Vogue 8498 In Progress…

We got a little ice in north Louisiana yesterday and I claimed a snow day.  (I felt like a total fraud, by the way.  Most of my coworkers showed up for work.  I just wasn’t in the mood to drive on the ice…or maybe I was just in the mood for a day off to sew.  Yep, that’s most likely.)

I did make progress on my Vogue 8498 pants.  A couple weeks ago, I worked on the muslin and sorta finalized the fit.  Want to share my frustration??  I measured the pattern hip and waist.  Waist was exactly on in back and too narrow in front.  So  what does any sane person do?  Add ease in the back and increase the front plus ease.  Result… Too Big!

Removed all the ease in the muslin which took me back pretty much to the original size!  Craziness.

So yesterday, when getting started on these, I chose a nice wool purchased at Hancock Fabrics at a clearance sale.  Saving some nicer wool for when I’m certain of the fit.  This is a lightweight, brushed wool.  It almost has a flannel feel to it.  I really like this and hope it wears as well as I believe it should.

At this point, I’m following Claire Shaeffer’s suggestion and putting the zipper in by hand.  This will be a first for me.  Looking forward to it.

Others are working on pants as well in The Monthly Stitch.  If you love sewing, you should check out their blog.  They have interesting and fun challenges, and it’s inspiring to see what others are working on.I’m enjoying sewing garments again, but I’m would really like to get some time in quilting.  Quilting has a quicker reward time to me and I’m needing that right now.

Hope you are warm and dry where you are.  And hope you get some thread time!  😉

Ramona

 

Craftsy.com and The Iconic Tweed Jacket

In my recent post, I shared that Craftsy.com was running an awesome sale on their classes.  If you read it, you know I had quite a few classes in my cart and was trying to decide if I should cut it down a bit.  However, it was too hard to choose, so I didn’t cut any classes from my cart.  Shocker, I know.

This weekend, I watched The Iconic Tweed Jacket with Lorna Knight.  There seems to be so much going on with this style jacket right now.  I’m participating (and way behind!) in the French Jacket SAL hosted by Inna at The Wallinna and Leisa of A Challenging Sew.  I also recently picked up Claire Shaeffer’s book Couture Sewing: The Couture Cardigan.  So when this class came out, I was VERY tempted.  At the same time I wondered how much of the information would be a repeat of what I already have available.  In the end, I took the chance and added this one to my Craftsy cart during their fabulous sale.

While some of the material does repeat, a lot of it is still fresh.  Lorna approaches this jacket a little differently in places.  I found myself mentally comparing the different techniques and choosing which I thought would be my favorite method.  To begin, she constructs her jacket using the seam allowance and not by marking the seams as I’ve been shown previously.  I love her method of stabilizing the front center, neck and sleeve hem.

Most of all, I enjoyed her teaching style.  (Of course I’m a sucker for the accent…I thought it might be Irish, but she appears to be British??)  She is very methodical and seems to anticipate the questions you are thinking in your head.  The pace was wonderful, neither too slow or too fast.  Lorna offers great tips along with her reasoning for the methods she chooses.  I will definitely be referring back to this class.

If we’re lucky, Craftsy will have plans to bring Lorna back for other classes!

Another review you might find interesting is Red Point Tailor’s:  The French Jacket courses review – part 1

I also watched most of Angela Wolfe’s, Sewing Designer Jeans, and I finally finished Sandra Betzina’s Pants Fitting class, but those reviews are for another day.

And by the way, did you see A Challenging Sew’s post yesterday?  Leisa is planning a sew along (SAL) beginning in January using the free patterns Marfy has made available.  For all you newbies to Marfy, and to current fans, this should be a fun SAL.  (See previous post for more info on these patterns.)

That’s it for now.  Happy Holidays!

Very little sewing unfortunately…

I haven’t sewn as much as I wanted this weekend.  I haven’t sewn as much as I wanted for weeks now!  I’m beginning to go into withdrawal.

Saturday was our modern quilt guild meeting.  Northeast Louisiana (NELA) guild met yesterday and we had a lot of fun.  After the meeting we all stayed and worked on different projects.  One was binding, one was paper piecing, another was working on cathedral window blocks and I was marking pieces from templates in preparation of hand piecing more oriental star blocks.

