Chasing Coco

I was feeling a little like I needed a sewing palate cleanser. I was in the middle of making a jumpsuit (pattern review coming soon!) and just couldn’t bring myself to work on it. Rather than sew nothing, I thought I’d make myself a simple raglan shirt. Basics aren’t always the most exciting thing to sew but we all need them in our wardrobe. I had pinned the raglan tee from It’s Always Autumn some time ago. It is a free pattern and only available in a size large, which happens to be my size. If it’s not yours, you can grade up/down but it’s probably easier in this case to find a raglan pattern that’s size appropriate (raglans are quite simple, it's easy to find a pattern/tutorial). Since, it’s a free pattern it’s not the same as a commercial pattern. If you are used to that, you might be disappointed (but it’s FREE). I had a little trouble putting the PDF pages together, because I didn’t have the website up at the time to see the overall image of the pattern and there aren’t a...

Sometimes you just want to whip up something quick that you can wear the next day! McCall's 7405 definitely fits the bill, it was a quick sew and I made it one Sunday afternoon/evening with plenty of breaks! I made view C, the maxi length with a sash, though in the photo I'm wearing my own belt which I preferred to the sash, though I did make one. I felt like the sash should have been wider, maybe I'll make another one with my extra fabric. I chose a stretch poplin from Fabric.com for this project. I really like this fabric because from a distance it looks like a floral but it's actually little bicycles! First, let me say that I messed up when buying this pattern. I bought the large-XL-XXL sizes based on my hip measurement, when I should have bought the smaller sizes based on my bust size and graded out below the armhole to give enough waist/hip space. Especially since it's a loose fit with plenty of ease. That being said, if you make this pattern, bew...

I had started this blog originally to chronicle my process in making a Channel Style French Jacket but life got busy and while I finished the jacket (approx ~8 months of work!) I failed to keep up with the blog. C'est la vie. I've since decided to keep it going adding my reviews of patterns and photos of my other makes! Starting with my recent 4th of July sewing binge of McCall's 7543 an off the should dress/shirt pattern. Ready to go out for dinner! I made a combination of views B, C and D! I used the B view sleeve with the ties (so cute!) made it the D dress length and used the cute shirt-tail hem and pockets from view C. I used a cute pineapple print chambray stretch fabric  from fabric.com. This fabric has very minimal stretch, behaving as a woven not a knit. Overall I think this was very easy pattern to sew and the directions were clear. I made this in two days but I was off of work, so one of those days was pretty full!  I made some ...

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...

After sewing my jacket together I ironed and shaped the seams over a tailors ham. E said I should pound the wool seam down and I was like "what the what?" I have to say I was absolutely certain this would do nothing at all but I swear that it did look different have it was beaten! It was like tenderizing a steak. It looks like a mid-evil torture device...  Jacket fronts, it's coming together slowly. There was also a lengthy discussion of pockets. I was very annoyed to realize that the welt pocket in my pattern ( vogue 7975 ) is not an actual pocket! It is just a fake sewed on embellishment, I'm very disappointed in you vogue! Pieces for an applied pocket are included but I was really feeling it design-wise. I think I've was using a plaid pattern boucle I would have liked an applied pocket, it is after a very Channel look. Maybe on my next jacket. E launched into a very lengthy explanation of how to make a welt pocket, draft a pattern for the needed...

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...