Distraction Projects

 About a month before Halloween, a friend shared a sewing project: a bomber jacket made from a patchwork of Halloween prints.  It turned out adorable (I'd add a link but I cannot find it on their blog), and I wanted to make one, too.

I did make a patchwork bomber jacket for a (different, but mutual) friend a few years ago, so I knew that the amount of fabric needed would be a lot less than expected.  I got out the gallon bag full of Halloween print scraps, figuring that would provide more than enough...and was faced with the reality that most of those scraps are better suited for doll-size projects than human-size.  So.  I'd have to cut out the patches.

I shuffled through my Halloween fabric, starting with the smaller pieces, and was drawn to a color scheme and...hmm...let's say...attitude? of some of the prints.  After I sorted out everything that fit the (vaguely-defined) theme, I figured I should look at the larger yardages, too, and ended up with one more Halloween print and three non-Halloween prints.

What size would the blocks be? I have a quilt block ruler that makes 4" squares, so I went with 4" squares.  How many?  I measured the front pattern piece and did some math and knew I'd need 15 blocks for that, so I extrapolated 15 blocks for the other side + 30 blocks for the back + let's say 30 for each sleeve = 120 blocks.  I ended up cutting 123 initially and three more later, but those last three were purely for design purposes; the sleeves ended up being 25 each + 3 halves across the very tops, so my math was sound, yay.

I cut out a lot of blocks and I sewed together a lot of blocks and I even ironed a lot of blocks.  Simple patchwork like that goes together easily enough, even if it's a bit tedious, and since I used New Look 6120 again you know the jacket cutting and assembly were easy.  I didn't rush things and managed to complete it in five days.

Which was good, considering I hadn't started cutting and assembling until, like, a week before Halloween.

I always mark cross seams on zippers.  I sew one side first, then, with the zipper closed, I insert pins or make little hand stitches on the other side of the zipper tape to mark where the seams are on the sewn side.  Then I unzip the zipper and pin it to the rest of the opening so the cross seams on that side align with those pins or stitches.  This was the first time I've done it for more than just the waistline seam on a dress, though.  I still rushed and thing's aren't pinpoint (heh) perfect, but it's good enough to make me happy.

I pinned all of the patchwork seams, too, but hastily and the points did shift to varying degrees, but I know it would have been a lot more obvious if I hadn't pinned anything.  Sometimes I almost take my time.

Oh--I also finally remembered that people who do serious patchwork seriously use tiny stitches so those stitches are less likely to fall apart before they can be sewn to other things, so I used tiny stitches in the patchwork assembly here so they would be less likely to fall apart between the act of cutting the garment pieces out and sewing them together.   Seems to have worked.

The lining fabric was dug out of the stash after the patchwork was completed.  I had completely forgotten about having the dark dark blue. I can't even remember if the cut edge on the yardage was from another project of mine, or if I...thrifted it? like that?

I ironed part of it.  The iron was a touch too hot.  I did not iron all of it.

I finally paid attention to the markings on the pocket pattern piece, too.  It's...not supposed to be open all the way to the waistband, at least not in the larger size.

The copious top stitching needs no comment.

Some of the fabrics are things I bought intentionally, some are thrifted, and some are gifted.  You know I love mixing things that no-one ever in any way intended to be used together.

So, you may have noticed that it is far past Halloween now (granted, events of the intervening days make it feel even farther than it is), and also you may have noticed that the title of this post is plural.  The other projects?  Recording and editing (and throwing together music for) a video documenting the making of this jacket.

Learning experiences of varying kinds, all around.