January Make a Garment a Month Challenge - Done!

This is my January finished garment for the Make a Garment a Month Challenge.  The pattern is an Issey Miyake pattern by Vogue, number 1052.

The jacket is a loose fitting, lined, above hipline jacket with double draped collar, welt pockets, princess seams and back ties.  Lots and lots of topstitching as well!  I changed the single welt pocket to a double welt and added a double flap with a button.  I also shortened the sleeves by 1 1/2 inches.

Side View

The sleeves are a sort of raglan style with two pieces making up the front and back sides that marry up with two additional pieces making up the sides of the sleeves.  It forms a sort of gusset underneath the armhole.  I'm used to a more fitted, inset sleeve so these feel a little strange to me.

Back view

A special thank you to everyone that voted for the "Circles" lining.  This was left over from another project and I couldn't decide between the circles or the cherries so I put it out to vote and the Circles won!

Inside front

Inside back

For the ruffled collar, I knew I wanted to do a rolled hem on my serger because I found some variegated thread that matched perfectly.  I also knew the corners would be a bit of an issue with my new serger (lack of practice on my part), so I decided to slightly round out the corners instead and just serge away.  Below is a diagram of what I trimmed off before serging.  The collar is supposed to have a 5/8 hem zig zag hem around the edges, but I opted to keep the extra 5/8 inch rather than serging it off and have a slightly bigger collar. 

Doesn't the variegated thread look great!

Here's a close up of the rolled hem.  On the collar, both the right and wrong sides of the fabric show as you can kinda see here.  The wrong side is slightly darker.

From the side, the buttons slightly show as well.  I just used some plan buttons from my stash.  No need for fancy ones here since the collar is the main feature of the garment.

This is just a cool angle so I thought I would throw it in as well.

Here's another view of the pocket and the ruffled collar.

I think my jacket turned out pretty good and I can't wait to wear it to work tomorrow!

Happy Sewing!

Appeal for Rain #2

This is my second appeal for some rain in Northern California.  Mother Nature ignored my first appeal, so I thought I would do another one (without the umbrella this time - maybe that was confusing her for some reason!).

This raincoat is Saf-T-Pockets Pattern #2001 - The Portlandia Coat.



The goal of Saf-T-Pockets Patterns is to include numerous pockets in the design so you can keep your cash and other small valuable items safe and secure on your clothes and with you at all times. This coat is completely reversible and has 6 pockets all together.  Two patch pockets with zippers on one side and on the reverse side, four pockets (two patch pockets with two hidden pockets inside of those).

The fabric I used was a reversible home dec fabric.  Once the coat was made, I sprayed it with Scotchgard to give it some waterproofing.  There are four buttons at the front neck (two on one side and two on the reverse side).  I do feel that it needs more buttons down the front - when the wind blows, the coat flys open in the front unless you are holding it.

This coat has ALOT of room.  I made a small and could easily wear a bulky sweater and a down coat underneath it and still have room!

The hood is also very roomy.  I feel like a Monk when I wear it!

Here's a view of the reverse side.

All of the seams on this coat are flat felled - that's what makes it reversible.

The hood has a band of elastic sewn to the top portion of it.  This helps pull in some of the fabric, but I still think there is way too much hood.  When the wind is blowing, the front portion of the hood completely covers my face so I have to hold it with my hand to see where I'm going.  No rain is touching my head for sure!

The box pleat in the back makes an inverted pleat on the reverse side.

Here you can see how the hem and front bands turn and form a decorative feature on the reverse side.

Come on Mother Nature - throw us some significant rain producing storms!  Otherwise, I'm going to have to wash my car.  Oh wait a minute, I can't do that either - now we are in drought mode so we need to conserve what little water we have.

Maybe if everyone out there does a rain dance we'll get some rain?  I'm up for anything at this point!

Happy Sewing!

Sewing Organization Tip #7

Thread - there are so many different kinds, shapes, purposes, etc.  What do I do with all of them?

I keep all of my thread in the closet in my sewing room.  There was an unused corner of the closet and it was just perfect to mount these thread spool racks to the wall.  I have them from floor to ceiling on one side of the closet.

I like to store my thread in the closet because they are out of direct sunlight - which leads to deterioration of the thread over a long period of time.  Some of the serger spools, I have owned for quite while.

Here's the rack near the ceiling.  I need a little step stool to access the ones nearer the top, but that's ok.  The step stool tucks away nicely in the closet as well.

Another idea for thread storage is to use the nuts and bolts bins like I showed in Tip #5.  I store all of my rayon machine embroidery threads in the top bin.  On the bottom, I have some very small spools that fit just perfectly in these drawers, alongside some more beads and larger buttons.

This concludes my series on sewing organization tips.  I hope you have found them to be useful and will try a few!

