Houndtooth Brushed Cotton Jacket

This is my third project done during confinement, and another one that I have not been able to wear in public yet. I thought I might wear it for an important presentation I had a couple of weeks ago, but that day started to feel hot, and it ended up in the back of my chair. I only wore my two previous projects for videomeetings too, and that is making me rethink my whole sewing activity. Now I have decided to make some work trousers for my hubby, since he has to work as a postman in the wild outside and we have to wash his clothes everyday.

The good part about this project is that it has been a slow sewing that stretched for almost two months. I am doing crazy hours working online with my primary school students, and I have not much time left to sew nowadays, but still, I made it slowly, by hand, with much care as I could. The result reflects that.

This small houndtooth brushed cotton is simply gorgeous. I totally recommend it to everyone to make a jacket, tailored dress or slacks. it really looks like wool, but it is soft and strong as cotton. I think I bought it from Ray Charles, but I cannot find the product there now, so I suppose it is not in stock any more. It is a gorgeous fabric to work with and to wear, although I cannot testify for much wearing it yet, sadly.

For the pattern, I used my tailored jacket own pattern. I drew it long ago using Aldrich's book, and I still think it is an awesome pattern. I have used it many times with slight variations. 

In this case, I made the middle front bottom part square, and changed the lapels to copy my inspiration source. I simply omitted the upper collar and made the lapels bigger and more square at the top. I love this front!

The procedure I followed is quite standard in my sewing. 

I transferred the pattern to the folded fabric with tailor tucks, I applied thermofusible interlinng to all the bodice and the sleeve caps in this case, and then proceeded to baste it. 

I tried it on and adjusted the waist and the back princess seams, I added the lapels and upper neck facing, turning it over. 

Then, I made the double welted buttonhole and finished it in the back, on the facing. 

Next, I foded the bottom hem, but before that I had to attach some extra fabric to a couple of the panels, since they were too short. It became invisible in this patterned fabric. I put a lead cord in the bottom fold to give more weight to the jacket, Chanel Style.

 

I proceeded to baste all the front facings and hems, and after ironing it well (this is cotton, it takes the iron like nothing) I hand slip-stitched it all in place.

Sleeves were the next step. I applied interlining to the cap, gathered the top and basted them to the jacket. I then machine-stitched the bottom part, and back-stitched all the top by hand. If sleeves are slightly gathered at the top, sewing them by hand with back stitches is far better than machine stitching, which always provokes pinching the subtle gathering.

With sleeves in place and their bottoms sewn by hand with slip stitches as well, I proceeded to cut and assemble the lining, and apply it to the jacket, which was on my dressform inside out. I pinned the lining and proceeded to sew it by hand with slip stitches all around. 

And voilà. 

I think the jacket is a masterpiece and it is going to get a lot of wear if we some day recover the prepandemic functioning. I only have slight doubts about the sleeves, are they too long or too wide? Only wearing the jacket i will be able to decide on that. 

I hope you like it!

Green Velvet Coco Dress

Well, well, well... here we are in the middle of it. A shitstorm of huge proportions. We have been 1 month confined now, and I am 99.9% at home. I work, luckily, I have my 15 students connected and working. We are feeling healthy by now, and our house is quite comfy... but it is so sad, so so sad and scary. Such huge number of lives, families and loves... well, one cannot only try to be happy in isolation! But at least, we try to have a nice time, to keep sane physically and mental. Sewing and knitting are so precious to me now that I feel guilty than not everybody has them. But probably they would not care, we all have our secret weapons, or not. 

Well, so here I am sewing clothes I do not wear. This was my 1st project done in confinement, and I have since then moved through community face mask making, to slow tailoring and couture making... I am NOT buying online, because I do not want to punt anybody in risk, nor me. So my small stash will have to do. 

I bought this second version of organic velvet jersey from Stoff&Still. They have it also in black and dark blue, and I will end up having them all! It is SO gorgeous. Perfect hang, thinkness, touch... I love it and I thought a (own version) Coco would be lovely. I've made it in the past with single jersey, now I realise it was a mistake, and I will soon cut into a top. But I do love a cozy winter Coco to wear to work, so I thought this  thicker confy fabric would be a good match with the my Coco pattern. And it is. 

Black Organic Cotton Interlock Joni Dress

I am so in love with my first velvet version of the TATB Joni dress that I decided I needed another one for concerts. I bought this wonderful organic interlock fabric from RayStitch and proceeded to make a second version.

Once finished, the sad and scary situation we are in with this terrible pandemic, impeded me from wearing it anywhere. I love taking pictures of my makes the day I am wearing them for the first time, but I had to make a sad exception here because I finished it the very first days of quarantine. So, I took these photos, and hang the dress in my wardrobe hoping I will be able to wear some day soon.

Black Organick Cotton Pyjamas

I discovered this gorgeous organic jersey in Ray Stitch in my last trip to London and after using it to make panties (the only ones I am wearing nowadays), I had to buy some more online to make some comfortable homewear. 

This is one more rendition of my Universal T-Shirt pattern, with some lace added to the bottom. Simple as that. I love this pattern with raglan sleeves, which comes originally from a Patrones magazine pattern. I can make it tighter or looser, giving or taking ease all around. It's similar to the Frankie T-shirt pattern in TATB's Stretch book, which I wanted to test, but then I thought, why change what is already perfect, right?

