Just-Patterns Veronica Vest with more jeans

Happy New Year everybody! I have taken an unintentional break from posting here on the blog. Life just got really busy with family and other obligations taking up my time, but I have definitely been sewing since I last posted in October. As well as teaching classes, finishing my garden remodel, and just taking a rest after a very busy summer and fall. Also I knew I would have time now to catch up on all my blog posting, as I am recovering from a foot surgery this week, so what better time than to sit with my laptop, reclining on the couch, catching up on movies, blogs and emails.

I have what I call "house arrest" for at least 2 weeks and maybe up to 4 weeks so I will have a lot of time to catch up. I think in a week or so I can get around in the house better, as of today I can very gingerly walk around so it's not too bad. But no driving since it's my right foot. Which means it's time to do tasks I've saved for this month, such as the not so fun working on my taxes and the slightly more fun of reorganizing my recipe files. And then when I feel a bit better I can do some low-key sewing projects. 

The day before this surgery I threw on these items and took some pictures so I could actually post some of my December sewing. I made the wool tweed version of the Veronica Vest by Just-Patterns and then when I made the blue corduroy jeans I had enough remaining to make another vest. 

Here's the tweed version of the vest, this piece of black and white wool was a remnant saved from making a coat which was a sample for a class at Hello Stitch back in 2017.

It's perfect for this vest and uses up a remnant, so a win. The jeans are my go-to pattern for all jeans which is the Megan Nielsen Ash jeans. 

Here's the second version of these same patterns together.

I think what I have ended up with are some very mix-and matchable and usable separates that I can wear with a lot of other items in my wardrobe. I've already worn the jeans several times with different sweaters. 

I had been searching for some nice stretch corduroy in colors for ages but in the fall as a Minerva Maker I was offered the opportunity to sew with their fabric and it's a great fabric. I will definitely use it again, now I want purple cords. This is their Minerva Core Range Stretch 7-Wale Cord fabric, the color was French Navy. 

Now for some sewing details. I have this jeans pattern dialed in and have the various leg widths that I might want to use traced out and ready to go. I decided for these I wanted a slightly wider leg, I guess it's just about a bootcut shape. I have made the Version D Flare leg and I thought they came out a bit too wide, so after completing I went back and narrowed them slightly. Here's the post where those jeans are pictured, as it turns out that is the same cord fabric from Joann's that I used in the black jeans above. 

So to make the bootcut I just measured the opening on my teal green cord jeans as well as a couple of other pairs of bootcut pants that I have, and added to my existing pattern pieces to get the opening the same circumference. See below I have taped on tracing paper to the bottom of the pants leg pattern piece.

And then I played around with the width until I got it to where I liked the look. Also I happen to have these suede booties (which I now have in 3 colors - they are that comfortable) so I hemmed to wear with those. 

Since I was conserving fabric as I cut out these blue cords, I decided to use some denim remnants for the inside waistband. And I used the wrong side of the denim as some of these dark blue denims give off dye for ages despite many washes. My beige leather car seats can attest to the power of blue dye on blue jeans, unbelievable how much color comes off year after year of wearing, despite many washes. Also I prefer to make the pocket bags continue to the center front and create a waist stay, like you see in many ready to wear jeans. I think it keeps the pockets linings from coming out of the top of that front pocket, and also counteracts the stretch in that area of the pants. 

Here's a look at the vest and jeans together. I know I cut out the corduroy with the nap running in the same direction for both pieces however I think they look a bit different in all the photos. Perhaps because I've worn the jeans several times and not yet worn the vest?  Anyway - you can see that there are not facings in the vest, I did change up the pattern as I went along. Mostly because I was short for time and decided to omit the facings and just do a full lining which I sewed in and then pulled through on the lining side seams. I did put interfacing around the neck and bottom edge which is similar to the pattern instructions. 

In fact the tweed one was sewn first, and I tried out the full lining method on that one. Also you can see that my lining is brown! That's what the lining scrap box offered up when I started rummaging. I figured it is not at all seen when the vest is worn and it was thick enough to counteract the itch factor of this wool.

I also didn't have the hardware slider for the back vest belt so I just tied it in a knot. which works as well. Really the whole project was a late night sewing whim that turned out pretty well and reduced by fabric stash by 2 pieces. 

Here's a closer look at the black corduroy jeans. I got this fabric at Joann's maybe 3 years ago? or 2 years? What is time anyway - with our various periods of lockdown things tend to blur together. But it is the same fabric as the teal corduroy Ash jeans. Every once in a while I find really good fabrics in one category at Joanns, which is bottom weight items, whether it is denim, ponte or corduroy. If I go there intentionally looking I might come up with nothing, but if I am there for perhaps a color of thread or a last minute button requirement, I always look at the aisle of denim and corduroy and often find very nice quality fabrics. Weird - as most of their other stuff is pretty terrible. And slight rant, they used to carry Ambiance bemberg rayon lining in basics like navy, black and grey but those days are gone. I think that fabric is actually hard to come by anywhere, apparently the pandemic and international shipments are the cause and I hope we see it again in local shops. 

