Native American Poncho & Jacket

Well Here's Projects 2 & 3 on my DH 6PAC - Dearest Hubby's "6 Projects for my Awesome Companion"

Native American Jacket

DH found inspiration from Indian Village Mall one day, so he put on the list to embellish a denim jacket one day.  I had fallen in love with that site, too, and was inspired, so I searched for some nice fabrics, and ordered some from Southwest Decoratives.  He liked Sierra Trail Aztec Brown Stripe.  Their cottons are very good quality - at least the southwest collection was.  So No major pictures here, but I trimmed some fabric for the front and back yokes, 3 separate pieces. Took attention to details on centering, lining up, etc.  I double top-stitched all around each piece.  That gave it a quality finish as well as a strong finish.  I am aware that he washes his jackets, so I didn't want any mishaps down the line.

Do you know he paid me the grandest compliment today?  He said this jacket was The Best jacket he had out of his denims.  Now, this is coming from a man who a) knows how to dress, b) takes care on how he dresses, c) has many denim outfits, (and leather) let alone denim jackets, and he told me that this one was The Best of his denim jackets.  I am thrilled that he likes this one so much :-)  I am pleased how it turned out and pleased at how it looks on him.

We are both thinking if there is a touch of anything that will coordinate onto the front breast pockets, but he is being very particular, since he said he would rather have the jacket as is, then put something on the pockets, just for the sake of putting something on there.  If it doesn't coordinate within the fabric that is already on, then we are going to leave them as is.  So far I've been playing around and haven't liked anything.

Here is the front an back of the jacket.  No photos along the way, this was a pretty simple assembly, just took time to line it all up the way I wanted.

Native American Poncho

So, next, for my SWAP bridging garment I had made a Native American Poncho, and when he saw mine, he immediately wanted one.  See, we always keep a blanket in the trucks for in the case of an emergency to keep warm.  when he saw my poncho, he thought that would be a great idea, because then while keeping warm, you could still use your hands if needed.  Now if this isn't a simple garment to make, I don't  know what else is.  You know those patterns that advertise 1 hour pattern? and then in that small print they say **1 hour actual sewing time?  Yes, you still have to cut the pattern pieces and still have the cut the fabric, pin it, yadda yadda.... well this is totally a 20 minute outfit.  Fold the blanket twice to get the exact center, cut from the center in each direction (on the long side) about 9 inches, but to a decorative stop point on the garment, and roll and stitch.  I've found it easiest so far to stitch the two sides then stitch the two v's.

So, Now I have 3 projects knocked off of the DH 6PAC list.  At the current time, the only materials I have in house are the leather and bead strips for the leather shirt embellishment, so we'll take a look at that project next.  

Since I've got 3 projects knocked out, I might squeeze in my pants tomorrow.... I'd like to have them for next week.

Preakness is starting in a few minutes.... Will Orb head for the Triple Crown?  

Oh well... Not so much....Oxbow & D Wayne Lukas. At least my girl Showed. :-)

Cheers!

JDol

Shoulder Taps Gone Wild!

Well, here's the 1st item on my DH 6PAC.  I'm using 6PAC as 6 Projects 4 my Awesome Companion.

So DH purchased a brown leather riding jacket with fringe, nice for spring mornings with a bit of a chill in the air. Real nice jacket... though those shoulder taps - goodness were they loopy... almost looping up to his ears.... take a look at this....

Have you seen taps like this before?? Anyway, I took a look and it seemed if i opened the shoulder seams, I could pull the tap through and snug it up.  Also, one of the sides seemed to be placed back too far. So lets pull that forward a bit, too while we're at it.

Okay here we go.  Let's open the lining at the shoulders.  DH said he wasn't concerned with how the lining looked at the end, so I was just going to open it up and top-stitch it back together when done.

Once the lining was opened, I was able to pull the shoulder through and take a peek how they assembled it.  Sometimes they use glue on leather assembly, so I didn't know what I was gong to find.  Well nothing was out of the ordinary, the seam held the tap, and the fringe. 

