Chasing Coco

It is very rare that I buy a pattern during it's release but George and Ginger got me to do it twice this year! And I even made them both!?! That almost never happens but the Solar Sundress pattern was just exactly what I was looking for and magically appeared. The pattern has now been out for a little while but I have been slow to blog about it because it was a busy summer! On the plus side, the delay means I've now made it twice. Version 2 - pockets! Things I love about the Solar Sundress : Pockets! Under-dress anti-chafe shorts - I always wear shortties under my dresses, so these are built in! Built-in bra options Lots of fun options and variations - so many great ideas from the testing team! I have a super active and young dog-beast. Which leads to me constantly walking and sometimes running her around my neighborhood and I had been thinking that I wanted a skort of some kind. I want to look presentable for work and such but also for it to be practical for walking. I have a...

Last week I made the Ellie & Mac Lucky Girl top ( pattern can be purchased here ) with the split sleeve (style 1) and I really loved the outcome (see it here)  but of course, I also wanted to make the tie sleeve version (style 2). I was looking at the fabric I had available and most of it was double brushed poly (DBP) which doesn't look nice on the back side (usually it's white on the back, printed on one side only), so I knew I’d want to line my sleeves. Last week, I decided to make the split sleeve version because how I was going to construct the lined sleeve was still percolating a little bit but now, I was ready to go! Despite my plan to make more separates this year, I had 3 yards of the fabric I wanted to use and opted to make a dress. I can’t help it, I just love dresses! It’s one garment to have a whole new outfit. The E&M Lucky Girl has a dress option but it’s a sheath style and I decided I would prefer a bodice + skirt option. McCall’s 7313 is a patte...

I happened to be in Toronto earlier this year for work and much to my very pleasant surprise Toronto has a large number of nice fabric shops! Apparently this is due to a booming film industry in the city. One of my coworkers had to practically drag me out of King Textiles , which was good as I had already had a pretty big fabric binge. King Textiles had a fantastic selection of wool, linen and above all, silk! I bought three different silks, two because I thought they might work for my jacket and one because it was on sale for 9.99 CAD/yard (even less USD!)! For silk dupioni! and it was an amazing color, though I did not have my wool with me, I did not anticipate it match my jacket's main fabric but low and behold, it's a fabulous combination - better than the other two choices I had bought in fact. No worries there, I will happily use them for other projects. Can you tell that I am absolutely in love with my lining? I'm actually having a bit of a silk love affair right...

So, I got at little derailed with my French jacket because last fall I happily got a wedding invitation from my best grad school friend, who I never get to see since she lives in Europe. On the plus side, she got married in Portugal and I had a very, very good reason to visit beautiful Portugal! This happy occasion really derailed my jacket because I decided in January to make her a quilt, which was a rather large undertaking, especially since I hadn't really ever made one before. It consumed my sewing time for the better part of 3 months and I still only finished the binding the night before I left and had to get it washed (puff! puff!) before packing it. Didn't it turn out fabulously though? I'm so glad I decided to make it for her! After that, I also decided to make linen pants this summer. I thought I had to have linen pants and couldn't find any that were remotely suitable in a store so I made those...that one is on me. But back to my jacket, I have big, b...

***I will update this post as soon as I can with photos. Unfortunately my phone broke recently and I lost all of my underlining photos! It has been a busy few months and progress on the fancy jacket has been slow...I apologize to those of you who have been following the project! I have been doing some sewing but unfortunately it has been focused mostly on a quilt I'm making a friend for a wedding gift - there's a deadline! However, I have underlined my jacket recently and you're overdue for a project update! Without further ado... Underlining helps a garment to curve toward your body, it rounds it to give it more shape. It's commonly confused with interlining, including at the fancy local fabric store I sometimes visit, which is used to add warmth to a jackets, for example. The underlining goes between your wool fashion fabric and your silk lining. For your underlining, I would suppose you could use almost any woven cotton fabric? Not really sure about that. I...

Thankfully, this project has coincided with a plan to go to New York to visit some friends because, honestly I don't know where else I would find boucle! Even online the pickings are slim, plus then you can't see it and touch it which makes such a difference. This was the first time I've been to New York since I began sewing so it was my first trip to Mood . It was, in a word, overwhelming. So many pretttttyyyy things! Fortunately I was on a time crunch and had to stick to my list or I might now be mortgaging my house to pay for my fabric binge. My boyfriend was also with me and looked all over the store for Swatch (the store pooch that occasionally appears on project runway) to no avail. He kept coming back to where I was to report "I found a water bowl but no dog" "I found a painting of Swatch but no dog." He was so disappointed! It was also busy! I thought people did not sew anymore?!? I recently asked at a chain store here in NC if they had b...