I have once again made a Halloween patchwork project.
I made the first one in 2020, inspired by a friend's similar project. Then made another one the next year because my small yardage storage was getting crowded. Last year I started to wonder if this was becoming a tradition.
And here we are this year, the evening before Halloween.
I don't think it's a tradition yet--if it were, I might have thought of making it before October 25 and starting it on the 27th.
I made a quick hoodie for the kiddo a few years ago from double knit polyester, which you probably know isn't always the softest stuff, so, when I found a few yards of a french terry(ish) fabric in the Walmart mill end pre-cuts, I knew I'd use it to make a snugglier jacket for him. Eventually.
(but first I used it for the sleeves on a jacket for me)
I used New Look 6766, modifying the pull-over hoodie into a zip-front hoodie, which is easy enough because the original pattern has a center front seam
I wanted to do some super quick and simple projects, so I threw together some masks
Y2k print for the kiddo, blue for Husband, and a bit left over from the last motorcycle jacket for me. They all have a layer of heavy embroidery stabilizer inside, and are lined with scraps of a high thread count cotton sheet I used for the backing of a bedspread. (We also got our booster shots a few weeks ago.)
And then, since I had the elastic out, I decided to throw together a few more scrunchies. I'm still not prone to wearing them, but I do acknowledge their convenience.
I got into the small yardage stash and used a few pieces of silk. I bought the paisley-textured purple silk in the late 90s.
Scrunchy luxury.
Once upon a time, I managed to be in a Walmart at the right time to get a mill end precut of some white cotton swiss dot. I figured it would eventually become a shirt (or two), but there were no clear plans. I picked up Simplicity 7233, with eyes on view 2, a bit over a year ago at the craft thrift store, but it took a while to connect the cloth with the potential of the pattern.
Then I put the pattern in the "To Do, Maybe" box and ignored it for months.
And while I have very much been having fun recently making girlie print menswear shapes, or tweedy skirts, I decided I'd go ahead and make this shirt--which involved raiding my lace and trim stash for suitable froufrouness
When I say froufrou, I mean froufrou
The last visit to the craft thrift store netted a few upholstery samples from the free bins, that I grabbed entirely with the idea of making vests very much like I wore in the early 1990s. I may not necessarily wear them now, but Simplicity 9630 from 1990 is an easy pattern, and it's fun to make vests with it that would have thrilled young me.
I had already made one vest from one of the free upholstery samples, and just finished a second
I have used New Look 6843 many times, and it is a good basic set of skirts, with two variations on A-line--one in two lengths--and two lengths of sheath skirt, going up to size 18. So, why would I use Simplicity 9815 for a short sheath skirt instead?
Now, the last time I made a shortened version of it, I went with the size 20, which isn't an option with the New Look. But, size 18? And making it shorter than either view offered? Well...I really don't know why I did.
In retrospect, it's nice that there are only two darts on the Simplicity back, instead of the New Look's four, and, also, the Simplicity's waistband is much wider than the New Look's, which made fastening the button a lot easier than it tends to be in the little narrow waistband on the New Look. But, again, those are things I hadn't realized when I decided to make this skirt from the Simplicity instead of the New Look. I'm still not sure why I chose the Simplicity for this, but I did, and it turned out great.
So, the original plan was to use this plum pinwale corduroy to make a McCall's 7906. I just didn't have enough of it, though--the large pattern pieces meant I couldn't possibly squeeze it out of lesser yardage.
I decided to do another McCall's 7981 instead, like my previous project. This time, I had enough of the fabric to cut the pieces the length the pattern wanted. I was ready to use four part snaps for the closures again, but, when I got to the point of sewing on the front bands, I pivoted even farther off course and dug out a matching zipper.
and then used a few four part snaps on the waistband
I recently realized that I can use grommet pressed four part spring snaps to close skirt waistbands instead of buttons.
And then I realized that I could use those snaps to replace all of the buttons on skirts like McCall's 7981
and I did!
Hello Know Me ME2011, which may very well be the motorcycle jacket pattern of my dreams.
(image copied from the Simplicity site)
Granted, I jumped right into it by making a lot of changes before cutting any fabric. Since the pattern is "men's" size, I started by folding out 2"/50mm of length in the torso. Then I looked at the set of zippers I was going to use, which I had ordered to use in Burda 6800, and shortened the jacket another 1"/25mm, re-drafted the side pocket zipper opening marks to be shorter, took two inches out of the sleeves at the zipper, and omitted a pocket completely, all so so I could use those stashed zippers. I also shortened the sleeves by another inch, which may have been unnecessary. And then I intentionally cut the asymmetrical front pieces opposite of how the pattern wants.
Since this was an entirely new pattern for me, and I made so many preliminary changes that I wasn't entirely sure about, of course I decided to go ahead and use some thrifted vintage fabric that I'd been saving for years, with the idea added in the last few years that it would be perfect for a motorcycle jacket...but...not Burda 6800.
(As an aside: I can imagine situations where Burda 6800 may be used, especially for mixing fabrics. I do still like Kwik•Sew 3764 for quick moto jackets made from knits. Someday I will revisit Vogue 1714 for an elegantly be-peplum'd motorcycle jacket. McCall's 8121 was all around disappointing. And, at this point, I'm not sure if I'll ever try the other two motorcycle jacket patterns in my stash, McCall's 7694 and Butterick 6169.)
So I dug out the intended fabric, which had been stored with a coordinating lining fabric, and immediately realized that there was about a yard less fabric on hand than the pattern wanted. I knew the fact that the pieces were now shorter would save a little fabric, but not much. I also knew that the way I generally fold only enough fabric to cut one pattern piece at a time always ends up using less fabric than the patterns want, and that's with paying attention to nap/print direction, and sometimes even squeezing in a bit of print matching. I made plans for which pattern pieces I felt I could cut from a contrasting fabric in a way that would look intentional, and saved cutting those for the end.
I got everything cut with a piece to spare that was big enough that I could have re-cut any one piece if needed to avoid the loathed repetition of print elements on either side of an opening or seam, which could have been an extra danger in this fabric, because the print is a single spray of flowers in a dropped offset with no variations. I did not, however, need to do anything to avoid that.
Everything, as they say, came up roses.
...for dolls!
The shirt and pants patterns are designed for "original" (2016) Barbie bodies, flat foot and high heel. The pants have optional pockets and possible waistband width variations.
You should be able to right click and save the patterns and instructions.