I omitted some of the topstitching on the waistband and used black thread for all other topstitching. When it comes to jeans I'm a bit different as I really prefer tone-on-tone stitching, rarely a contrasting stitching for me, I like the look of the stitching disappearing into the fabric color. Even for my ready to wear jeans that I have purchased in the past, I see that I have many where the stitching is the same color as the fabric. 

Well that's the latest for my vest and jeans combos. I plan to do a few more posts in this next couple of weeks when I certainly will have time on my hands and my painful foot propped up on pillows! 

Up next, I made a gorgeous camel wool coat for my friend Heather that I know you will be interested in seeing, and then some wool trousers are just completed. I'm currently doing an online class with Hello Stitch on sewing trousers - this is a new class for me and we had lots of sign ups. Maybe this very chilly winter has everyone thinking about warm wool pants. 

So I hope everyone is having a great new year and thanks very much for the kind words and emails checking to see if I had disappeared from the sewing blog world. Not yet!

Happy 2023 Sewing,

Beth

Perhaps we are edging out of our drought here in California, after the 3 weeks of unbelievable rainstorms. With trees uprooted all over and lots of flooding, my corner of the bay area came through it ok. As we all said, we want this much rain, just not all in one week!  One day as it was storming I heard a different sound and saw the hail which probably didn't make my lemon tree very happy although there are still plenty of lemons ripening. 

Plaid wool coat with a Patrones pattern

Spring is trying to arrive here in N. California and as I said in my previous post, I've finished another coat that will have to hibernate until next fall. 

Combining a plaid fabric for outerwear can be a bit of a tricky thing to get right and I think this simple coat pattern worked for this fabric. As I mentioned in the previous post, this plaid is both uneven and unbalanced so I wanted a pattern that had very few seams. I received this fabric from Minerva and I have posted on their site here, but as usual I like to post everything to the blog.

When I saw this fabric on the Minerva website I didn't think the plaid was as large as it turned out to be. So that meant a bit of a rethink on what to make with it. Originally I had planned for a jacket but I thought the large scale didn't suit the pattern I had in mind. That's what sent me looking for a simple coat pattern. Also this fabric is definitely the right weight for a coat and perhaps a bit too much for the type of jacket I like to wear. 

I think for a coat like this it's all about the plaid matching, if it didn't match then I would consider the thing unwearable.  My previous post has all the details on the pattern used which is from the Spanish sewing magazine Patrones Issue 402, pattern 26.  Last summer I first tried this pattern magazine, which is actually available as an app for iPhone or iPad. Here's the link to that post if you are interested in learning about Patrones. 

I really wanted the facing to match exactly as well, which you can see in this picture below. When you wear a coat like this it's often open and unbuttoned, so the facing shows a lot. 

However with this large plaid I barely had enough fabric to cut all the outer pieces and the facings needed a bit of help. I had to piece the facing at the bottom edge. I find that doing piecing weirdly satisfying. It's a pattern puzzle that's fun to solve - or at least I think so. Also piecing is a strange looking word, I checked the spelling and that seems correct but it still looks odd to me.  But the piecing is just about tolerable. 

The lining is something that I received in a stash of fabric and linings that was given to me a few months ago. I get offered a lot of fabric and usually don't accept but this sounded intriguing as it was from a former instructor of fashion design. As it turned out I took a couple of bins which had a bunch of lovely wool crepes (which you will see sewn up next fall) some great linings, a lot of interfacing (always welcome) and quite a few patternmaking books plus teaching materials. Score! This red lining was ideal for this coat. 

 

I took these pictures a while ago on a very gray day, which turned to sunshine for the last few weeks. Meaning no coat wearing for me, although it's supposed to rain a little bit tomorrow and that will be our last for a while. 

I kind of wanted to make a tie belt of the same fabric to give the coat some shaping but didn't have any to spare. With a belt it does give a bit more shaping although I probably wouldn't wear it with that, too much trouble to deal with a belt. 

So that's a wrap on my winter sewing - definitely time to think Spring! 

We have a couple of live/online classes on the calendar for the next couple of months, here are the links to sign up. Note we call it the Hello Stitch Garment Sewing Club - but you don't have to take each month's class. However the sewing camaraderie we've developed has been great, with lots of people jumping in and out depending on their availability and interest. The other night we were talking about meeting up in person for some fabric shopping! very exciting :) Things are finally feeling better here in N. California, businesses and schools are opening back up, people are getting vaccinated and I think we will have a much better summer than the previous one. 