So i opened that up, just the inch 1/2 or so that held the tap, and pulled the tap through.  Gee that was a lot of extra tap. Hmmm.

So took a peek at how it looked on the other side, and what an improvement. So now comes the stitching.  This is leather after all.  So I have upholstery thread and Leather needles...

I set the stitches at 3.0 length. It made it though all thicknesses when we got to the tap, and no thread breakage at all.  I am confident now that the stitches are of good strength for the wear and tear of a man's leather jacket.  Adjusted side two to move the tap forward a bit, and stitched that together.  Went together flawlessly also.  Let's take a look....

Now that is much better than that airborne floppy tap of ole...  Had DH do a quick try on, to make sure just before the closing of the lining... I got a big stamp of approval :-)..., so I stitched up the lining on the shoulders, and we're all set.  

There was also a loose stitch on the front of the jacket that was unraveling, so I did a run along that to give that reinforcement.  It was a zipper facing stitch, so that would have only kept unraveling as used...  All is good.

Alright!  Project #1 on the DH 6PAC done!

I think I threw off my comrades on my SG Forum by calling this a 6PAC.  They are used to 6PAC's being collections of sewn garments that form a cohesive unit.  I playfully called this a DH 6PAC since it was going to be 6 projects for DH.  I think I set off a stir on the 6PAC thread. :-) LOL   Ahhhh......... Whatta ya gonna do....

OKAY - What's next?

Cheers, 

JDol

DH 6PAC

Well! with SWAP behind me, and photos in, the big reveal is on Monday the 20th.  DH (Dearest Husband) has been rooting me on the whole way, and said my collection was top notch. I think the word excellent has been used. :-) He's just grand.  So I was sort of energetic to jump into a Summer 6PAC which turned into a double....for an ambitious 12 pieces.  Then I noticed DH had a few items on the docket, that i wanted to tackle for him, and decided, i didn't want to merely "squeeze" them in, I wanted to "Take them on". SO............. we are placing the 2 summer 6's aside and we are going to do a DH 6PAC.  So let's see what we have:

"Shoulder Taps Gone Wild"

He recently purchased a really nice riding jacket, brown leather with fringe. Good for the spring chill in the mornings.  It is a "Bon Jovi" style. That aside, it is really nice........except for ........... well it has shoulder taps that practically loop up to his ears! LOL.  So that's project number one.

Native American Denim Jacket.

We were both inspired at the same time by Indian Village Mall.  He had come across this website and showed me their clothing items. I fell in love, too.  So he would like a denim jacket with embellishment on the shoulder yokes.

Native American Poncho.

He saw mine from SWAP and wanted one :-)

Civil War Period Shirt.

He likes history, and Gettysburg.  We are looking for the right pattern and then will shop for the fabric.  That one will be fun.

Beading Embellishments

He has two strips of beads to be installed onto a black leather pullover shirt/jacket.  He got some inexpensive black leather pants off EBay for me to cut up to make the strips for braiding that will frame the beads when I install them on the shoulders of the shirt.

Quilt.

He liked the quilt I made. My Butterfly Quilt.  I told him he could pick out fabric and I would make him one! He will pick out 8 complimentary fabrics and 1/2 yard each.  Let's see what he comes up with!  He's got a great sense of style.  He will have his own unique quilt.

So that's my DH 6PAC that I will be working on until they are complete.  There is *one* pair of pants that I have cut that will take two hours to sew that I will "squeeze" in for myself, but the rest is the DH 6PAC.

Cheers!