The bottoms are a second rendition of a rub-off copy of my friend's shorts. I saw her wearing them one day and then I asked her if i could borrow them a couple of days to copy them. They are absolutey perfect, so this is another pattern I might come back to from time to time. 

I plan to pack this when I travel as a pyjamas or something to put on when I am lying around home. I do not wear anything when I sleep at home, but one has to be more "decent" when sleeping in AirB&Bs, hotels, other people's houses, or even my car.
So, there. Pyjamas. Are they not cute??

Organic Sweatshirt Stella Hoodie Dress

 Kind of a disappointment, this one, to be honest. I had, as usual, the highest expectatives, but at the end, it turned out a not flattering piece of clothing, probably because the fabric, a C. Pauli organic sweatshirt that had proved likewise in a previous project (does one ever learn from mistakes?). Being it gorgeous on the table, it lacks hang, or weight, if you know what I mean, for a project like this. Maybe the pattern was not the best choice, not for the fabric (it is a perfect match, I think), but for my figure. I know from experience that dresses that hang down from my big boobs make me fat, excuse my language. 

Those designs that get closer to the waist by means of darts, or cut pieces, or whatever method, tend to swuit me better than those that hang loose from my boobs, for obvious reasons. 

Having said that, let me comment on the pattern, which seemed a wonderful idea by Tilly and the Buttons, published in her book Stretch, which is great and really worth it if you like sewing with jersey and knits. This is a variation of a shorter and sleeved jumper, and my second project from the book. The first was so amazing, my expectations were rocket high. 

The sizing is spot on, the instructions wonderful (although I take the seam allowances off patterns, mark them with tailor tucks into the fabric, baste them and fit them before I machine-stitch anything.

Well, we will see how often I wear this. It is comfortable for work, and it has got the righ amount of warm without being too much, so it might be successfull. We will see!

Jean-Ius

Jeans may be the last frontier in home sewing. It is difficult to find a good fabric, with the right weight, thickness, stretch (2% is perfect for me) and colour (dark blue or total black). It is also difficult to find a good pattern, but in that department, I learnt time ago the best approach is to make my own pattern. First I drew one based on Aldrich's book. Then, I modified it to be more fitted, by comparing it to a pair of almost perfect Levi's I had. The problem was that those Levi's had a tendency to fall down on me, and I have to wear them with a belt. Of course the copy has the same problem, haha... they are almost perfect in the same way. 

So I wanted to try to copy another old Mango pair I have, and I needed them in black, because I did not have any black jeans. 

I bought this fabric in Ray Stitch during my last trip to London. It is very very nice, very dark black with a perfect 2% stretch, running in the think side, but still a good weight for jeans. 
I had seen this online course, Jean-Ius, by Kenneth D. King in Craftsy a long time ago, so I decided to try it using the 1 week test subscription, during my christmas brake. 
I loved the course. 

The method King has developed is almost flawless, exhaustive to perfection and really thorough in every detail. So I learnt a lot, both in the general approach, and in the finishing details. 
You start by marking your favourite jeans with thread, and then copying them into a silk organza, and making a paper pattern from that. 

Then you must finish the paper pattern, and make all the details, like pockets, facings, etc.
I skipped the toile. I do not believe in toiles, because they are not made in the same fabric. For example, in this case, it would have stretch, so what is the point?

Then you cut the fabric (I did not include seam allowances, and leave some generous ones in risky places, as I always do. That means I have to mark the fabric with tailor marks, which is like 1 hour of work, but so worth! and it compensates for not making a toile) and start constructing and assembling. 
King gives a lot of good advice and tricks, with the machine, the iron, the scissors, it's amazinng. 

The final result is ALMOST perfect! Yes, I got another tiny almost. My old Mango jeans have more stretch, and then the crotch, which is cut into the bias, is not longer, but, you can pull it higher. I compensated it by sewing the waist band 1 cm higher, although that means the pockets are too deep, and they are still very low cut. 
Wearing them is very nice. They are comfortable and flattering. I have now doubts if this is the correct crotch length, or If I would prefer them to be 1 or 2 cm, higher. I have enlarged my pattern 2cm just in case. 
In terms of fabric, it is very very nice. Knees or bottom are not marked after a day sitting around in my job, they keep their shape and are very comfortable. 
I totally recommend this course, even when I'd change some things, specially at the final assembly. 

Panties!

I have been testing this pattern, the Acacia Underpants (which on top of its perfection, it is FREE!), for some time now... I think this is the fourth trial, and I can finally say they are perfect now. 
The trial and error has to do with sizing. Following the size chart resulted in some small knickers at the beginning, with some big elastic bands! Then I went two sizes up and it was too big. Finally, a medium size, for this fabric, is perfect. 
With such close to the skin, tight piece, one has to be accurate and precise. Not all the fabrics have the same stretch, and it happens the same with elastic bands. 
I have used a gorgeous black organic cotton from Ray Stitch. Since it is a small rib knit, it has some give in it without any plastic, which is great. They have it also in white. 
Now I am waiting for somebody to make some organic elastic band 5mm wide. Please!
I love them. I can't stop wearing even the smaller and bigger samples, so with these perfectly sized ones, my skin and mucosae are going to be very happy.