Classes for May and June:

Sew Crop Pants  4:30-6pm Starts May 11  

Sew the Kalle Shirt or Shirtdress  7-8:30pm Starts May 11  (by the way - you can sew any shirtdress you would like if you prefer a different pattern) 

Sew your own Jeans  7-8:30pm Starts June 1

Hello Stitch has a lot of other really interesting classes online as well, embroidery, quilting, paper arts, here's the link.  I think after the pandemic problems are over, the live+online learning habit might continue. It will be interesting to see. 

Today I need to get outside and work on my hanging flower baskets, which have been neglected all winter, and of course more weeding. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain so I will plan on some sewing, I started a silk top in a color I'm not so sure about (grass green) but it may work out. 

Happy Spring Sewing,

Beth

Today's garden photo, a lone red tulip which survived the gopher attack. Honestly, most years that center island is filled with tulips but this year my little nemesis has caused some serious damage all over the garden. So I just had a few tulips and now I'm investigating more gopher resistant plants! 

Last of the summer sewing: Burda 04/2020 #103 in cotton sateen

Talk about out of season - I am writing about this dress which I finished back in mid-September when the temperatures were still in the high 90's ℉. I never did have a chance to wear it. As with so much of my sewing this year it will go into my closet and hopefully see the light of day and social events in 2021. Even when I have gone places this year things were very casual - and wearing a pretty dress just didn't seem right. It's been a long year of social distance and now heading into winter we are trying to buckle down and do the right thing to get through it. While not going out to dinner, to parties, to meet ups, to the gym, to anything that you would put in the fun category (and even the not so fun - such as funerals or hospital visits) I think it has been worthwhile to keep the pandemic mostly at bay here in N. California. We have a high level of compliance with all the preventative measures and I'm grateful for that. Recently I saw this article discussing San Francisco's success relative to other cities and what the toll might have been had the same approach been taken all over.  In any case I appreciate our mild weather (for a multitude of reasons) so hopefully the outdoor coffee breaks and walks will continue this fall.  

Back to sewing - this dress is from the April 2020 BurdaStyle magazine. That issue was filled with things I want to sew. What is it about the April issue? always so many things I want to make. 

I'm not sure I will get used to dress lengths getting longer again, because I'm not very tall I think a hem that is longer actually makes me look shorter - I think due to less leg showing. I actually hemmed this dress and then decided to make it an inch shorter. Plus when I traced it out I already shortened it by about 3 inches. It is long!  

I love a square neckline and I have just about perfected the fit on Burda size 38, it fits me very well with just a few little adjustments. So if I do those adjustments on my tracings then I can sew it up just about as it. Sewing satisfaction :)  Although sometimes I do have to adjust the lengths, of straps or hems (see above: not tall)  

Here's the magazine image of the pattern. They also had the same dress as #104 with a straight skirt. You can see I changed the shoulder ties to plain straps, which is on the # 104. I thought the ties might be  just a bit too girly for me and also I didn't have any fabric to spare. Those full skirts do take up a lot of fabric. I wanted to make a matching fabric belt but again, no fabric scraps for that. 

Back view, it has that pretty V-neckline in the back.

These outdoor pictures were taken on a day in October when the air was finally clear - it was such a relief after the smoke filled months due to fires all over N. California. And keeping it real, here are some pictures of my glamorous fitting process. Sewing room mess and sneakers lending a fashion touch, haha. 

I made the front and back straps on the dress with a seam at the top which I could sew after trying on, to get the fit right at the upper bodice. A straight across front neckline has to fit fairly snugly and if the straps aren't right it will slouch a bit and not look good. 

I received this fabric from Minerva.com and it was perfect for a dress. It comes in two other color ways, this one is the turquoise. The description was cotton sateen with stretch but I think the stretch was very little - although perhaps just enough to make it less prone to wrinkles.

In keeping with the slightly retro silhouette of this dress and the pretty surroundings I decided on one very ladylike pose. 

So that's the latest on my last dress of summer 2020, ready for next year. The weather has turned chilly here (yes it does get into the 30's at night here in N.Cal) which I realize is not exactly arctic but cold for us. So I am sewing things that are more cozy. In fact our next online class in December via Hello Stitch Studio will be for the Toaster Sweater. I'm just about to make a sample garment or two. Doing these classes has been more fun than I expected - I think the getting together online to chat with fellow sewing enthusiasts is just what we all need right now. The class is structured so that Tues. evenings are instruction and garment specifics, and then the Thursday evening sessions every logs in to sew (or not) and chat, ask questions, vent about real life - whatever, it's a sewing happy hour 🍷.

