PR Hacks - Upgrading Butterick 6169

Hello everyone!  Hope those of you also on the East coast are keeping warm and safe during the "Blizzard of 2016." We've got at least a foot of snow on the ground already and the storm is not expected to stop until sometime in the wee hours tonight. I foresee a shit ton of shoveling in my future. At least I've got my Froggie pit crew permanently on hot chocolate making duty.  In the meantime let's procrastinate on all that shoveling by talking about this month's pattern hack.

After two months of knit garment hacks it seemed right to give woven fabrics their turn.  I took some inspiration from PR "Best Patterns of 2015" contest entries and finally dusted off my copy of Butterick 6169. Seemed like a great way to finally sew up at least one of those pleather fabrics lurking in my stash. (Let's not talk about how many more are left.)

Butterick 6169 is one of those patterns that is the perfect base for pattern hacking.  So many different design ideas popped into my head that some severe editing was needed. There's only so many weeks in the month for sewing after all.  In the end I went with adding a yoke, changing the front hem line shape, and drafting a collar.  Oh and I changed the in seam pockets to zipper inset pockets.....because I like to torture myself with pleather. ;)

To get all the juicy drafting details hop on over to the PR blog. 

P.S. Sewing all that pleather was a nail biting experience so I decided to have a little fun with the lining. Meoooow, behold my Jungle January insides! 

P.P.S. - This morning I was a little out of it and accidentally deleted my December PR hacking post.  After spending way too much time googling, "How to recover blog pages," it occurred to me that having all these posts in one place would be very helpful.  I've added a "PR Hacks" tab to the header and will gather all the article links there. That should make finding a specific hack easier in the future. 

Leopard Party Bellatrix Blazer

It seems fitting to round out Jungle January with a party....a leopard print party to be exact.

My outer leopard shell is muted and business like, but my inner leopard skin is all "Hello and MEOW!"

But let's back up and talk about the Bellatrix pattern for a moment.  When Papercut Patterns released their Constellation collection I practically foamed at the mouth upon seeing this blazer.  I've got a fever for blazers and the only prescription is more blazers!!! At least that's what Dr. Frog tells me.

I swear on Dr. Frog's fake medical degree that I was going to sew this pattern up immediately. But that pesky Christmas/germ tsunami totally took the wind out of my sales.  My forlorn Bellatrix muslin stared at me sadly from the corner for weeks. "Why won't you sew me? I thought we were in luv."  Poor blazer, I couldn't let it go on pining for another month. Instead I got my shit together and decided to pull out ALL the leopard print.  Bellatrix Blazer, you will be a magnificent beast! *Cue "Bungle in the Jungle*

The main fabric is a stretch cotton twill picked up from Marcy Tilton last year. Most of the pattern pieces need to be fused, so the stretch factor is moot in the finished garment. Speaking of fuse, I used my favorite "Pro Weft" for the majority of the jacket.   For the extra collar fuse, sleeve facings and welts, I swapped in a different product from Pam, "Pro woven crisp".  I found that pro woven crisp takes a lot more work to fuse completely. You really have to wet it down, put a press cloth on top and just lay the iron on it for a minute. Worth the effort cause I like the way it looks in the blazer.

For the finishing touch I did pull out more of my leopard lining stash. Pretty sure it goes with everything.

Pattern
Papercut Pattern's Bellatrix Blazer

Fabrics used
Self - Stashed Stretch leopard cotton twill
Lining - Stashed Leopard lining
Interfacing - Stashed Fashion Sewing Supply Pro weft, with some Pro woven crisp in the collar/sleeve facings and welts.
Button - a freebie from some past Waecter's order

All Stash Project - collect your bonus internet points! Cha-ching.

Pattern changes/alterations
1. I had to do a giant forward shoulder adjustment on this pattern 1 1/4". The corresponding change to the sleeve cap makes for one funky looking pattern.

2. Normal 1/2" upper back width increase with added shoulder dart.
3. Sway back adjustment of 3/4".

4. Added 3/8" to the side seams to increase the hem sweep.

Confessions/Advice
- I think this pattern is drafted very slim through the hips or maybe just with flat butts in mind.  My muslin was made back in December using a blend of sizes M and L, which should have fit my hips.  I found the waist and hip area both way too small and put the muslin away for awhile.  This month I'm 10 lbs down and have lost several inches from both of these areas.  I still found the hip area too small and added more ease the hem area. I would advise anyone that carries their weight in the hips/butt area to size up on the lower half, especially if you want to wear this blazer over pants.

- I decided to bag the lining instead of following the directions.  Then discovered that it's impossible to under-stitch the bottom of the blazer from a gap in the armhole lining.  Solution - open up the lining side seam as instructed, under-stitch, then turn the jacket inside out again and stitch up the side seam.  Then you can turn the blazer right side out through the armhole gap and machine sew that closed.  No hand sewing makes Heather a happy girl.

Husband Comment
"That looks nice and it has real pockets that work." *Shoves his hands in the pockets to check that his eyes aren't deceiving him.*

My Final Thoughts 
The construction of this blazer was different from most that I've previously sewed.  I did find that enjoyable and think it would be a good pattern for those not experienced with sewing blazers. The fusing does take a fair bit of work at the beginning. However this step gives the finished blazer a crisp professional look, so don't skip it.  The inseam welt pockets are super easy to sew. Can all my welt pockets be inseam from now on?

Beep Beep Beep!  Oh no, it's the stash-o-meter! It seems my leopard print stash levels are now dangerously low. Frog take a note - Schedule trip to Katie's house to steal more leopard print before next Jungle January. We have to be prepared for more Jungle parties.

- I'm going to do the scarf drawing next post, so you'll have to bite your fingernails for now.

A Quick Trip to the Jungle

Off the top I want to say "Thank You" to all of you for the congratulations on my new gig. The sewcialist community is so awesome and I'm forever grateful for it. Big electronic hugs to everyone!

It's been really cold around these parts, so it seemed like the perfect time to take a little trip to the jungle. That's "code" for a trip to my fabric box of animal prints cause it's Jungle January peeps!

Yes, I do have a box devoted to animal prints and it growls ever so softly at night. I like to sing, "soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur," to it on a weekly basis so that it doesn't maul me in my sleep.  Anyway I dove deep in to that box looking for some long stashed knit to turn into a Renfrew.  This is what I found, a burnt out knit of some what hazy origins.

I'm 80% sure that this came from Fabricjunkeez a number of years ago.  She sells both on etsy and ebay and mainly stocks punk/goth themed fabric. She also has a healthy appreciation of animal prints/bird designs, so I've snagged a few pieces from her shop.  This knit was thin but stable and it seemed like the perfect thing to pair with the renfew pattern. You might say I was happy with the result.

I'm not gonna go into too much detail here cause about 95% of us have made a Renfrew.  If you haven't I'm gonna assume that the pattern doesn't come in your size or you've been in a coma for about 2 years.  To the first point I say, "Sorry," and to the second, "I hope you feel well rested."

There is one detail to show on this renfrew. Check out the insides.

I didn't want to worry about the burnt out portions showing undergarments, so I underlined the front and back pieces with a gray knit.  The gray knit was also stash and was too warm of a tone to flatter my coloring.  The knit is such nice quality that I kept hanging on to it, thinking I'd dye it or something.  This solution worked out even better. I get a really comfortable knit next to my skin and it makes this renfrew a lot more wearable.  Oh yeah, props to Past Heather for buying so much stuff. I raise a cookie in your honor. Then I'll put the cookie down and let Froggie eat it....stupid health goals.

Cookies or not Jungle January is my favorite print related holiday!  Now everyone say "GRRRRRRR"