JDol

2 Summer 6 PACS

Well My friends, SWAP 2013 is over, my photos are submitted, I have a post drafted but not published yet, and we're onto summer 6PACs now. These are sew-alongs with my pals at Stitcher's Guild Sewing Forum.  I did a purge of my closets/racks a couple weeks ago and gave 9 bags of clothes to Purple Heart (for Veterans) foundation.  So I found where the holes were in my wardrobe.  Definitely needed comfortable pants to wear to work. and I wanted summer dresses.  So when the Summer 6PAC finally rolled out, I was excited, and figured I'd do 2 pants and 4 dresses. However, when the ladies do 6PACs, they are usually capsules of certain pieces, with certain schematics involved.  This summer, the guidelines are to choose a neutral (white/khaki/olive/black, etc).... and a "color", and choose these pieces:

1 a jacket or cardigan that will set the tone for the whole collection - in neutral

2 a pair of trousers, shorts, or skirt in the same neutral (but not necessarily EXACTLY the same --can vary in shade or texture)

3 another bottom in the second colour

4 an underlayer top in the neutral

5 an underlayer top in the colour

6 an overlayer top in a linking print or in the colour

So you can see my 2 pants and 4 dresses were not in the spirit of this 6PAC, so I had to determine whether I was going to do my 6PAC, and sit this one out from the forum, or do both?  You got it - I decided to do both.  So, 12 pieces in another 3 months...I already have 2 done, so 10 really to do....

So, I needed some patterns to fit in the SG 6PAC, and JA's was having a 5 for $5 sale on Simplicity, so off I went.... and found some nice ones.  Then I had to go through stash to see what all I had.  Oh -- did I tell you that I had chosen my two colors to be cream/pale yellow & Lavender...

Stash audit yielded that I have a lot of "junk" in there of scraps... I have 4 tubs and probably 2 of them are scraps.  Hmmmm what do people do with these scraps???  I've gotta organize those tubs - but that's another day.

I found a good handful of good yardage to choose from for my 6PACs, and then I ordered about 30 swatches and samples from Fashion Fabrics, Fabric.Com, and Online Fabric Store. I basically stopped there because I wore myself out.  I still need to learn my fabrics, so I ordered quite an assortment and range so I could see what different fabrics are.  Then maybe one day I can say "Oh I can see that in a nice Chambray".  Right now I have no idea what a chambray is. :-)

So enough chatter - here are my two Summer 6PAC's

This one is for the Forum's Summer 6PAC:

So far I have two fabrics chosen. For the 4127 C top, it is a pale yellow stretch cotton with a hint of glitter.  For the Burda it is a lavender heather knit.

Here is my "JDol Summer-dress 6PAC"

2 of these are done already, (checked) and I have fabric for 3 of the others. It's Mother's Day today... Shall I sew something?  I would actually like to get that second pair of pants done.  I have a DH project on the board, too.

Here's me in the summer-dress M6115 above:

Of course with black knee boots, it was a wintery summer-dress I guess.

That's it for now.

Happy Mother's Day!

Sunday Sewing Mojo - SWAP/6PAC/FUN

3 Pieces all done by Noon today!

# 1

Today is Sunday.  Last night I cut out 4 projects so I'd be ready to sew when I got back into the mood... I just got back from a business conference that wiped me out, so I wasn't thinking that I would be sewing this weekend... HA!

So, I did my 5th piece of my 6PAC first - my 3rd Turtleneck.  I did it in Ponte Roma knit.  First time with that material and it sure was different to work with... the pins didn't really want to go through it and the needle seemed to 'slap' it every time it stitched.... I like the sturdiness and weight of the fabric, but I'm not crazy about the limited stretch.  I'm pretty pleased with the top,. though, even though if I realized the limited stretch, I would have cut it bigger.  But I got my nice long sleeves, and this will be a good layering piece.  Last piece to do is the cream ponte turtleneck. and my 6PAC will be finished.  Here is the Red Ponte:

 

 

# 2

 

The second I made a FUN piece! - Gingerbread Fleece Lounge Pants... Oh so soft and comfy.... and christmassy..... I have some matching cream t-shirt fabric that I want to make a long sleeve T to wear with these pants, but I need a pattern for it.

 

 

# 3

Then I made my SWAP Poncho! what fun that was!  I made a separate post on it right underneath this one...  feathers and all!

