Is it science fiction

I have sewn a few human-size things since the last post, but I probably won't blog about them because they all made me grumpy for various reasons.  So.

My weekly thrift store visit last week didn't find any interesting toys or any interesting yard goods, and this combined to focus my attention on the big box (like, 4'x4'x4' big) bearing a sign that indicated it was filled with linens that were to be purchased by filling a big bag for $9.99.

Well.

I dug around and stuffed a bag very full and ended up with 34 items, handkerchiefs and cloth napkins and place mats and pillow cases and curtains and tablecloths and bed sheets and a few small blankets.  Everything was chosen with the idea of using it to make other things, starting with the sheets, because I've been pondering making patchwork blanket tops again, and sheets are great for backing on the quilts I'll probably never actually finish making from those.

The first thing I made, though, involved the roughly quilted shiny purple bit seen here

which was a small blanket and just enough to make this

because sometimes you just need to make something that would look right on a background character in a generic sci fi setting, y'know?


I started with McCall's M4596, but I altered every part of it.  I mean, I usually change a bit here and there, but, this one?  I started by tracing off the front and back so that the original two-part pieces became single part, because I didn't want a seam line running through the quilting.  I also took this opportunity to add a little room at the waist, because I am larger than I was when I cut this thing in a size 10 oh-so-long-ago  Then I did a FBA, same reason.   Hmm, OK, I used the original front facing piece, but I had to make up a new piece for the rest of the front lining, since the original pattern has you use the outer front pattern piece, which I had fused and FBA-ed out of relevance.  I then generated a back neckline facing piece, then altered the new back piece to accept that.

Now, I originally left the sleeves as-is, completely forgetting that the last thing I made from this, when I was overall smaller, was unwearable because the sleeves were too tight.  Now, with both me and the quilted cloth having more padding, things were saddening, because this was otherwise exactly what my period-influenced brain had envisioned.  (Oh, yeah, was this ever period-influenced sewing.)  It fit over bare arms, but bare arms isn't usually a part of wearing quilted jackets.  I sadly hung it in the closet the evening it was finished, then realized, as I was drifting to sleep,  that this could be saved with some long gussets.

The next morning, I pulled the scraps of the blanket and cut some pieces as wide as possible from what was left, cutting the lining cloth at the same time, then ripped open the final seam in the lining (that had been what everything was turned through.)  After that, underarm seams and a bit of the tops of the side seams were also ripped, with just a bit of the edges also ripped where the lining met the fabric at the cuffs.

After about an hour of maneuvering the whole jacket around the sewing machine for each sleeve, it was fixed!

It's not pretty, but it works (and I did go through later and deal with those loose quilting thread ends.)

The zipper was thrifted, too, removed from an otherwise unusable old jacket

It also fits the 'bad sci fi wardrobe' aesthetic, as long as it's a sci fi universe that has zippers (many don't.)

I'd like to say I did a decent job at the bottom of the zipper, but, if it took me an hour each to fix the sleeves, it also took me an hour to fix all the weirdness I'd originally had going on at the bottom front of this jacket, which was definitely caused by the sloppy FBA.

But it looks fine from a distance.

Inside, I used some cotton that's been in my stash for, oh, at least 15 years

This photo also shows the way I machine sewed the lining closed after turning everything right-side-out...well...after turning everything right-side-out the first time.  But the current seam still looks pretty much like that.

For the facings, I separated the shiny plum cloth from the batting and backing and used it as a single layer

...which gave me the only opportunity for my usual top stitching...

The patches on the sleeves are fairly arbitrary and also things from the deep past of my stash

I have more of both of them. (Many more of the shield.)

The whole original blanket was not evenly quilted--given the way the cloth was damaged where the quilting threads were removed for the facings, it's obvious that the uneven quilting was a stylistic choice.  I tried to leave the more open quilting for the sleeves, with the more dense quilting on the front and back

(This was taken before the sleeve alterations, and my biceps wince seeing how it looks.  Or...something.)

Oh, there are pockets, too

This shorter length, in the original pattern, was not supposed to have pockets.  Pfft.  Now we have pockets.

Now, if it ever gets cold enough, I'll be able to wear this and pretend I'm in space. (But it won't be part of a potential Halloween costume--I have plans for other bits from the "everything in this bag for $10" for that..)