My muslin for the French jacket sew along has been adapted a bit, but it is still not in final form.  And to top that, I have purchased a couple more patterns!  I’ve actually cut a muslin for Marfy 2417.  I really wanted to see how the Marfy fit compared to the Vogue 8804.  The neckline on this one is different of course from the traditional Chanel style jacket, but I’m thinking I might actually like this dropped collar neckline for my red boucle.

Now if I could only find a lining for that red boucle!  I’ve ordered samples.  And can I say Mood in New York was awesome about matching a sample I sent to them.  I worked with a lady named Lisle who was wonderful.  She was very sweet to work with and sent some fabulous fabric choices.

Most were crepe de chine and I have my heart set on Charmeuse, which is proving a problem.  Do you see the dark fabric at the top right of the photo… it appears black/chocolate brown with watercolor flowers?  It is a silk twill that is just beautiful.  I keep trying to think of something to make from it just to have the excuse to order it.

I’m narrowing the choice down to these three (not the best photo….cropped a bit too much.  The crepe de chine top left is actually a good choice for this fabric.  There is a blue thread running through the selvage that is almost periwinkle.  I would love to use the selvage in the trim and keep trying to pick up that color in the lining.

I got the purple / oyster sample (bottom left) from nyfashionfabric.com, and for some reason I keep going back to it.  It is a charmeuse and the price is a bit dear.  Friday they released a 20% discount which makes it easier to bear.  I just haven’t made my mind up!

I’ve actually ordered from Mood a navy boucle and a coordinating charmeuse as backup.  We’re supposed to be cutting fabric this week.  I guess it’s just as well I don’t have my muslin finished since my fabrics aren’t ready.

And this is my recent haul from Marfy.  I wanted the 2010 catalogue for the free patterns shown below.  I love the blue jacket with the simple collar and the tie blouse.

At the same time, I picked up a couple french jacket styles as well as a simple top.

The very worst thing about shopping fabrics for a specific project, is that I get sidetracked and end up buying more fabric!!  Britex had some of their wool on sale and I picked up a couple pieces for slacks that I need.  One is a worsted wool and they both have a wonderful crisp feel.  Their service and delivery was excellent!  The order shipped the same day the order placed.

While in Hancock’s Fabrics in town, I noticed they had some 100% wool pieces…on sale … and picked up a few there as well.  The top piece is lightweight with a brushed flannel feel.  Very soft hand.  The next two are a navy and brown lightweight wool with a crisp hand.

I need to sew these up before they end in my stash gathering dust!!

So today, I finally got busy cutting muslins with plans to get some of this done.

There was a muslin for the Marfy French jacket I mentioned earlier.

This slacks pattern by Claire Shaeffer.

And a Cynthia Rowley top I’ve had in my file for a while.

My goal is to get those sewn up in the next two days.  Once I have a slacks pattern that works, I plan to sew up a few pair out of this new wool.

This feels like a long post today, and I’m leaving so much out!  I haven’t covered some of the books I’ve bought lately.  I’ll have to throw those in on another post.

 

Little French Jacket and New Book

Hot off the presses and into my hands!  😀   This is Claire Shaeffer’s latest, Couture Sewing, The Couture Cardigan Jacket.

Amazon will sell these at a more economical price soon, but Taunton Publishers had these in stock and ready to ship. I’m in full planning mode for the little French jacket sew along and just didn’t have the patience to wait. Great delivery time. Taunton did an excellent job.

I am already half way through the book and love the instruction and illustration style.  (Should have shown a few photos..sorry!)  Orderly and easy to understand. Usually I use these as a reference and turn to them about specific problems. This is the first time to actually sit and read my way through a book of this sort. Well worth it.

If you have Claire Shaeffer’s previous couture sewing books, many of the techniques are the same, but I love how she walks us through the steps of putting this jacket together.  I haven’t broken out the CD yet, but I expect it to be as good as her Couture Workshop CD which I have.  I’ve watched it a few times already and have picked up some great techniques.

Seriously, if I could get past the fitting, I would be a happy woman.  The fitting just ends up making me so mad!