Dreaming, dreaming…sewing, sewing

The problem with taking on such a big sewing project for me is that I’m not sewing anything else. This is immensely frustrating since Summer is my favourite sewing season and my wonderful sewing magazines still arrive each month. It also meant I had to put on hold a few projects that were part-way made, which I hate to do. Actually the dress is not entirely to blame, the change of seasons can wear some of it too 😉

So to relieve some of the stress these items are providing me I thought I’d do a short post on them. Then I will feel like I won’t forget them and they are officially documented as on hold, not because I have hit a snag or ‘rage quit’ them, their place in the UFO pile is quite temporary.

The Jeans That Have Taken Forever

Patrones 292 #14

These jeans really have taken forever, for no good reason either, and the timer is still running. The worst bit is that I am truly excited about them. I made these amazing pockets for the back so I was off to a flying start, then life interrupted for a bit and the main snag that stopped me was that I broke the zipper when I was shortening it (yes, it’s possible, apparently, since I managed to do it), so I had to buy a new one, which I did and then time ran out. So what’s left to do? Well, very little actually. Unpick the broken zipper and put in the new one…I am an expert at trouser fly openings now, trust me, it’s on my sewing CV in bold, right below welt pockets, so the new one will be in in a flash. Inside leg seam top stitching, outside leg seam (+ fitting adjustments), waist band and belt loops, hem. Done.

Jeans progress

.Does anyone recognise the inspiration for my pockets? No cheating if I’ve told you already.

Gok Coat

I really wanted a Mac style coat after watching too many Gok episodes. My kick-start was seeing a beautiful Table Eight trench coat in plum in one of the winter David Jones catalogues. It took me a while to pick a pattern and in the end I went with Burda #119 from WoF 03/2009.

Burda 3/2009 #119

I didn’t do a muslin, which I may pay for later on, or maybe not. The fabric is not as bright as I wanted but I still really like it. Halfway through I re-cut it down another two sizes because I wanted it to be close fitting and it was looking huge. It was one of those pick-up-put-down projects, sewn in between a few shorter time frame projects and as it turns out it spent a little too much time in “put-down” stage because summer rocked up one day and I was over my Mac coat. But it’s completely temporary, it’s just that I can’t stand sewing a winter item when it’s 30 degrees outside and all these wonderful dress patterns are calling to me. So when it starts cooling off in April/May I’ll pick it back up again, promise. What’s left to do? Heaps. I don’t even have buttons…or belt buckles. 1000kms of top stitching (620 miles for the non-metrics), sleeves, collar, self facings, hem, lining (which is hawt btw)…probably much more, but I haven’t looked at the rest of the instructions.

Mac coat progress

The colour is a deep purple, really hard to capture on camera.

Kaisa Skirt Duplicate

I’ve already made this skirt once and I wore it every week, sometimes twice, but I used a cheap drill cotton and after a while it just stopped being nice. It was constantly wrinkled, I had to iron it each morning and then I was scared to sit down since that would mean standing up again. In the end I decided it needed to be remade.

<img class=”size-medium wp-image-668″ title=”Kasia forever So I took it out of my wardrobe rotation (and boy do I miss it!) and pulled it apart to salvage the zipper and cute buttons. I was pretty quick to re-cut it in a really nice quality gabardine but I kept pushing it aside and just ran out of time again.

Kasia progress or lack of...

It’s stupid because this will be the third time I’ve made this skirt so I don’t even need the instructions any more, it should have been done in only a few hours. Actually sometimes I think remaking a pattern takes longer because you do get a bit blasé and it’s just too déjàvu, you get a bit bored because the challenge is gone, no? So what’s left to do? Interface waist band, side seams, zipper, buttons, hem…not much if I am honest. I really want to finish this skirt too, I loved wearing it, it was trans-seasonal and it went with everything, such a great staple. You should check out the pattern, and since it’s FREE there are no excuses.

There’s more…

I also have a collection of patterns that I have cut out and not yet sewn, there are three of them (I think), here’s a sneak peak, but that’s all your getting for now 😉

Oh yes, there's more...

Hrm, not such a short post after all huh?