Jeans style skirt

I wanted another skirt to wear with my Rachel Comey top for summer and had on my wish list a denim skirt but not necessarily in denim particularly after I had pinned this bright yellow denim skirt.

I started with my Self Drafted Skirt pattern and then dug out the detailed instructions that Sue Marriott had given me during her workshop on "how to use your TNT pants pattern to design and construct a pair of jeans" at the ASG Convention in Ballart in 2010.

I made the following changes to my pattern:

• Added seam allowance to the skirt front so that I could have a centre front seam.
• Drew in the fly front extension.
• Drew my front pocket shape and drafted the pocket facing and pocket stay patterns.
• Drew in the back yoke, adding seam allowance to both pieces.
• Copied the back pockets from my Jalie Jeans as I like the shape and size.
  Copied the waistband from my Jalie Jeans pattern, adding a bit more length to it, just in case.

Next up was to find some fabric and I settled on a forest green twill from Spotlight and in my stash I had some wonderful cotton for the pockets.

The construction from there is just like a pair of jeans - you just don't have a crotch seam to sew!

This time I have finally put in the pocket stay, besides keeping your pockets in place which avoids "tucking in" the pocket when getting dressed, it is also known as a "tummy control panel".

 I also edgestitched and topstitched all the seams, including the side seams.

When I went to install the jeans button and rivets I realised that they weren't the same colour so last Saturday night I headed to the M.Recht Accessories website and ordered antique brass jean buttons and nails and much to my delight they arrived on Tuesday, talk about wonderful service!

So here it is!

Wish I could get the colour consistent!

This is a great skirt and can see it getting a lot of wear during summer and even autumn.

******************

Stash Out:  24.65 m

Stash In:     22.3 m

Little French Jacket

It had to happen, I knew as soon as I saw this silk mix it would be another jacket and guess what I have found, the Little French Jacket sewalong.

The icing on the cake for this sewalong is that both of the organisers, Leisa from A Challenging Sew and Inna from Thewallinna have both attended Susan Khalje's - classic French Jacket course and Susan Khalje has also offered to consult along the way!

I would love to attend one of Susan's classes but at this stage that is a dream so even though I have plenty of projects on my wish list, I've decided to join this one as well.

There have been a number of discussions so far and the schedule has been posted. 

I'm going to use Vogue 7975 again, it has been fitted for me and so far I have made two Chanel inspired jackets from this pattern (well the 2nd one is progressing) so I am not going to do the muslin that started on October 7.

Seeing I'm not 100% certain what else is mixed with the silk, I will do a burn test and then figure out how to pre-treat the fabric.  The girls at The Remnant Warehouse did advise not to dry clean it as they felt it would loose some of its lovely hand.

It will be fun working out what colour the lining will be, looks like I need to go shopping and I'm not even sure where to start with the trim!
 

Make A Garment a Month

You may have seen that I have in my side bar a badge for Make A Garment a Month challenge which SarahLizSewStyle is hosting to help keep us focused on sewing a little each day for ourselves.  There are a lot of wonderful fellow sewers joining up.

My garment for October will be this raglan t-shirt from BurdaStyle Magazine as I have a RTW coral one that I wore constantly last year as I really liked the style.

However, I also want October to be the month to completely finish a number of garments that I have  in various stages of completion:

• Chanel style jacket, that I started back in March during a weekend workshop in Brisbane. It is up to binding the jacket with a special gros-grain ribbon that has a groove in the centre.  Once this is done the sleeves are set in and then the buttonholes (I think I will let Mick do these once I have purchased the buttons from All Buttons Great and Small).
• Pencil skirt in the same fabric that has the darts sewn and ready for the invisible zip.
• Denim style skirt in a forest green twill that only needs a buttonhole and jeans button which I have ordered from M.Recht to arrive.

 I wonder how much I will achieve?

Now it is confession time, look what has followed me home from my last two ASG meetings at The Remnant Warehouse, the girls there are so obliging in pointing out fabric they think you will enjoy.

Silk mix (more silk than anything) with every colour in it for a jacket

Very dark brown and cream stripe knit for Vogue 8904

Looks like I have got November's garment already lined up, but first I need to purchase the pattern whilst it is on special at Spotlight!

Rachel Comey Top

This is the top from the Vogue 1247 Rachel Comey pattern that includes the skirt pattern that I made the burnt orange linen skirt from and thought that some navy chiffon with off white spots that was in the stash would work well with.

My very good friend Sandra (Dilliander on Pattern Review) had already made up this top twice and had taken a lot of excess fabric out of the pattern, and seeing we are similar in size (definitely not height)  I borrowed her adjustments and made them to my pattern as follows:

• Square shoulder adjustment
• Shortened front horizontal dart by 1.5cm
• Reduced the circumference by 3cm
• Added some gentle shaping to the side seams.
• Raised the front neckline by 1cm taking it back to the original neckline by the shoulder seam.
• and then my standard 1cm gaposis in the front neckline.

I then proceeded to suffer paralysis on cutting the fabric and remembered that Lena Merrin from The Sewing Space had posted on Pattern Review and also on her blog a tip about using Gelatin to tame the chiffon and luckily there was some in the pantry.

Once the fabric air dried it was like silk organza and was much nicer to handle.

I also remembered seeing a very detailed review by JenleeC on Pattern Review and followed her tips on stay stitching the various pieces to stop them from stretching out.

French seams are used throughout and one of my sewing buddies also suggested that I topstitch them down as she knew that they would annoy me otherwise.

Now for the finished top

I've still got 3.5 metres of this chiffon fabric left and last Saturday at The Remnant Warehouse I saw a very cute peplum top in very similar fabric, now that could be interesting!

******************

Stash Out:  23.25 m

Stash In:     19.8 m