Burda wool blazer with patch pockets 03/2024 No. 106

Back in cold and rainy February when it seemed that spring was far away I had the urge to make a wool blazer. Something I absolutely do not need but I do tend to wear this one a lot. I wanted a different color family, something that goes with blue jeans so I searched a lot online for some nice wool tweed and finally found this fabric on Etsy. It was listed as a vintage piece so I ordered 2 yards and hoped for the best. I was really pleased with the color and decided to make a jacket with patch pockets for a change. 

I am really out of practice for blogging however I did take a lot of photos as I sewed this jacket so I might as well post them here. For starters I only ordered 2 yards as I am kind of a cheapskate when it comes to fabric purchases and I feel that I can squeeze any jacket on that amount. So here it is laid out on the floor for a test of that theory.  It was successful as you can see from the finished jacket. Missing on the test layout are the pockets and the collar pieces which I put in the blank spaces. Note that I am 5'3" and often have to shorten sleeves so it works for me as a relatively short person.

Here are the pattern details. I chose this pattern as it has patch pockets and Dior darts in the front princess seam. I made a test version, just to test fit and I think I recycled the muslin sleeve from a different Burda sleeve just to save time. I compared and they are all pretty much the same. 

Now some interfacing and construction details. I have posted about a lot of this before so just a few photos to show the insides. All the photos are in one album on my Flickr page if you want to see more, here is the link. 

Here is a look on the dress form. The lining is bemberg rayon which I had in my stash in a gray/blue color.  (also on view is my new hobby which is getting orchids to rebloom, and I am having some success and think this particular windowsill is just the right amount of light for orchid happiness). 

I should press things better when I am going to photograph on the dress form but I think I have already worn this a couple of times so now it has that lived in quality and it's going to stay that way :) 

That's it for winter sewing. We thought spring had arrived but it is really chilly today and definitely not shorts weather yet. I have been so busy with garden projects but it is looking great now and I am pretty much caught up on all the outdoor projects I wanted to do before it gets blazing hot. Time to think about summer sewing! 

I have a couple of sewing classes coming up with Hello Stitch, How to Copy your Favorite Shirt on June 21 and a Knit T-shirt Class on July 13.

Happy Spring Sewing,

Beth

Today's garden photo, this nerembergia continues my purple theme. I bought this a couple of summers ago and it is living happily in my drought tolerant front garden. In fact I just propagated it with a cutting so I can have a couple more. 

Winter Plaid Jacket: Burdastyle 126 Nov 2023

Right after Christmas it was a gloomy weather weekend, just the time to stay in with a sewing project. However I didn't have anything in mind so I went through my stash of wools and came across this Pendleton plaid, 2 yards, which I had bought at an ASG stash sale last year. Because it was a very nice fabric and I couldn't pass it up for $ 4. 

In this case I was "influenced" by a post on Instagram, as I frequently look at the #burdastyle hashtag and I kept seeing the same post with this jacket in a green brocade that looked great. (Boo to the algorithm that shows me the same posts over and over again instead of new posts in chronological order, but I guess that complaint is old news now).  

This style is a bit different for me but with our very mild recent winters a lightweight wool jacket might be something I get to wear more than anticipated. The pattern went together really well and the plaid matching worked out perfectly. I do really hate to sew separating zippers, it's just my least favorite thing to do but I got over my fear on this one. 

I put a little fusible interfacing on the center front edge where the zipper is, I find that makes the zipper sew in more smoothly. And then the hand basting to get the plaids to match across the center front. The pattern has a button band which is applied after the zipper/lining are done, and I sewed it but then I just didn't like the way it looked. Although perhaps I will go back and add it, as I have saved it. Mostly the reason I skipped it is I didn't really have any good buttons in the stash and didn't feel like shopping for any. It does mean that the lining shows up at the top where the collar turns back but I think it looks OK. 

My favorite thing about this jacket is the plaid matching which I think is fun! Burda patterns have always worked out very well for me with plaids which I think is an indication of a well-designed pattern. 

