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2.26.2017

My Annual Winter Coat Project - Hollywood 1214

I think most of you guys know by now that I'm not much of a planner.  Usually I cast my little squirrel eyes around and sew what ever seems bright and shiny at the current moment in time.  Funny though, I looked through the blog archives this week and discovered that my squirrel brain always likes sewing a coat in January/February.  It's almost like the cold weather sets off a craving to cocoon myself in coating weight wool.
This year I finally broke out the coat pattern snagged off of ebay months ago for $5.00, yes $5.00!  Oh I was sooo pleased with my bargain pattern acquisition of Hollywood 1214 that it was never even pulled it out of the envelope. When I did so to trace it in December that's when it was discovered there were no directions. Crap!
Now I don't rely on directions that heavily, but they do come in handy on non printed patterns. I use them while tracing a copy of the pattern to correctly label all the pattern pieces. It's also nice to have a reference for things like top-stitching and any sort of vintage sewing technique that has fallen out of fashion.  I was also a little concerned about the pockets on this design. I've sewed a lot of garments, but never one with pockets that look quite like this.  After mulling it over for a day I decided to give it a shot.
Between several years of coat sewing experience, 1 year of familiarity with non-printed patterns and an excellent fashion illustration it all worked out. When sewing the muslin I turned off my brain and my hands figured out how the pockets went together without a hitch.  Isn't it nice how a lot of garment constructions is common sense? The rest of the sewing was standard coat/jacket stuff that I can do without any directions. Hooray!  I also lucked out that the 40's fashion illustration was very detailed and showed where all the top-stitching should go. You'll probably have to look at the illustration yourself to be able to see any top-stitching details. My light gray on light gray stitching mostly gets lost in the photos.  I do want you to know that I spent hours trying to get smooth top-stitching curves on my coat lapels. ;)
On to the review portion of the blog post..

Pattern
Hollywood 1214


Fabrics used
Stashed gray wool coating - originally from Gorgeous Fabrics
Stashed floral viscose as lining - originally from Emma one sock

Pattern changes/alterations
1. Standard 1/2 forward shoulder adjustment to the shoulder and sleeve head.
2. Added 1" extra ease to the hem line and hem.
3.  Removed 3" of ease out of the sleeve cap. Some was removed by making the dart at the top of the sleeve wider. Some was pinched out.
4. Drafted my own lining for the coat.

Confessions/Advice
- This pattern seems to have been drafted with shoulders that are supposed to jut out past the natural line. Despite all the extra shoulder padding I added in that area it still looks like I didn't fit the coat right.  If I had to do it over again I would take the shoulder line in to met my natural shoulder edge.

- I do like all the little details this pattern has. Lots of top-stitching, the little faux belt at the back, the lovely big pockets. It's really hard to keep your hands out of them!

- Compared with all my other coats, the lack of buttons below the waist feels a bit odd. I'm always thinking that I've forgotten to fasten a button or two. Thanks to the thickness of the coat there isn't too much problem with the bottom half blowing open unless it's a really stiff wind.

- Confession, the bugs got to this piece of wool too. One yard was badly compromised, but there were nips taken out here and there through out the yardage. The bugs seemed to favor the fuzzier side which probably was the right side of the fabric. I decided to use the "wrong side" and not worry about cutting around any nips in the fabric.

Husband + Son Comment
Steve - "Looks like there's a lot of room in that coat."
Desmond - "Room for 100 people the size of ants!"
Steve - "I was thinking along the line of thick sweaters or smuggling goods, but sure."

My Final Thoughts
Not gonna lie, my red McCall's 6800 is still my favorite coat. You know how a looooove red.  However this project was an interesting sew and gave me a real ego boost. It's nice to find out that you can finish something without out any directions.
Can you guys believe this is the last of my stashed wool coating? I'm going to cry big crocodile tears next year when I have to fork money over for my seasonal coat.

2.09.2017

Deep Stash Plans

It's February but it's never too late to talk about first quarter-ish sewing plans.  Heck at the rate I'm currently sewing what else do we have to talk about?  OK maybe cookies, but I'm fresh out of those too.  Could someone send a cookie drone? Carbs/sugar are the only things keeping me stable right now.

This year I have to keep a tighter reign on my purchases to continue reducing the size of my stash. (BTW, total stash reduction for 2016 was 90.5 yards.) So far instituting the rule that I must complete garments out of stashed fabric to get "credit" to buy new fabric is working.  In January I sewed up 3.75 yards and didn't buy any new fabric.  Froggie laughs and asks if I'd like a gold star for lasting a whole 5 weeks without buying fabric. Hey frog, I work in a fabric store so give a girl some credit!  I only thought about buying fabric every Friday.

To help with the stashed garment sewing I signed up for the Deep Stash sew along going in the FB Sew along group. The general guidelines for the sew along are:

- All patterns and fabric need to be from stash.

- You need to sew 8 garments for the same person.

- No repeat garments. All 8 garments need to be from a different pattern.

There's a 4 month time frame to complete everything if you want to be eligible for the prize pack. That might be too short for me cause I've got to overly complicate everything.  That's OK, having a prompt to get me pairing stashed fabric and patterns together is great. Here are the garments I've got planned so far.

Garment 1 - Hollywood 1214 in light gray wool coating and some stashed lining not pictured.

Garment 2 - McCall's 3242 out of plaid wool which was a Christmas gift from my father.

Garment 3 - McCall's 4265 in some washed silk.

Garment 4 - Smooth Sailing Trousers in tencel denim.

After sewing those 4 up I'll have to figure out another 4 garments.  Maybe I'll put my number #1 man on the job.  Froggie work your magic!

2.01.2017

Sewing Vintage in February

Hello all, today's post is about the Stashbusting Sewalong FB group.  I've been an active member for a number of years and it's been a wonderful group that has helped me make put a dent in the size of my fabric stash.  Mr. B no long worries about being smothered in his sleep by toppling piles of fabric. He still can't fit all his clothing in the closet but I'm working on it.  That goal might also be reached if Mr. B throws away some of his 10 year old T-shirts/pants with visible holes....but we're getting off topic.

This month I'm hosting the stashbusting group sewing theme which is Vintage Sewing!  Seems we have a number of vintage sewers in the group because this was one of the most requested themes. So without further ado let me lay out the general guidelines for sewing on theme.

- You can sew true vintage patterns.
Break open your pattern stashes and pull out all those vintage pattern you've been hoarding.  Or go out and buy a new vintage pattern you've had your eye on. The definition for vintage patterns is 20 years or older, which means any patterns from the mid 90's and older are eligible.   (Feel free to harumph and say, "What I wore in high school isn't vintage!" That sentence has been heard in my sewing room more than once.)

- You can sew vintage reprints or vintage inspired patterns.
Not in the mood to grade up a vintage pattern to fit yourself?  Really like that new pattern from Gertie's line? No problem. Feel free to sew up patterns that have a vintage look even if they were published recently.

-You can sew something you drafted yourself.
Have something on your sewing list you've been meaning to draft that has a vintage vibe. Feel free to use this month's theme to finally get that project done.

-You don't have to sew clothing, vintage accessories or home decor counts.

As you can see there are many way to sew along with the theme.  I hope everyone has fun and I can't wait to see your makes.