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Date Started | November 01, 2009 |
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Date Finished | November 01, 2009 |
With winter on its way, I was craving so= mething soft, luxe, and seasonal. In LA you can get the first two, but seas= onal is more of a state of mind than of weather. In December, you will see = people in bikinis as they try to hold onto summer and others in scarves as = they try to imagine winter...I am one of the later. (Plus, I would look lik= e hell in a Bikini!)
While trolling through some German magaz= ines, I found a copy of Burda that promised Apsen inspired do-it-yourself = fashion. If anyone understands winter-fabulous, it would be the Germans. So= $5 later, I have inpirational photos and a pattern pull out that was a pro= duct of some SS torture program...the patterns are layered four deep in bla= ck, blue, green, and red. Part of the challenge is to sort your pattern ID = out and figure out which color on which pull out is yours. To make it more = fun, they re-use the same parts of the page. So panel one of my blue patter= n was squarly crossing panel two. So you cannot just cut out what you want,= you must be ready to trace. The difference between dark blue and black thr= ough tracing papers? Well played Pattern Dominatrix, well played. It was ce= rtainly punishing.
But the photos kept egging me on, so I o= pted for a lined fur vest combo that I would man-up with some lapels and a = hood. The pattern was easy enough, just two peices: right and left. I cut o= ut a plaid lining in cotton and the shell in shaggy white faux-fur. For the= fur, i couldn't use my trusty cutting wheel, as it cuts the fur into a sad= little bowl cut edge. I found that I had to cut the fur using scissors, us= ing my fingers to keep the shaggy strands out of my blades. No more sad bow= l cut.
I assembled the liner and then the shell= . Next I took a french curve and started to fudge a hood. I used muslin to = keep working the shape until I had something that seemed to fit my head. I = cut out two pieces and sewed them together inside out leaving the neck open= . I pinned the hood to the inside of the liner, pleating the base to make i= t fit.
I pinned the liner and the shell togethe= r, inside out and flipping the hood "inside" of the jacket; then = sewed them together; leaving a small 5 inch opening near the back. I turned= the vest inside out and was please by how easy this was turning out. Then = put them back inside out and sewed together the arm holes. I can hear peopl= e rolling their eyes, but this is my first lined anything and the instructi= ons were in German!
Turns out, if your sew together shapes i= nside of the border of a "bag", you cannot just flip them right-s= ide out when you are done. If I had stopped to think about it, it would hav= e been an obvious forehead smack moment. Sewing for me is all about doing s= omething right, thinking you get it, then going on with my new found confid= ence to make a jack-ass of myself.
So the next step was to seam rip the arm= holes and figure out what to do about the jagged edges, I found some white= bias tape (Which i have decided next to fusing, is the duct tape of the se= wing world. Speaking of which, I was fearful of ironing faux-fur, so this w= hole project was done without ANY fusing!). I sewed the bias tape around th= e arm hole, giving a nice strong layer and a clean edge.
Next I made lapels like pockets. I made = their basic shape, cut out two and sewed them together and turned them insi= de out. I attached these inside the jacked to the lining and then rolled th= em out just like a bathrobe. I am thinking about going back and sewing some= quilting lines to give these lapels more structure.
Not finding it "sporty" enough= , I decided to add pockets. I made 6x8 pockets of the white and the grey fu= ax-fur and make little pocket squares that I flipped right-side out through= a small 3 inch opening in a corner. Here I cheated and hate myself a littl= e for it. I should have unstitched the liner and attached the pockets to th= e shell only to keep a nice clean liner. Maybe I will go back and do that. = (HA!)
I sewed the pockets to the jacket, leavi= ng a little of the gray insides to peak out at the edges.