To get the pockets to match perfectly I cut out the jacket pieces and then overlaid the pocket pattern pieces on the jacket front to draw in the grids, then cut out the pockets/flaps so they would match. 

The sleeves have a seam down the top of the arm to the wrist, and they matched well also. When in doubt use an even plaid, one that is equidistant squares so there is no shift across the plaid. I think I wrote a post for the Craftsy blog about plaid matching (I wrote so many articles for that site and most of them have vanished, a few are still there). Also on the blog here if you search plaid matching in the sidebar I have several posts with tips on working with plaids. 

The bottom of the sleeves on this jacket seemed a bit odd to me, I thought they had a cuff or maybe elastic but no they are just finished like a coat sleeve, which I guess works and is less to do. 

I am glad I tried this pattern, it's a nice change from my usual winter style of a blazer or coat. I could even see making it again in a lightweight version for spring/summer. 

Sewing classes:  I have a few classes coming up in the next months with Hello Stitch. A Chore coat class next weekend, Feb. 8-9 with a couple of spots left.  Sunday March 9 is my "how to read a pattern" class, which is a great intro to sewing patterns, choosing sizes, how to measure yourself, and then a bit on some basic bodice adjustments. Then on March 22-23 is a Shirt Class. Those are the links for more info and to register. 

Up next, I'm making a couple of things for Heather and perhaps a new pair of corduroy jeans for myself. 

This time of year I am in garden maintenance mode - there is an unending pile of fallen leaves to rake up and then lots of pruning, weeding and planning for spring. 

Happy Sewing,

Beth

The first daffodils for today's garden photo. With many more to come. 

Chore Jacket: Burda 03/2023 # 104

This week I have some time to catch up on the blog so here is the first of what I hope will be a few posts on things I made these last few months. Although not in the order that I sewed them. It was a great summer with a few detours for some life issues that are resolved and also a fantastic trip to Italy in October. Now it's fall, my absolute least favorite time of year (*reasons I will detail at the bottom of this post :) but I did make this cotton jacket in the summer and now it's finally time to wear it. 

Also I'm teaching a class next weekend at Hello Stitch Studio to make a Chore Coat or Jacket so I think this pattern qualifies. 

The fabric is a brushed cotton that I got from a friend who was reducing her fabric stash. Just enough to make this jacket pattern which I have been eyeing for over a year. 

It's from March 2023 Burda Magazine, # 104.  They show it in the magazine in a suede, or faux suede and I really like the look. I have some ultra suede that someone gave me a while ago in both turquoise and a dark forrest green so I might make it again, probably the green. 

A look at the jacket on the dress form. There are no upper pockets, just pocket flaps sewn into the yoke. I like the shaping of this jacket a lot, as it has princess seams front and back so that gives a bit of shaping and makes it less boxy than a lot of chore style jackets. But the big lower pockets are very functional and I thought about adding some inside pockets, slightly smaller and invisible on the outside. I am all about the extra pockets lately - I made a ponte blazer to take on my trip that had a lot of pockets and it was so useful as well as sharp looking, I will post that one here soon. 

I'm not wild about the shape of the collar, somehow now that it is finished I think it would look better with rounded corners instead of pointed, so I will make that change if I sew it again. Also I didn't have a lot of matching thread so I saved what I had for the buttonholes and used a different color for the topstitching, I think it is grey?  

Not likely to wear it all buttoned up but just showing for completeness.  And another look at some autumn color which I have going on right now in my garden. But you can see in that photo above that I still have Meyer lemons ripening on the tree and in fact my orange tree will have a nice crop this year as well. 

** OK, why don't I like this season? Gets dark early, everything in the garden is crunchy and at the end of the line, it starts to get chilly, I would rather wear shorts and summer dresses than anything else....I can go on.  However - I do love making coats and jackets so there is that!  In fact I just bought a recent digital issue of Patrones Sewing Magazine because I saw a coat pattern I just might make. 

This upcoming weekend I will teaching the chore coat class so here's the link again if you are interested. 

