The Return of the Plaid

So!

I was extremely unhappy with the last two projects, and I think a lot of it had to do with the desire to go outside my usual fabric choices.

I still didn't want to default back to printed cottons, though, and decided to use some fabric I'd thrifted ages ago: a wool twill plaid in purples, with gray and white, bafflingly block fused with some super slippery synthetic tricot.

I knew I wanted to make a coat from it, and I knew the fact that the plaid was large meant I'd have to be cautious with fabric use, so none of my preferred princess seam, flared coat patterns would work.  I'd ordered a bunch of clearance patterns from the Simplicity site a while ago, including McCall's 7847 (image from the Simplicity site, where it's still available as a PDF as of this post)

It's a Learn to Sew pattern, meant for faux fur, but it had the simple construction I wanted, and I was confident it would work with this wool instead of faux fur. Even with the pattern matching (horizontal only), and adding way more interfacing than the pattern wanted, and adding welt pockets, it seemed like it should go together quickly.  And it did!  It's just that the work ended up being spread over nearly three weeks, because first there was PMS, which made me question the previous things I'd sewn and my ability to ever make anything good again, then there was my period, which destroyed motivation, and then I got sick (all in my tonsils), which also didn't do much for motivation.

Then I finally finished it and it was super disappointing as a coat

 but fantastic as a jacket. 

Corduroy Duffel

The Child, I realized, did not have a proper coat.

I have had Simplicity 8312, from 1987, for a very long time, never used

It's size small, and The Child is very thin, so I cut the pattern tissue after having this pattern easily 20 years.  And then I decided to finally use the three yards of alternating thick/thin wale corduroy of unknown vintage (from the friend's relative's destash, many thanks again.)  The pattern called for 3¼ yards of fabric for view 1, but I was confident I could make it work.

And I did!

No, listen: the goal was to make something as warm and comfortable as wearing a blanket.  That goal was achieved.

Double Knit Cloak

 Although, it's not a cloak--a cloak is, as I have discovered, a cape, but long.  A cloak doesn't have arms.  Vogue 9340 has arms; the pattern envelope calls it a coat, but that doesn't feel right.  Neither does 'robe,' because, when someone sews a robe, the connotation is usually going to be "item to be worn around the house"

Not that I'm sure when I might wear this, but it will be 'out of the house'

 

Sewing in Denial: Fake Green

 In the early 2000s, there was an odd fabric outlet store that Mom took me to a few times.  It had a small front room with bolts of cottons, a smaller area with a selection of hot sauces, a medium back room with mill ends--mostly upholstery weight from the area office furniture factories--sold by the yard, and a large middle room with tables stacked chaotically with mill ends and offcuts of all sizes of the upholstery fabric, as well as odds and ends of other fabrics, all sold by the pound.  You can probably guess how much fun I had, digging through everything for ~treasure~

You can probably also guess--correctly--that I still have a lot of those fabrics in my stash.  I decided to finally use the big piece of weirdly supple short pile kelly green fake fur to make the coat I'd always wanted to make from it.

There was a slight problem, in that I had, a few years ago, decided that I was probably never going to make that coat, so I then used some of it to make two Minecraft Creeper pillows (one for the kiddo and one for some friends.)  That meant that my yardage was short for the view I wanted to make of McCall's 9634 from 1998

(does the shape look familiar?  This is the pattern that the doll coat pattern I shared last year was based on--I'd been making doll coats based on this pattern since the pattern was new, but it was only for this project that I finally cut the tissue...)

I wanted to make view B, but there was only enough for--with some finagling--view D.  It worked out OK, though, because I am not proportioned like a fashion illustration, so it ended up longer than the illustration makes it seem

Green!

Fashion Doll Shawl Collar Coat Pattern (with optional lining)

I have been in a "too much doll stuff, gotta get rid of some of it" mode for the last few weeks (this seems to always strike when winter daylight is at its lowest...)  A result of this is that I have been digging out dolls I've wanted to do more things with, and...doing things.  Like sewing.

I started with making this coat

Light coat or heavy jacket, whatever, it's finished

In a thrifted grab bag of cloth last year, there was someone's beginning of a baby blanket.  It was a big square, with a two-faced pre-quilted brown on one side and an aqua minky dot on the other side.  I picked out the stitching and used the minky as part of a jacket for me (blogged here, and, yes, I'm wearing it as I type this) and thought from the start that the brown would go into a bit of outerwear for the kiddo...which I finished today.

I knew I wanted to make something roomy, because it would probably be worn very few times each year and he has a lot of growing left--it's nice when my efforts aren't outgrown too quickly *glances at the last coat I made for him which he may already have been too large for last year--it never got cold enough to find out*

I thrifted this pattern

and had a moment of dismay when I realized the kid sizes didn't even go large enough for the size he is now (and I wanted to be good and not rely upon ease to compensate--coats need to be roomy.)  But!  The adult sizes start at pattern size 6, which is for a 30½" bust; the kiddo's current clothed chest measurement is 29.  Close enough.

