A Halloween Jacket

 Recently I took an on-line class from a woman named Deb Canham on making an embellished jean jacket using both the sewing machine and serger. The pattern she was making for the class was called the Stacie Jean Jacket. In the lead up to the class, we were shown examples of ideas of what we could make. The two examples she showed us were a jacket made from Kaffe Fassett fabrics and a seasonal fabric jacket made from Halloween fabric. Before her class, I was thinking maybe muted Kaffe colors, but when Deb showed her Halloween Jacket I got all excited. Sulky had had a webinar with a woman by the name of Desiree Habicht of Desiree’s Designs a couple of weeks before. During the seminar she made a steampunk Pumpkin Pouch. During the seminar she showed off her Halloween fabric line.  After the webinar was over I searched and found most of the line of her steam punk Halloween fabric. I bought it to make, I don’t know, I just liked it. I don’t buy without a purpose often anymore but, I really liked the fabric. The fabric line came with a panel of assorted steam punk pumpkins as well as a bird, an owl, butterflies and a cat. 

The coordinating fabric included a range of gear fabric in assorted colors and a border print of the cat owl and bird in one border and a range of pumpkins on the other border strip.

Quickly it became apparent that the Stacie Jacket pattern was not going to work. The three-piece front design would not allow for the use of the pumpkin pieces from the large panel.

In my stash I have two jean jacket patterns that I have never even cracked open. I settled on the Jacket Express #218 by Janet Pray, but it would need to be modified, to use the designs from the panel. 

If you look at the pattern cover, there are welt pockets on the piece that would be best for the panel pumpkins and it has a curved bottom hem. I dislike those. On the back, the center back piece was ¾ of an inch too narrow so it would need to be modified as well. for the final jacket, the welt pockets were deleted and side pockets were inserted.

In my stash I found a light brown denim that perfectly matched the fabrics.

This is what I started with:

I ended up not using the black and white stripe fabric which incidentally was not part of the fabric line, but I thought I might use. It turned out to have too much white.

There were not enough smaller steampunk designs on the panel for the entire jacket so, from Urban Threads, I found a steampunk gear embroidery design that worked perfectly for the upper left front of the jacket next to the pocket.

Speaking of the upper pockets, the pocket flaps were fussy cut from the border fabric. The cuffs were first cut out of the pumpkin part of the border, but like the black and white fabric, it was too white and did not work.

 Instead, the cuffs were substituted using more the border print used on the pocket flaps.

Deb Canham’s jackets have lots of embellishment done on the serger. Unfortunately, for me, I do not have the correct size needle for the serger to do a proper chain stitch so I had to switch to couching the threads down using my sewing machine. This is what I used:

Dazzle and Wonderfil soft poly for the couching and not shown a Sulky metallic for the curved vertical lines and a brown Blendables 12 weight for the curved lines on the jacket yolk and center sleeves.

Here is the result. Super cute!

Tablecloth Re-Do

I have been collecting tablecloths, damaged are better but, anything really, if I find them, I buy them. I have many ideas in mind for them, things I want to try to make. Living part of the year in France and Germany, between you, me, and the wall, Germany is better the better country for finding colorful embroidered tablecloths and France is better for more dainty or delicate embroidered items and white on white.

Here is a small sample of what I mean. These are from Germany

And these are from France.

 Now I am not saying that it is always like this, it’s not. However, if I were to generalize, if I want colors on my embroidered tablecloths, most likely they came from Germany.

A couple years ago, I bought a garment; it was made in India using modal (a form of rayon). Although nice, the length was not quite right for me. Due to the length the way it tapers in at the hem meant that I really could use a couple of inches in width to fit me correctly and be at its flattering best. I am not fat, its just the length is not, well …right. Most irritating was that the garment did not have pockets. I need a Kleenex pocket or a place I can put my hands. I cannot stand sweaters without pockets, as I do not normally carry a purse.

I copied off the pattern from the modal ready-made garment. I added inches to the side bottom, adjusted the length and found a place to insert hidden pockets. 

Having shopped in Germany last year where my selection looked something like this:

I have a sizable tablecloth stash. I pulled several similar in color tablecloths and removed the heavy lace from the edges. I thought I might add it back later, but once I completed the garment, I found it did not need it. It went together fast with few seams and super easy to sew.