Happy Sewing!

Sewing Organization Tip #6

Help!  I can't see the top of my desk!

This one took me a while to come up with a solution.

When I'm working on a project - it tends to cover up my entire desk, the computer, the cutting board and spill onto the floor.  And the worst part is, I tend to just close the door to my sewing room and leave it that way only to find I need to move everything just to get to the computer or find something buried under the pile on my desk.

So, I decided I needed some project bins.  I found these cute bins at Target last year for about $8.00 each.  Now when I'm finished working on something, I just grab a bin, throw everything into it and put it into my closet on a shelf tucked between the organized trims and patterns.  Then, when I have another opportunity to sew, I just pull out the bin and everything I need is in it and I can easily pick up where I left off.  I'm not looking for the buttons I left on the cutting board or the lace that fell on the floor - everything is tidy, organized and in the project box.

One of my three project bins

Don't they look happy on the shelf?

Tomorrow's topic - Thread tails.....

Happy Sewing!

Sewing Organization Tip #5

Buttons and Hooks and Snaps - Oh My!

I'm sure you've had a button box.  I remember as a kid looking thru my Grandmother's button box trying to find the perfect match for a garment she was making for me.  I would occasionally come across various hooks and snaps in the box too.  This task used to keep me entertained for a while as a kid, but now I need to find what I need quickly and not dig thru multiple boxes for the right item.

As I mentioned in my earlier post of the wonderful neighbor, I have alot of buttons, snaps, hooks and eyes, grommets, needles, beads, etc.  Basically, if it's sewing related and comes on a card or in a small box, chances are that I have alot of them.  So again, what to do with all of them?

My solution:  The Nuts and Bolts bins you purchase at the hardware store.

I have four of them and they hold all of my buttons (color coded of course!), snaps, hooks and eyes, beads, needles, etc.  Pretty much everything that is small and needs a home, ends up in one of these bins.

Anyone need a snap for jeans?  They have their own little drawer

How about some black buttons?

Or some red, white and blue snaps?

These bins are kept in my closet and help to keep everything organized and dust free.  Now when I need something, I just head there first and chances are I have what I need without another trip to the store.

These bins are anywhere from $10 - $25 in the hardware store.  They may not look very pretty, but they work perfectly for this job.  Once the crafting industry gets wind of this idea, I'm sure they will start being manufactured in pretty colors and cost twice as much!

Tomorrow's topic - My desk is a mess!

Happy Sewing!

Sewing Organization Tip #4

I love Independent Patterns and have accumulated quite a few.  I described in my first Organizing post how I use binders for storing a record of all of my patterns.  I had many pattern boxes labeled "Miscellaneous", "Various", and "Various 2".  Well, I realized I was wasting too much time looking thru all of these boxes trying to find the correct Independent Pattern that I wanted so something needed to change.

My Mom was coming down for the weekend so I decided to task her with the sorting project.  Her job was to organize all of the independents according to their company name and alphabetize.  Independents like The Sewing Workshop that I have alot of patterns got their own box.  Every other company is organized in the A - Z boxes.  Now when I need one of these patterns, I can quickly go to the correct box!

Thanks Mom!

These might not be the prettiest boxes, but at least they are now organized.  Maybe I should recover the boxes and make them pretty?  Another thing to add to the "To do list" I guess.

Tomorrow's topic - Buttons and Hooks and Snaps - Oh My!

Happy Sewing!

Sewing Organization Tip #3

Get a grip on those sewing necessities!

We all need bias tape, hem tape, ric rac, zippers, trims, ribbons, etc., and they can quickly accumulate and get out of hand.  How many of us have had a box of  "Miscellaneous" stuff that we rarely look into and end up buying the same things over and over again.

A few years ago, I was blessed with a wonderful new neighbor who learned that I sewed.  His wife had passed away a few years prior and he was left with all of her sewing stuff and didn't have a clue what to do with it. Luckily, my sewing guild has an annual sewing garage sale so I told him I would sort thru everything, keep what I could use and then sell the rest for him at the garage sale.

So the next weekend we got together to start sorting.  Well, the wonderful new neighbor neglected to tell me that him and his wife had purchased a sewing store that was going out of business prior to his wife's passing so he had alot (and I mean alot) of stuff to sort thru.

So after a few weekends of sorting, I ended up with alot of those sewing necessities I described above.  My solution - purchase some plastic shoe storage bins and organize according to color.

Now all of my trims have a nice box, sorted according to color and kept dust free!

Here are all of the zippers gifted from the neighbor as well.  I don't think I will ever need to purchase another zipper!

Many thanks to my wonderful neighbor and I hope this will give you an idea for storing your trims as well.

Tomorrow's topic - Independent Patterns.

Happy Sewing!