Time for a twirl and then back to regular life. 

Happy Sewing and stay well,
Beth

Today's garden photo, taken a few weeks ago but yes, we still have some roses blooming. They don't know that autumn is here. Sometimes I still have roses at Christmas. We are supposed to get some rain tomorrow and oh I hope that happens. 

Lots of ruffles: Burda 04/2019 # 120 in cotton poplin

The Burda April 2019 issue is the proverbial gift that keeps on giving. This is the third item that I've sewn from that issue and I think there are one or two others that might catch my eye. First I sewed the denim skirt # 113, next was the purple flounce hem dress # 117  which is really fun to wear. All along this dress intrigued me and the opportunity came when I was invited to make something for the Minerva Blog network.








This is my idea of wearing a dark color like navy blue or black - to make me happy it needs a dash of a bright colors. Or more than just a dash of bright but a nice scattering of pink roses. It was a warm day but this dress silhouette seemed to call for boots and I can see wearing this in the winter with tights and even a thin layer long sleeve tee.
Which brings me to the big question of this dress, what about those sleeve ruffles??? I am so tempted to remove them now. Even though I sewed the dress with them to see how it looked and to recreate the magazine version.




Perhaps my fabric is a bit more stiff than their example as my sleeve ruffles seem to stick out more. I think I could have reduced the length of the piece and had a result of less gathers but for once I sewed the pattern as it was designed. Although the sleeve ruffles are dramatic and they might look interesting here, I can just see putting on any sweater, jacket or coat over this would be so annoying. So I'm going to think on this for a while :)






I made my usual Burda size 38 and it fit perfectly - which rarely happens. Considering there is no shaping to speak of so that might make this a magic dress!!  Thanks to Nakisha who sewed and blogged this already - I took this line drawing from her post as I don't see it on the BurdaStyle site right now. Side note - I am getting my magazines so Yay! and their site is creaking along with apparent updates so hope it will get back to all the info it had previously.
Also I just noticed that she made it in a small floral print and is wearing it with black suede boots - a great look 😉.

This dress is also shown in the magazine in a longer version, with no ruffles and chest pockets.



In addition to being a magic dress, fit-wise, it is super easy to sew. The button front is a fold over placket, so nothing to attach there, and there is just the small stand collar. No darts at all. Which is nice as I am contemplating making a jacket I saw that has 10 darts on the sleeves alone :)




You can see when worn the sleeve ruffles are very full, and also with this cotton fabric the wrong side shows a bit. The fabric was a dream to sew and just the right weight for this style with the ruffle hem.








Ruffles seem to be everywhere right now, these deep hem ruffles are popular with designers like Erdem or The Vampires Wife and the recently released McCalls patterns, like this example. While they are fun to wear they are starting to give me memories of Little House on the Prairie or Jessica McClintock prom dresses. (actually I never had one of those ruffly prom dresses and thought they were a bit silly looking then. Granted this is from the girl who made a not really in style with the other 17 year olds Vogue designer pattern for her junior prom dress - I wish I could remember the designer and find a copy on eBay) Note - I found the image of that pattern so I've included it at the bottom of the post! And it's selling for around $45. Oh, how I wish I kept all those Vogue designer patterns I had in my teen and college years!! And the labels they used to include.

So a big thank you to Minerva for providing this fabric and giving me the chance to jump on the ruffle trend.





The weather this week just went from shorts and sandals weather to actually chilly with some frost warnings, so wearing of wool coats is an option. Although it's kind of nice to have an autumn chill the wind has been fierce some days as you probably have seen on the news, and the fire danger and actual fires are so terrible. We had a power cut one day here  - they are doing this all around the bay area as a preventative safety measure to prevent fires. The second power cut, which was longer didn't hit my house although in some directions a mile or two it was out. And I know plenty of people who were without power for several days. It seems like a crazy way to solve a technology problem but for now we are all just happy to not have any more of these fires right in our neighborhoods. Plus we had a fairly large earthquake about a week ago where the epicenter was practically in my backyard. (ok not really but less than a mile away and it was quite a shaker - no damage anywhere though). This is just life in the Golden State! We are waiting for the rain - the answer to a lot of things in California.


Up next, another Burda short sleeve top which I wore a lot in October but might be put away for the winter, and then I'm finished a wool jacket I started as an example in my Jacket Tailoring class back in September. I'm doing that class again in late January at Hello Stitch, here's the info.  In fact all my Jan. and Feb. classes are already on the website so you can start planning your 2020 sewing!

Happy Sewing,
Beth

Here's the Vogue pattern that I made for my junior prom dress, the fabrics were a light and dark shade of jade green.