I Love This Jacket!

Do I look happy? You bet! (And a lot happier than the last photo I posted, eh?)



I promised I would show a pic of me in the Hot Patterns Riviera jacket when I had buttons for it. It took seemingly forever, but I finally found buttons at Sawyer Brook. It took me two orders, though, since apparently I can't read a ruler. The big front buttons were good, but I ordered one size too small for the sleeve plackets. So I wouldn't be left with 4 "orphans," I went ahead and ordered 2 more too-smalls when I put in my second order so I'd have a set of 6 if I ever need them. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. ;-)

(Note: This is not a new red jacket. It's the same and only one I made earlier, a "ginger" colored fleece.)

The buttons are a perfect match to the fabric, but the fabric has yet to want to cooperate with my camera so the color never looks true to life in my pics. Oh well. Trust me, it's a great color and matches my gray auburn hair nicely.



I changed the suggested button placement and moved the top button up above the yoke seam. I think it's more flattering on me to *not* have a more-or-less solid line of yoke+pocket flaps+button right across my bust. Staggering the buttons breaks up that line and creates more vertical interest. At least that's what my eyeballs are telling me. Your eyeballs may disagree.

Here are the smaller buttons on the (faux) sleeve placket. I suppose I should've taken a photo that shows the front and sleeve buttons side-by-side so they don't look exactly the same, which they aren't. That was the hardest part of finding buttons — finding two big enough for the front and which also had smaller companions to match. Carolyn, I envy not only your button stash but your proximity to NYC to shop for more.



The other reason I look so happy is that the temps dropped a bit here today and I could actually wear this because not only was it cool outside, I had somewhere to wear it to! I'm pathetic, aren't I? LOL!

To complete the outfit, I'm wearing the green Hot Patterns Marrakesh pants I made for Thanksgiving. It's my HP day, because I've also started on another HP top, and will hopefully have something to show tomorrow. It's the Metropolitan Tie Me Down top and it looks like it will be another winner with few alterations. DS#2 is gone on an overnight wrestling trip. DH has to work. This means I have no mom/wife/work duties tomorrow and can hide in the sewing room as long as I want.

Speaking of Hot Patterns — I'll gloat a bit and tell you all that I had my lunch date with Trudy and Jeremy a couple of weeks ago, down their way in Sarasota. It was a GREAT time! They are so much fun, with tons of energy, ideas, and jokes. Just like their YouTube videos but better. Time flew and I think we could've sat and chatted for at least three more hours. Thanks for the invite Trudy and Jeremy — I had a blast!

How I Wasted 20+ Hours of My Life

(Or, If Looks Could Kill!)



I'm an 80-year old woman wearing a carpet.

I even fully lined it before I decided to toss it. But at least I stopped before sewing on the sleeve bands, hemming it, or thinking about buttons.




I spent far too much time working, ripping, and reworking ideas to highlight the seaming.

Plain old triple-stitch topstitching with dark green thread disappeared (see princess seams in first photo above). Double strands of off-white upholstery thread showed up slightly better, but looked like basting. Riiiiip. Raw-edge strips of self-fabric showed fine but were going to ravel away to nothing, which I decided *after* I had sewn it all on. Riiiiiip.



I settled on black bias tubing couched on with a green double zigzag. While this is the best of the bunch and looks fine, I wish I hadn't bothered. In the end, nothing could save it.



It's just not me. I don't wear fabric like this. Maybe that's why it had been in the stash for so long?



I cut my losses and threw it out, never again to be tempted to "save" it.

Moving on.

ETA: After receiving 2 comments with suggestions for fixing it or coming back to it, please note: It's too late. It's gone. Outta here. I decided I didn't want to come back to it and I tossed it. Believe me, I know pretty well what I'll wear and what I won't. Besides, there are too many other things on my list that I want to sew. I'll never miss this jacket.

A Day of Pattern Morphing

Whew! I didn't think it would take this long to turn a "simple" Simplicity jacket into a pattern for a Coldwater Creek jacket. Granted, I took lots of breaks, but still. I worked on this most of the day today.

Here's the CWC jacket:





And here is Simplicity 4045, the jacket I'm using as a jumping off point:





I'm sure there's a pattern out there somewhere that would need less changes, but I like a challenge and it's been a while since I did something like this. Plus, I already had the Simplicity and there's no way I was going to wait on an online order or venture out into retail-land on Black Friday.

After studying both jackets, I decided I needed to change the Simplicity pattern as follows:

1. Create separate neckband pieces.

2. Add button plackets. The Simplicity jacket meets at Center Front and there is no allowance for buttons and/or placket.

3. Create front princess seams from the bust darts, and, of course, do an FBA. The CWC jacket has armhole princess seams front and back. The Simplicity jacket has a side panel. I decided that was close enough so I'm leaving those seams as-is.