...of course, measurements in the other directions were all too long, but that was OK, because I had a very limited amount of cloth to use, so I happily started folding pattern pieces shorter.  They didn't get quite short enough for the front and back to fit on the pre-quilted brown cloth piece, but that was fine because I also now had another thrift grab bag pre-quilted piece that actually coordinated so well you'd think it was intentional

And it was double faced with coordinating prints!  My print-mixing heart was joyful, buuut the kiddo wasn't so enthused about the floral side ("Flower on a coat doen't make sense.")  Not a problem.  Not gonna line this coat anyway, so some of the floral will still be visible inside.  (I considered lining it, of course--especially since I have that roll of thrifted lining in bright pale green that would match the green in the prints.  But, no--no lining for this.)

The cloth grab bag that yielded the printed pre-quilted cloth also had about a third of a yard of the dot print in regular yardage, which I used largely, 90° off grain, for facings.

I'd say things worked out pretty well

 Yeah, it kinda has that art sewing look, but it also kinda has that fashionable moving blanket look, so it balances.
 

 

I didn't have a zipper in the right length that matched anything perfectly (no I was not going to cut down the brown zipper with metal teeth, thanks) so I went with a coordinating color.  Any color that's not in the main print is a 'coordinate' right?

 And, yes, the zipper not being as long as the front was an intentional choice.  Really.


The way the top stitching zig zags past itself like that was something I'd first done around the pockets

because I wanted to top stitch beside the pockets, but not all the way up the side seams.  That part wasn't decided upon until I was actually sewing, so...yeah, more my usual "improvisational" work.

The improv on the sleeve contrast was at my usual level, too--that is, vaguely aware of what needed to be done and thinking I was doing it right and I didn't and I made it work anyway.  More or less.

It's a fairly smooth sleeve cap, honest.

 

 I did think of maybe some sort of appliqué on the back...and front...and sleeve...but I decided it's OK to be plain.  Sometimes.

And the unlined inside is a mess

but it's a completed mess. (Maybe you can see where I tried encasing some seam allowances in bias tape?  Yeah, didn't do much of that overall.)  I had just enough--after a bit of piecing--of the unquilted print to face the bottom edge, and also had a piece of the quilted cloth that I picked the quilting out if (which was easier than expected) and the sleeve hems are faced with the floral print.

May it fit him for years to come, and may there be enough cold days to actually use it...

My Halloween And Beyond Coat

In late September, there appeared an enormous bin of houseware linens in the thrift store, with a sign declaring "Everything you can fit in to a bag for $9.99."  I immediately made a ridiculous jacket, then...hmm...well...see that pumpkin print tablecloth on the bottom here?

 I wondered if that would make a good...coat...?

Turns out that if you use Vogue V8346

 then the answer is that it makes a very good coat.

Or maybe the word I want is 'ridiculous'?  'Good' and 'ridiculous' are not, of course, mutually exclusive.

The collar is made from something I thrifted that I'd thought was low-pile fake fur--once I started working with it, though, I realized it was high-pile felt, and with a noticeable wool content, too (itchy wrists always tell me when there's wool involved.)  The lining is the same grape print cotton used in the other jacket made from the super bargain linen bin, linked above.

Now...the first time I made this coat, which was in 2009 and looked like this

(and was eked out of a lesser yardage than the envelope called for and still managed to match the plaid lines and yes I'm still proud of that) I was...smaller...so the pattern was cut in a size that was a bit too snug for modern me.  Since I was intending this new coat as a Halloween costume element, I decided not to deal with the various adjustments and just went with smaller seam allowances and making the front closing single breasted instead of double breasted.  I also used only two buttons because I was just going with what I had in the stash.

What was this Halloween costume, you ask?  Good question.  I was just sorta going with "The Spirit of Autumn" and wore a big curly auburn wig (I wanted to stick leaves all over but ran out of time) and threw together a quick skirt made from some cloth that was in a huge thrifted grab bag.

A neighbor asked me if I was supposed to be Miss Frizzle.  Thinking of all the amazingly accurate Miss Frizzle cosplays I've seen, I was mildly offended ("Excuse me?  This is not good enough to be a Miss Frizzle costume.  How dare you."  So went the thoughts, but the mouth just said "Ha ha, no.")  Of course, I'd also had the idea to wear a giant pumpkin head, and spend most of Halloween evening sitting on the porch as kids came up and wondered if I was a real person or not...  Turns out I was able to get the same level of doubt in their minds by taping a die cut jack-o-lantern decoration to a dowel rod and using that to cover my face until the kids got close.  That was nice.

I decided that, since this coat print is as much squash as pumpkin, I could wear it through November until Thanksgiving, which I did when it was cool enough, and I got compliments on it from a lot of people, so maybe it's not a odd as I thought it was...