 

 

Now I'm watching the Redskins game because my team (Baltimore Ravens) isn't playing until 8:20 pm tonight.  I won't see that live 'cause I'll be asleep! Have to watch the recording tomorrow after work~...

 

Ciao!

 

 

Piece 4 - Fuzzy Turtleneck

4th Piece of my 6PAC~

My 2nd Turtleneck - a real Warmer!

Well, I have joined the SWAP (Sewing With A Plan) sew-along on the forum, so I went shopping for some fabric at JoAnn's yesterday to look at fabrics.  I went to the one 1/2 hour away because someone told me it was bigger and had a larger selection... I had the day off, so sounded like the perfect time.  It's true - there were a lot of fabrics there.  So, I came across this awesome red fuzzy fleece, (silky fuzzies) and immediately fell in love with it and knew I had to make one of my turtlenecks out of it.  I am attending a work event next week like a seminar, and the banquet rooms are always freezing - now I won't be cold on at least one of the days!

So I set out to cut the fabric this morning - and remember the fabric is a "fuzzy" fabric, so after I cut the fabric, my husband just came in a laughed when he saw this:

 

(Yes, that is a floor full of fuzzie's!)

 

So anyway, I got to sewing up the shirt, and it went along nicely, I cut the collar taller than the first one, and I also cut the sleeve major long like I like because i didn't think i would make cuffs for this, just let the sleeves fall. 

 

 I also think I came up with a tip for sewing with the overlock stitch - to keep the bottom fabric piece slightly protruding out under the the top piece - I did it that way and the stitch came out magnificently, and there were no misses.  For all I know, that is the way you're supposed to do it anyway!

 

Well I'm pleased with how the top came out.  Here it is... and it's soooo cozy!

 

 

 

4 pieces of my 6PAC are done.  The last two are turtlenecks also, a burgundy and creme both ponte knits.

Piece 3 - Jumper Dress

It's my Jumper! - 3rd Piece of my 6PAC

Well, now that I've gotten the jumpsuit out of the way, (and 1 turtleneck) I needed to get a jump on my jumper.  I am jumping into the unknown (what else is new) and am going to take two patterns and doctor them up and combine them to make my jumper.  I've used both patterns before for their intended garment, and was pleased with the results. I'm nervous because I will have to figure out how to blend them together - but that'll get my creativity juices flowing.  You know how I LOVE to be creative!  I am going to pretty much put the overall top on the skirt and call it a jumper dress.  These are the two patterns.

I'm doing view E on the skirt - the short yellow one at the bottom.  So this week I cut out the fabric - a nice deep black Caviar Corduroy.  I tried to figure on how much fabric I needed to purchase in order to accomplish the outfit - without laying all the pieces out, I kind of winged it with my sense of spacial relation.

 

Well it all worked out - i squeezed every inch out.  Turns out I am learning about Nap. this corduroy has nap.  I can't say that I did a 100% job on the nap, because I realized it half way through, and couldn't remember which pieces were turned which way...  Nap is the direction of pile.  It all goes in one direction, and if you cut pieces with alternating nap (which can be for effect in some designs) then you have the light hitting differently on different parts of the garment.  Can look disorganized and mismatched.  So when patterns say allow extra yardage for nap I now know what they are talking about, because where on "non-nap" fabric you can turn pieces to fit (as long as they are on grain) you might need more yardage with nap because pieces might not be able to turn upside-down.  well i am still on my path of learning a new skill with each new project!  (this one I'm learning many skills)

 

Saturday November 3rd

 

Well, checked the forum and caught up on news this morning... then had to get going on putting the jumper together - started with the skirt - that's all together now - don't forget to press the seams! :-)

 

OK.  So now have to pretty much figure out the next steps.  Enter my partner in crime - another fabulous investment - I wouldn't be able to make this outfit without her for sure.  So I am piecing it together to see what the moves will be.

 

This is basically the mock-up of the front... There will be a zipper on the one side.  The skirt is too big, so I will be making a pleat in the front panel and the back panel to true it up.. - another thing I wouldn't be able to do with out my dress form.  I like the look of this so far, and I think I have the plan of how to sew it up.