4. Add a Center Back seam.

Below is my pattern morph. The original Simplicity front/side combo piece is on the right. I cut out the tissue, did my FBA, and then traced the results onto a new sheet of tracing paper. The Simplicity pattern is taped back together. I figured if I was way off base, I would want as much as the original as possible to go back to. I then closed the side bust dart on my tracing and created the princess seams.



I decided on a shoulder princess seam for the front instead of an armhole princess seam. I'm going for "essence" of the CWC jacket, not an outright clone. Shoulder princess seams are more flattering on me.

After making those initial changes, I made a quick muslin from an old sheet. The neckband and plackets had not yet been completed for the muslin. I was merely testing fit and landmark placements. So far so good, although I decided I needed to (1) add another inch to the overall length, (2) move the shoulder seam backward 5/8" as this seems to be drafted for forward shoulders, which I don't have, and (3) shorten the sleeve about 3".



Here's a shot of the panel seam. You can see there's no actual sideseam. The panel is seamed toward the back.



With the fit tested, it was time to do the final fit tweaks and create the "missing" elements. I drew the neckband pieces and cut them from jacket body. I made the placket pieces and added seam allowances where they'd be attached. I lengthened/shortened in the places I noted. And thought I was done, until just now when I realized I forgot to cut apart the back piece for the back neckband. Oops. I'll have to do that tomorrow. My pattern brain is fried tonight.

I don't think I'm going to do another muslin, but I will pin all the pattern pieces onto Zillie to be sure my thought process worked for the construction and that I'm not missing anything. I haven't done a ton of jacket linings so I'll curl up in bed tonight with some refresher info to make sure I don't forget anything with that either.

Hopefully before the weekend is over, I'll have a new jacket. Now that I have the new A/C, the temps are supposed to be in the 40s (F) tonight. Figures.

More Marrakesh

No, my jacket still doesn't have buttons — and obviously hates being photographed because I still can't get it to look here like it does in real life. But I think I found buttons. They should be here in the next couple of days and then I'll know if they really do match. Meanwhile, we have A/C again and so I was able to be in my sewing room for more than 15 minutes without sweating. After hemming the pants this morning, this is what I wore today, minus the jacket. Nice fall colors for Turkey Day.

This is my second pair of HP Marrakesh pants, with a couple of changes.

First, I left off the drawstring.



Second, I substituted these sew-on curved patch pockets for the inseam side pockets. I like these much better than the in-seams.



Next, I sewed the elastic into the back waistband so it doesn't "float". And last, I added back darts since these pants are knit and need less ease than the linen version. (The dressform has one pole for a leg so it's pretty much useless for showing any kind of actual fit.)



Here's an oddity for me - my zipper, waistband facing, and fly shield actually match the pants fabric. ;-)



* * * * *

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, or Thursday as the case may be. Ours was the traditional spread as usual, and service was low-key buffet style as requested by the guys. We have one of my younger son's friends staying with us temporarily (parent troubles) so he helped put a dent in the food, and then both sons' girlfriends dropped by for pie after their own family feasts.

I really enjoy my sons and their friends/sweeties and I'm glad they are still "willing" to spend time with their old mom. ;-) Last night we all went to a late showing of The Blind Side. Good movie, endearing characters. Even if you're not fond of American football, you will probably still like this "feel good" flick.

* * * * *

Next up in the sewing room is a Coldwater Creek-inspired jacket using this boucle sweater knit purchased from Emma One Sock eons ago. The green in the boucle is a perfect match for the pants fabric. More details in a later post.

This Is It

Not sewing related, although I'll take a minute to gripe about the lack of buttons to be had locally and even over the internet. My HP Riviera jacket wants to be done but I can't find any buttons for it. Sigh.

So, Tuesday night my sons and I headed to the movie theater to see Michael Jackson's This Is It.

I was "in love" with Michael Jackson when I was 10-12 years old. No Donny Osmond for me - it was Michael all the way! His music was everywhere during my teenage years and into my 20s. You couldn't turn on the radio or TV or go to nightclub without hearing one of his songs or seeing one of his videos. When I was 20, my best friend had a Michael Jackson party to coincide with Thriller album. (Wonder if I still have those pics somewhere?)

I didn't pay a lot of attention to his personal issues over the years simply because I didn't have enough information to know all the facts and make an informed judgment, and really, in my life he's only just a voice on the radio or a face on the TV. I probably never would've seen any of his live shows. I was a fan, but not obsessed.

So, this is just to say that if you liked Michael Jackson at all over the past decades and were shocked to hear of his early passing, see the movie. You'll be entertained, and most of the time you won't even realize you're watching REHEARSALS! Oh, and stay past the credits. ;-)

One thing I did take away from this movie was what an awesome production this live show was going to be, and how many peoples' jobs and dreams also died with Michael Jackson. It was uplifting to know that these people got to see some sort of completion to all the hours they all put into it. Now they'll have something to show their grandkids, instead of only being able to say "I was supposed to be ..."