This picture shows my starting point, This is the same picture as before.

All are similar in background and embroidery color. The bottom left and center bottom pieces were not used. Notice the bottom left one has a hole in the fabric. I had to be mindful and work around holes and stains on all of the pieces.

So, here it is completed. 

The fit is nice and once the weather gets a little cooler, it will be a nice casual jacket to get comfortable in around the house or out and about.

Are you being productive right now?

I hope so. 

It’s been a little more than a month ago that I found myself back in the United states. I was in Australia, Heron Island to be exact when the news came that the group I was part of was being recalled back to the United States. There were 70 of us, students and professors, trapped on the island for the 5 days after the recall. Trapped due to a category 2 cyclone spinning of the coast heading down in the direction of Brisbane. We were fine. There was lots of sunshine and wind but no rain and importantly, no ferries to get back to the mainland. In those 5 days walks on the beach were wonderful. One could not snorkel or scuba dive due the very rough seas but the turtles were hatching and late at night, if you were lucky you could see turtles coming to shore to lay eggs.

So I am back. Adventures stopped for the time being. The kitchen upon arrival was empty of everything from spices and other shelf goods to what goes in the average refrigerator after it is plugged in. I have become reacquainted with my sewing room. Like everyone I have made a few masks and in doing so have noticed that certain sewing items are hiding on me. All in all after a month I have settled right in.

Someone told me that among sewers, most are not making something new; instead, they are pulling out UFOs and are working on them.

I am no different. In the basement I found a UFO that was intriguing enough for me that I picked it up to finish it. There is a good reason it was a UFO, but heh, what else to I have to do right now?

At least 15 years ago I was visiting an aunt of my husbands. She led an interesting life following her husband around as he worked in the diplomatic service. It was on that visit I noticed the rug on the floor under the dining room table. It was a rug of dragon designs. Getting permission, I copied the designs off the rug onto white kitchen garbage bags with a sharpie. I was super careful as to not in any way damage the rug.

At home, I reproduced the center dragon. I made that block twice after figuring out the best way to construct it after the many mistakes of the first. I took notes on what not to do. The first of the center dragons was made into a wall hanging and was given away. The second dragon was put away in a box along with the left overs of fabrics used as the amount of work to make what I wanted was daunting.

Fast forward 15 years. Challenge taken! I think I mentioned that the amount of work was daunting.  But heh, what else do I have to do?

So here is the starting point, a white kitchen trashbag with the dragon drawn on with a red sharpie.

First step was to redraw the dragon onto paper. When I redesigned my sewing room, I used Ikea furniture for the shelving. Between each of the pieces in the box was a piece of lightweight brown paper. I kept them all figuring I could use it for pattern drafting later.

Years ago the place I worked was getting rid of things they no longer used. One of them was a huge wooden light box that had been used to proof electrical designs for circuit boards. I took it, brought it home and later used it once before this project. It is very large and heavy. It is also very useful and a big help.

So the dragon was redrawn onto paper and then cleaned up. Then using a black sharpie, the lines were drawn. Did I mentioned that the amount of work for this project was daunting? Drawing the one in the picture onto the paper took a day. But heh, what else do I have to do?

Finally, the fun part began. Even though I had some of the original fabrics used when I made the first dragon, there was not enough for the entire quilt. As luck would have it I have a large fabric stash and was able to find enough fabrics to make all of the dragons.

So here is one of the dragons in the process of being assembled and sewn together:

I figured that I could use the center dragon that was already completed but when I laid it out on the bed it was clear that the background was ok, but not spectacular. The tone on tone that was bought to go with it 15 years ago wasn't going to be my first choice it was ok, but just ok. 

My style had changed a lot in the last 15 years. I took a picture and looked at it. The quilt on the bed under the dragons is pastel and suddenly, just like that, a new background was decided. 

Pastels, like the quilt on the bed wouldn’t work, but a mixture of tone on tones would. Daunting just took another step up, but heh, what else do I have to do?

Good thing I have a stash:

This project is still a work in progress; Every day gets a little closer to finishing. The 3 of the 4 outer dragons are complete, the last one is on the sewing machine being attached to the tone on tone background.

The center dragon has been redrawn on the brown paper and construction has started.

More to come…