in a diamond shape. My stripes form an X shape.

In back, Vogue arranged the stripes in a V-shape on top and horizontal in the peplum. My stripes are arranged in an A shape on top and vertical in the peplum.

Conclusion:

I'm happy with my jacket. In fact, I liked the unusual fabric so much, I went back to Marcy's site and bought some in the blue/gray/cream colorway. I think this one should become a pair of pants!

More Pictures

Worn closed.

Pocket!


Inside

Back neck

Hem and front finished with rayon grosgrain ribbon.

Sleeve band detail

Patch pocket

'Casually Elegant' Jacket

I mentioned, after Margy visited, that I identified a little hole in my wardrobe. I needed a jacket or two that I could wear when out and about that would be a notch nicer than my usual garb. Sort of "ladies who lunch", Shams style.

Almost immediately after Margy returned home, I made this lightweight jacket. I wanted a simple shape and detailing, similar to Babette's beautiful pieces. I started with an OOP Adri pattern - Vogue 2148.

I traced off the short jacket, but chopped off the collar to make it a v-neck. I decided to make it somewhat fitted. I added an FBA, and used 4 darts and 2 tucks to skim the body - there is a small dart in the armsyce, a larger dart in the side seam, and a tuck under the bust. I extended the front by 2" beyond CF. I'm not completely sure how I feel about this - it may add visual width. For the closure I used three giant black snaps.

The fabric is a fabulous reversible brocade from Emma One Sock. It just disappeared from her website after being on sale forever, though I bought it at full price. It is incredibly lightweight and has a very nice selvedge. I wanted to keep the jacket simple, so I finished the front, hem and sleeves with the selvedge. Instead of facings, I encased the edges in a narrow band, attached by hand. I wanted to avoid top-stitching on this piece.

Worn closed. The "ripple" on the right is actually the tuck under the bust.


Ha ha! I love these harem pants, the Shaza (named for me) by Style Arc! (Shaza is my Klingon name.)

Right side. Because of all the shaping, it's a little hard to get a good hangar shot. This would look better on a dressform.

The inside. Eek, I almost like this side better. You can just make out an armscye dart and the bands that finish the outside edges.

Closeup of outside.

Closeup of inside.

Finished armscye.

Finished inside showing snaps, side seam dart, and tuck.

I'm pretty happy with it. I haven't worn it yet, since it is a notch nicer than my usual garb and I haven't had the right event.

Vogue 2148


From Emma One Sock: Just in from a top French mill, this is a wonderful textured jacquard weave brocade with a very smart and stylish woven-in graphic design. The colors are black and silvery medium gray (PANTONE 16-0000 is close). It's a suiting weight with body and a more firm yet malleable drape, fantastic quality, and excellent design. Dress up or down. Perfect for a jacket, suit, fitted skirt or dress, vest, evening coat, etc. Dry cleaning recommended.

My Swedish bound daughter gets on the plane in a few days for her almost-month abroad. I've been encouraging her to internalize a few phrases, such as, "I need 2.5 meters of this, please! And 3 meters of that!" Her reaction to this? "Oh yeah, they are metric!" She tells me that fabric is too expensive and takes up too much luggage space. Humph. She does, by the way, love the sleep mask I made for her. I'm not sure which one she's using, but she sleeps with it every night and says it really helps. (Which reminds me, I used a scrap of this fabric for one of her sleep masks.)

I am almost caught up with blogging. I have one more jacket to blog. This one took awhile to sew, because I did it the hard way. By hand. I don't have pictures yet. It is so cold here today. Seriously, it's stay-inside-by-the-heater cold, but I'll take pics this weekend.

Have a great weekend!

Au Bonheur Harem Pants

If you've been reading my blog for long, you probably know I like a harem-style pant. But, you may notice that I like my harem pants to be somewhat fitted through the hips. I am not a fan of a dropped crotch on my body.

I've had this Au Bonheur pattern for some time:

While I liked the detail on the legs of these pants, I was not completely loving the other aspects of the pattern. Then I saw these Kokomarina pants:

The silhouette of these pants inspired me to give the Au Bonheur pattern a try. I altered the pattern to raise the crotch. A lot. I think I raised it more than a foot, copying the crotch from another pattern. (I altered these awhile ago and I can't remember, for sure, which pattern I used.)

I made these using a drapey rayon from Fabrix. It looks grey in the photos but is more of an olive color. They are constructed so that they are, essentially, a partial leg inside of a partial leg. They are not attached beyond the mid thigh and my knees peep out occasionally as I move. It's a bit strange.

Besides raising the crotch, I shortened these to a crop length by cutting off about 4".

Once I had gotten these to the point where they were done, except for the bands at the hem, I was not that happy with them and set them aside for some weeks. I finally decided to go ahead and finish them. I liked them better with the bands. A bit.

My only real complaint is how wide these pants are through the hips. They are approx 8" wider than my actual hips. If I make these again (and I'm not sure that I will), I plan to alter the pattern further to make them more fitted in that area. There is no side seam, so it's an alteration best handled before cutting them out.

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!