Sew Saturday: Cozy Coats for Winter

Hello! So, sew, so, I have been sewing coats, for the first time ever before it gets cold. I know, pretty amazing. My son, Atomizer's coat, made out of a lovely coat my in-laws brought back from Alaska for me but was alas not my style, now is his size, with a fleece hood added.

He loves it, of course, because it's a MOOSE and who doesn't love a MOOSE? He's a very excellent sweeper as you can see.

Baby's coat is fleece lined with cotton jersey, pattern from Ottobre, I LOVE that magazine, although I have too many of them. So many great basics and also special patterns. http://www.ottobredesign.com/

Isn't she delicious? Chocolate with strawberry swirls! So sweet. It's not as warm as the others because I didn't put any thinsulate in between the layers. Ah well.

And last, but not least, my sweet rose bud, or shall I say, lavender blossom?

She's twirling. Because the coat is divine. This one is from BurdaStyle, a pattern magazine from Germany. Ottobre is from Finland, or Denmark, I forget which. We really should have a pattern magazine in our country, there are several in other places in the world. Kind of bewildering that we don't, really. Is there one that I've missed? At any rate, these are the coats that I suffered and struggled to create, and they are all satisfying for everyone involved. Oh. I forgot to mention, this coat comes from a hideous eighties mutton sleeve trench coat I found at the thrift store. It happens to be Lavender Blossom's favorite color so I got it. As fabric which is against the 'rules', you know, the 'no buying fabric for a year' rules, but that's okay. Because it was a coat and it used up thinsulate I inherited. Those cheetah pants you can barely see are the sleeves of an extra large turtleneck I got with the coat, not to match, but because she yearns to be a 'jungle person'. 

Are you guys all ready for winter? Any plans to get things all pulled together?

Sew Saturday; Falling leaves jacket

Wow! I am posting on the making of my awesome fall jacket today. I will admit that it's exciting for me to blog about this, because it was one of those blood, sweat, tears kinds of projects.

As my inspiration, about two years ago I bought a back issue of Burday, November, 2009 for the quilted jacket the woman is wearing in the bohemian section. I don't buy whole issues for one pattern, well, I guess I do, actually. For my other inspiration I've been reading the Alabama Chanin books, drooling over her online store, and wanted to incorporate some of that into my jacket. So, are you ready for pictures?

This is a picture of my stencil. My fingers were bruised for weeks from using my exacto knife to cut this sucker out. Weeks. Alabama Chanin does stenciling on most of her projects, and the stencil making was way more work than I expected. Good thing or I probably wouldn't have done it and I LOVE the results. Still. I'm thinking twice about making another stencil. I just used posterboard because it's what I had on hand and I made this compulsively. It's how all my really big projects start out.

Stenciling is not as easy as it looks. You have to add the right amount of water so it flows, and you can't accidentally stencil the wrong side of the fabric, and it probably helps if you have a stencil brush, which I didn't, because you know, that's what people who plan projects have. It took me a long time to stencil. You have to glue the stencil down, wait for the paint to dry, then move the stencil. Can't believe how long this took me, but hey, I wasn't writing, so may as well make a coat, right? Right. 

 This is me pinning the pieces together on my body form to make sure the thing fit. That is baby helping me because it's what she does.

The pattern calls for quilted material but I didn't have quilted material. I had an old London Fog coat I thrifted because it was such a fantastic pecan color, and a linen/silk suit I thrifted because it was such a nice chocolate color. I also had chocolate fabric paint from the fabric store. I put thinsulate between the layers and quilted it on my machine, following the contours of the body except on the chocolate brown trim which I made in falling leaves designs. The pattern calls for two buttons, but with this extra large one I liked it better with just one. Also. I only had one.

I'm kind of proud of the way that I reused things to create a beautiful new treasure. Also, I'm making a dent in my projects list. Huzzah!

It's something between the wicked queen and a marshmallow coat. I really really love it. Now I'll be sure to have a toasty warm winter. Are you guys ready for winter? Any insane projects you tackled recently?

Sew Saturday: Swimsuit Edition

Prepare yourself for risque photos. Not really. I am excited to inform all and sundry that I am making a swimming suit. This is something I do every now and again to torture myself with something that is completely impractical and impossible to wear. Fun, no? What else to do in November? I brought together sundry resources, various swimwear, ripped apart a perfectly nice nautical suit in brown floral print to use lining, elastic, whatever odd bits and pieces I can, and have taken nice good art paper to make patterns. My mother always used brown craft paper but I haven't got any. So... I am very thrilled at the prospect, as always. It will be lovely. I'll try and persuade Daisy to model it after I'm done. She tends to be a little bit shy, seeing as how she looks larger than she is she doesn't like to show so much... skin? Anyway, it will be sensational!

Think Grace Kelly in High Society. Right. That is EXACTLY how it will look;)

Sew Saturday: October round up

This October has been a fingers flying month to be sure. I had so many things to make, and astonishingly enough, I actually made most of them.

1: purple linen jumper for 3 month old
2: Purple linen bubble skirt for 6 year old
3: Rainbow Wizard Pajamas for 8yr old
4: Rainbow Wizard Pajamas for 4 year old
5: Coverall for 3 mo old
6: Cloud Fairy costume including leotard
7: Lightning prince costume including gold lame pants
8: Blue linen Marleine Deitrich pants for yours truly

And of course I planned on more, but didn't get to more, got to eight. EIGHT! Wow. I didn't count at the time, but that is a heapload of things to put together. I admit, I don't usually start and finish things in the same month, usually things drag on for ages, sometimes a year. Sad, I know, but apparently October is get things done month. Yay! It's partly the sewing ladies fault. They inspire me, start me thinking about all the cute things out there that need to be part of my world. Okay. One picture, because frankly, it's HILARIOUS!!!!!

Voila! Rainbow Wizards!

The stripe was free from an online fabric store, SewZanne's, or something. They sent me the wrong stripe so I emailed them and wanted to send this stuff back, but they didn't want it. Seriously, a strange, weird stripe to be sure, but good fabric, the camouflage was from a wrap skirt I got at Ross ages ago but retired because I'm not really a camouflage person anymore. So sad. Sigh. Moving on. The turquoise at the hems makes the stripes pop. Because we need contrasting crotches popping:-)