Great Coat Sew-Along

I decided early last week to join the Great Coat Sew-Along that Marji is hosting. Boy am I glad I signed up when I did - if it's not closed to new participants already, it will be very soon!! The response has been amazing and I feel honored to be a part of this project along with so many great sewists!

I had originally planned a post with my possibilities and was going to open up for suggestions. I wanted to use fabrics and patterns already in my collection so I started digging through boxes and drawers of fabric and found a bunch of possibilities. Patterns, however, I am lacking somewhat as I only had 4 coat patterns, including the Vogue Michael Kors that several of my counterparts are making. This was the coat I was most leaning towards, but (with some input from my husband) decided on this:


Wool blend purchased from Fashionista Fabrics. I'll be using McCalls 5247 View C (the version in red on the pattern envelope):


I also hope to make a coat for my hubby at the same time. I bought some charcoal melton almost 2 years ago with the intention of making him a dress coat for winter. It's still rolled up in the original package it was mailed in! I don't have a picture, but it's very dark - almost black - and heathered (good to hide dog hair). I plan to make Burda 8275 shortened to mid-thigh length:

June capsule contest

I decided to officially enter the June capsule contest at Stitchers Guild. My plan is called "Like Father, Like Son" and will be a matching set of clothes for my husband and our infant son. A little bit of background: my husband and I are big fans of the TV show Two and a Half Men. Charlie Sheen's character wears these retro/bowling style shirts on the show (it's his trademark for anyone who hasn't seen the show). My husband loves that style of shirt and has a few, but has been asking me for quite some time to make him some more. I had been putting it off until this contest came along. Since hubby has been wonderful at taking care of the baby and letting me have some sewing time, I decided I should reward him by using some of that time to make something for him. When the contest was announced I made a plan for myself - which I will still make for the summer - but I changed my mind and decided to enter a wardrobe for him. Hubby came up with the idea of making a matching wardrobe for the baby.

Here is the storyboard for my plan:


Since the challenge for the contest is no black, I had to order new colors of fabric for the shirts. I'm going to make khaki cargo shorts and the colorblocked shirts will be in shades of brown/tan and blues. I'll also be putting my new embroidery machine to good use by doing some custom embroidery on the colorblocked panels. I will probably not do any embroidery on the baby's shirts, but the basic design will match. There is also an accessory requirement and I'm going to make hats from the same fabric as the shorts.

I'm very excited to be doing this for my boys. My "before June" item will probably be the cargo shorts to get them out of the way and then I can make the shirts assembly-line style. If I'm unable to get the hats done in time, those will be my purchased item and I'll just buy something that goes with the ensembles. I hope to get the fabric in the next week and by then I'll have the shirt patterns created with the different colorblock configurations. My hope is that on June 1st I can start cutting everything out and get started!

Wish me luck - I may have just gotten in over my head...again :)

happy Mother's Day to me!

This is what I got for Mother's Day:

The Lucky Shopping Manual. I have only skimmed through it briefly, but it contains a lot of great information on how to shop for everything and what looks best on certain body types. It has a lot of eye candy for inspiration as well.

I also put some of my personal sewing on hold temporarily to sew for my hubby. He has been requesting some retro/bowling style shirts for some time and that was part of the reason I got my embroidery machine for Christmas. The dog ate the Vogue pattern I usually use and I haven't replaced it yet (he was only a few months old, so it was over a year since I've even ATTEMPMTED to sew for hubby), so I'm trying out a now OOP Simplicity Threads pattern. I don't have the pattern numbers handy or else I'd post them, but I'll post all about it when I'm done with this first shirt.

ETA: I almost forgot!! Hubby and I went to Barnes and Noble after our early breakfast yesterday morning and they FINALLY have Burda WOF on their newsstand. Even though I have a subscription, it made me feel better to know that I won't miss out if I ever forget to rewnew on time! Reno is growing up...

hubby's wedding vest

Since I haven't had much time to make anything lately, I figured I should post about my last couple of projects. Sadly, it's been June since I've really accomplished anything in the sewing room (although that is about to change, as I've got several projects lined up). Anyway, I figured I would start with the SURPRISE vest I made for my husband for our wedding.