Happy Sewing,

Beth

Here's a lovely visitor I had this week in the garden, enjoying the sunshine and warmth on the river rocks. 

Remnant Fabrics to Coat: Part 2 Finished Look Burda 6845 coat

What is it about making coats that is so satisfying? I think they are my favorite item to make but I'm starting to think I'm getting to coat maximum - or at least my closet is saying so.  But if they are all as nice as this one I will keep doing it.  This blog post is a look at the finished coat, for lots of fitting and construction details see my previous post here.

I still can't get over how nicely the colors of these various remnant fabrics go together. In my previous post I have links to the blog posts of the previous projects that resulted in these remnants. 

Photographing this coat has made me crazy, the colors looks different in every image and various times of day, sunny or cloudy etc. These photos in the park on what was an almost rainy day are the most accurate of how it looks in person. 

I lightened the shadows on this one to make the collar more visible. I used Burda 6845 which is an envelope pattern with princess seams and option of the horizontal seam which I used. If I was being really picky I think the lapels are a tiny bit on the narrow side but that's just my style preference. 

I wrote about fitting and construction details in the previous post so I don't have much more to say about that. But if I can give some outerwear sewing tips they are 1. plenty of interfacing 2. grade the seams and 3. press (with care).  Also I really like this photo which shows how it is the stitching lines that match on a sleeve, not the edges.  Confession time - I almost never do any gathering of the sleeve cap or press it to shape before I sew the sleeves in. Which is contrary to sewing wisdom but my method seems to work for me!

  

It took some time and concentration to get that horizontal color block seam to line up precisely when buttoned and I am very satisfied with the result. FYI,  3 buttons, probably sewn on a total of 8 times, on/off, move a tiny fraction of an inch, sew again, etc. The seams all line up as well which also entailed some unpicking and restitching with some tiny adjustments. But that is the point of this coat so it was worth the time. 

For the lining I used navy blue bemberg rayon throughout.  I have done a coat with a color block lining to match the outside but as this coat was remnants I thought it was a bit silly to buy more lining fabric when I already had this navy blue. 

So that's about it for my latest coat project, a very satisfying one on many levels. We are in the midst of a big rainstorm but I think spring is right around the corner and I have a couple of new t-shirt patterns that I might try out next.

Happy almost Spring Sewing,
Beth

Today's garden photo, a camellia that needs a good trim once all the flowers are gone. But I can't do it now while all these beautiful flowers are on it. And the bees are in heaven. 

Remnant Fabrics to coat, Part 1: fitting and details

Looking back I see that I haven't made a new coat for myself since April of 2021 so I feel a tiny bit justified in starting a new one. With the caveat that it is not often coat weather here and when cold it is likely rainy too so I will probably be wearing a rain jacket. But I was reorganizing my fabrics and realized that I had some sizable remnant pieces from other projects that gave me an idea to combine them in one coat. I am so glad I did as I just love how this turned out and thought it was time for a detailed blog post with some fitting details.

Here's a look at the coat in progress (with a very good view of my rolling worktable behind it).  I had the navy blue fabric leftover from this project, the burgundy wool is from this project, and the tweed sleeves are from a blazer that I made myself last year, although I didn't put it on the blog. But the fabric is the same as this one I made for Heather. I liked the fabric so much I bought some at Britex for myself. 

Something about the 3 fabric color ways goes together well and if I were an artist I might understand why, but I just knew they complemented each other. 

Here's the pattern that I used, and envelope pattern Burda 6845 which  has lots of versions online and is a really nice pattern. And it had the two-fabric version already in the pattern. 

Let's talk about fitting.  This pattern has plenty of seams which I like as it makes adjusting for multi-size a bit easier. I made a muslin in size 38 graded to 42 in the hip and then evaluated that for adjustments. 

One of the reasons I like using Burda patterns is that the neck/shoulders/armhole etc of the size 38 is just right for me and I only need to adjust a bit in the circumferences.