 

 

This is the back.  The shoulder straps will be the overall kind with the buckles.  I'm trying to decide If i want to embroider a design on the front panel or not.  I dont' think I am going to put the front panel pocket on - it makes it too "outdoorsy"  this way it's a little more dressy.  A well chosen design could add a Little pizazz, also, but I want it to be something that will go with everything - no matter what top I want to wear - it can't clash neither with color nor with theme, nor with look (dressy/casual).  That will take some thinking....

 

Well, while I think on that design, I need to find those notes and remind myself how to make that pleat I want to do on the front and back panels to take in the skirt.  I'll add to this post at the next interval...

Next Steps....

 

Well I decided to add an embroidery design. This one I think is perfect for what I wanted.  "Inky Rose" found Here.  

 

 

 

I sewed the top front on to the skirt - so far so good! This is coming out just like I've hoped.

I put a pleat in the front center and back center to take in the waist to tailor the fit before i put on the waistband.  I used the pleat that is tucked in instead of the outside type one, I think they are called over vs. under, because I think it went better with the godets in the skirt... (the triangle panels).  Then I utilized the waistband as a transition piece - I'm real glad I did - what a difference!  Next i will assemble the back, and attach to the skirt.  I need to install a zipper, i guess that will come after the back is attached. then add straps, buckles, hem, and adorn with some satin ribbon, if i think it will work.  All in all I think I will actually finish this up tonight.  After all, tomorrow is football Sunday and I'll need to shop in the morning and prep something for game time.

Let's see how I do... Off to work on the back....

 

Almost finished!

 

Well, the back went pretty smoothly - I had to use my dress form to see at what height to attach it.. that was tricky because when I cut the pieces, I cut with a lot of extra on the bottom - you know just in case, since I had no idea where this piece would fall.  So, without the form, I wouldn't have been able to know where to pin it.  This turned out to be pretty high up, compared to where i cut the material, so that was good - hey better cut more than not enough!.. So the buckles that I had purchased were narrower than the overalls called for because the ones I had on hand were silver, which i didn't like for this, and they were i think 1 3/4 inch or 2 inch - whatever they were they were too wide and not "dainty" enough, so I bought these polished brass narrower ones, however that called for me to make the straps narrower since they were patterned for the wider buckles.  So i did that,. but boy was it real difficult to turn those - they were pretty thin... Then I remembered - i think with the thin straps you press the seams under, wrong sides together and top stitch it together...  (too late!) - but I made it through that rough turning...It's all together, and just will hem tomorrow, or the next day.  The ribbon is still tbd.  I'm thrilled this worked out! I will take a picture of me wearing the final piece.  Here's the jumper all together...

 

 

Now it's time to relax and watch a movie and surf...

 

Ciao

 

Finito!

 

Well I put the hem on last night, and declared my jumper done.  I don't think the satin ribbon trim on the hem would fit the look I wanted, and the ribbon bows on the front either.  I think basically the embroidery is embellishment enough.  This way the jumper can still be casual or dressy...

 

So I wanted to wait until this morning so I could take the images outside - when you are photographing black for some details, regular point and shoot flash is not your friend, so if you do not have studio lighting, natural day lighting is best, and you will achieve results where the details will come out virtually how they look to the eye.  (be sure you are in an even shadow area, and not in a half shadow half bright sun!)  ANYWAY.... here are my pics!  BTW I'm wearing the turtleneck I made which was my 2nd piece of my 6PAC...

 

 

 

I learned a lot making this jumper...How to morph two patterns together, and join them at the right time, I'm telling you if I did not have my Dress Form, I never could have pulled this off.  I was constantly throwing this on her and fitting it and then when it came time to put the front and back on seeing where they would fall, so where to attache them, etc.  I have some things on this jumper that will remain between me and my Janome and my dress form.. ha ha...now that I completed this, I am more encouraged to try it the next time I want to morph a pattern.