Because hubby is an avid hunter, I wanted to make sure there was a little bit of "him" in our wedding (which was decorated with orange, pink and red gerbera daisies). I decided that the best way to allow him to express himself was to make him a tuxedo vest that more closely fit his personality. I envisioned a silk or satin camouflage front lined in safety orange. My first hurdle was the fact that the ONLY camo fabric I could find was a medium-weight twill, fleece or netting. The twill was the winner for obvious reasons. The second hurdle (and most difficult) was to find a suitable good-quality lining fabric. I wanted to avoid the traditional ambiance lining because I wanted something with more body. After an unsuccessful trip to JoAnn's, I stumbled upon a remnant of a great safety-orange satin that had good body to it at Hancock. I decided upon a black dull satin (also from Hancock) for the back of the vest and black dull-satin covered tuxedo buttons for the front.

I used Vogue 8048. I made view C (the black one on the bottom) with some modifications:

My husband is a broad man, and even though he is only 6' tall, he has a longer torso for his height. I took the largest side and extended the width to fit his broad shoulders and the length to fit her long torso. Because this was a surprise that I gave to him at our rehearsal dinner, I needed to make sure he didn't find out so it was somewhat difficult to get the proper measurements. It helped that I made a note of his measurements when he was fitted for his tuxedo. Aside from fitting modifications, I made two other changes: I liked the configuration of buttons on view A (a pair of buttons close together with a wider gap between each pair), only instead of 4 pair, I used 3 pair (view A is higher-cut than view C). I also modified the back ties. I thought it might be more comfortable if there was a tie on each side rather than one in the middle. I used black plastic strap tighteners like the kind that adjust straps on a backpack and camo ribbon for the back ties. If I had it to do all over again, I would have used the twill as the strap, but the ribbon was fun (it was also used to make the camo and black lace garter that held a tiny holster and cap gun). Sadly, the ribbon was also somewhat difficult to sew and it's the only part of the vest that screams Home Ec. class (which is actually funny, because my mother-in-law is a Home Ec. teacher).

Hubby LOVED the vest - so did everyone else for that matter. I still get comments on how great it was that I "let" him wear a camo vest...most people are even more shocked when I tell them that 1-I made it and 2-I made for him as a surprise. They all say what a good wife I am...but really I have a great husband so it was worth the effort - I don't feel it detracted from the theme of the wedding at all, and hubby loved wearing it.

Here are some pictures of the finished project:

Front

Back

Lining

Tie Detail

Hubby looking fab

It got two thumbs up from hubby and the best man

UPS rocks!

I have yet to sew for my husband. Granted, through much of our early relationship I had a traveling job and was home maybe 1 week per month. However, now we've been married nearly a year and I haven't been traveling nearly as much - but I still haven't managed to find enough time to sew at all, let alone anything for my wonderful husband.

That's about to change.

Last fall he asked me if I would be willing to make him a wool coat. He specifically requested a coat similar to what Ben Affleck and Matt Damon wear in the movie Dogma (hubby is so silly). I said sure and we proceeded to pick out a pattern - Burda 8275. The pattern was easy to decide on, finding the right fabric is the hard part.

Unfortunately, there are no great fabric stores in Reno. Sure, we have JoAnn and Hancock and a mill end store that I keep forgetting about (one of these days I WILL stop and check that place out, although I have heard mixed reactions of the quality of fabric they carry...that, and the place always looks like it's out of business). Anyway, I haven't been able to find a good local supplier of the melton wool that I want for this coat.

Thanks to the fabulous people at Vogue Fabrics I found just the right wool and an INCREDIBLE price! It was their clearance double-faced wool from a couple of weeks ago - charcoal grey on one side and copenhagen blue on the other side - and it was $5.99 a yard.

It arrived today!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited I raced home from work for lunch and unwrapped so I could take a picture and post it before school tonight. Here it is:


Hubby really likes the dark charcoal grey better than the blue and since this is going to be a wintery coat I plan on underlining it with a lightweight flannel and then fully lining it with something (haven't thought THAT far ahead yet). Fortunately, I have the entire summer to figure it out and hubby will have a spectacular and well-fitting coat for a fraction of the cost that he would pay for it retail.