I give a lot of credit to new sewers because if I was starting out and tried on some muslin test garment I might say nope as the test version is always so hideous and you really have to use your imagination to know the final product will be nice. I skip the sleeves (which I do not advise but I know they will fit me already) but I do put in the shoulder pads since that affects the drape and bust location. 

To resolve those drag lines indicated by the blue arrow I split the front horizontally and added more length and width at the princess seam bust area. 

Here's another look at this adjustment. Actually not the adjustment but cutting across the muslin to create space. I pin fabric in the gap created and then check again. The major change was to add more length across the front princess seam, also to add some width at the back hip.  Keep reading to see the changes on the actual paper pattern pieces. 

Explanations in paragraph below. 

Here are the upper pattern pieces for this coat. I added length and a bit of horizontal distance in the front princess seam, using a wedge that tapered to nothing at the armhole. Then I added the similar amount of length to the center front piece. I remade the muslin test version and decided that the front princess seam edge was a bit too long so I pinched out a small wedge noted with the purple arrow. This just removes some length along that area and made it sew to the other edge better. Then I added to the center back princess seam down to the bottom, particularly around the hip area. However when I sewed it up it in the wool was a bit to big and shapeless at the back waist but it was easier to take in that seam in the final garment. Lastly I shortened all the upper pieces shown in the yellow sections above. I think I shortened about 1.5 inches. The seam needs to be below the waist but not too low so think I raised up that seam by the similar amount that I lengthened the front. 

I spoke about a lot of the sewing details on Instagram and have saved the series in an Instagram Highlight called "Remnant Coat" so you can see a lot of the sewing and construction details there. my Instagram is:   beth_sunnygal

This coat has a particular sewing order and the dart under the lapel is incorporated into attaching the collar. Which for some reason I don't like and since I rarely read the instructions I almost missed it. Although it probably would have turned out just fine sewing dart and the attaching collar. But their method is smoother in the sewing so I'm glad I took a quick look at the instructions. 

When it comes to working with coating fabrics I think the trimming and grading seams is the key to a good finish. If there is any spot with more than 2 layers of cloth and it can be trimmed, I trim it. Even tiny corner squares like this one. 

Inside before trimming and pressing. I think when you have some seams intersecting in two different wools like this then adding interfacing gives them a bit of structure and helps them to match together well and press similarly. Originally I didn't have any interfacing on either the blue or the burgundy around the horizontal seam but it just looked limp, particularly as compared to the front portion which had interfacing on the entire pieces. I had only machine basted it together just to double check fit so it was easy to detach some seams and add interfacing. Below shows the front with the silk thread tracing in preparation for the bound buttonholes, see how nicely that seam presses where the two colors meet. That was the result I wanted all around the coat so it was worth the extra time to go back and add the interfacing. I use Pro-Weft Supreme Light from Fashion Sewing Supply for almost all coat or jacket projects. 

Coat starting to come together at this point and decided to use these buttons which I bought in NY in October at Pacific Trimming. I always make some test buttonholes and play around with size, plus see how the fabric behaves. Note that I sew two layers of interfaced fabrics so that simulates the actual coat front including the seam edge so I can really see how the real buttonholes will turn out. 

So that's some detail on the fitting and construction for this coat. And a look at the meyer lemon tree outside my sewing room window. Next up I will post the finished coat. Then it's on to a new project - whatever that might be!  I just was given some really cute vintage patterns from the 60's so I might get started on a summer dress. 

I'm teaching a combo "Learn to use patterns / simple pattern fitting" class this upcoming weekend via HelloStitchStudio but I think it is sold out.  April 27-28 I'm teaching a shirt class using the Kalle Shirt pattern from Closet Core which we just listed so there are spots open. (Location is Bay Quilts in Richmond CA, they have a really nice classroom space).

Of course there is plenty to do outside now with all kinds of weeks popping up and plants needing attention. Plus I just ordered some new plants this morning  - they're like fabric, hard to resist!

Happy almost Spring Sewing,

Beth

Today's garden photo, taken yesterday between the downpours. A cheerful daffodil is so welcome this time of year.