 

So now I've got three down, and three to go... the last three are all turtlenecks, and I still have to get the fabric for my last turtleneck. The other two will be solids made from Ponte Roma Knit.  Good thing is - the two hardest pieces of my 6PAC are complete!

 

:)

 

 

Piece 2 - 'Striped' Turtleneck

My 6PAC 2nd Piece - Turtleneck # 1

Well, the thought of the jumper was daunting this morning and I wasn't sure how to go about it yet, so I figured I'd try one of these turtlenecks.  I'm going to try the red/purple stripe knit.  Kwik Sew #2900.  This is my first stripe piece, so I'll take care.  I'm going to do size Small again because it seems Kwik Sew fits me in pattern S.

Well the fabric was already washed - I do it right away when I get them home, so I'm ready...

I laid out the fabric in a way that when I cut the front and back panels the idea was that when they join, they will match and make a continual line around the top.  I think this will work out.

 

Got my pieces cut and also cut some cuffs for my sleeves, because I like cuffed sleeves, and I also like l-o-n-g sleeves, so by cutting the sleeves the length that the pattern is and adding the cuffs, I figure I should be good.

 

Well this pattern I am getting to learn how to use Overlock stitch - it's my first time.  It's a really kewl stitch - I like it.  I guess it's like what a serger would do, I mean it's a beautiful clean finished off seam - I can totally see why people love serging.  I installed the front to back panel and put in the collar.  The collar was a little tricky since you are stretching it, and the knit is curling, and you have 3 pieces to capture into the overlock stitch... I came through it okay.

 

Here is a closeup of the overlock stitch - real nice, right?

 

The collar fits perfect size.... there is a slight pucker on one side of the shoulder, I will ask the forum what that is from so I can avoid it in my next top. I am pleased, however, so far that this is coming out nicely. Next is the assembly of the arms, then the cuffs, then the bottom hem, and I'll have my first ever turtleneck!  I am sewing 4 total, part of my 6PAC, because I desperately needed turtlenecks, and couldn't find any in the store that I liked, not to mention, that no turtleneck I've ever purchased have I been satisfied with. The sleeves were always too short, or too loose, and the top never fitted nice...  Now I can select the fabric choice and make the shirt to my liking - is there any better way to go??  See my example below...

 

The black gym pants are *not* being pulled up that is where they fall on me.   hhhrrrmmmppphh!  See the lounge pants I made from football fleece? now that's what I'm talkin' about!  Mind you I am 5 foot 6 1/2, so It's not like I'm super tall or anything, that these normal items should be short, I just like long things I guess...  I think I am considered average height and build.

 

 

Anyway, the overlock stitch is good for knits because it allows the fabric to stretch after it's sewn, otherwise, you'll need to stretch the fabric as you sew.

 

More after I get the arms in and finish her off... Right now I'm going to surf for a while and watch movie with DH...

 

OK....  Done!

 

 

Notice my nice l-o-n-g sleeves :-)  This turtleneck will go perfect with my black jumper that I'm making.  I received the 4 swatches from fabric.com that I was going to make a selection out of for my 4th turtleneck, but I wasn't convinced about about any of them.  However i found some fabric TDF on another site... $$$ but gorgeous and right up my alley. Might have to splurge. gotta have some TDF pieces - even if the pieces are basic the fabric can be exquisite!  Now I've convinced myself....

 

Well I'm pleased with my new turtleneck! can't believe it's taken me so long to make one!  I owe it to my new sewing circle - the Stitcher's Guild (Artisan's Square) they have given me inspiration.

 

I was chatting it up with Liz the other day from my office, and she could tell how excited I always am talking about my sewing adventures.  She great to chat with.  I was wearing my new jumpsuit and when I stood up and said "so what do you think???" she gasped and said "No! - you didnt' make that!"  :-)  She said she would love to sew outfits for her little ones, but she can barely even get time to herself to work out in the exercise room!  It must be real fun making little one's clothes. 

Well that's it for now....

 

2 down, 4 to go!