Winter Coat Time - Simplicity 2534 completed

Some speedy sewing has transpired around here and I have finished the child's wool coat I started in this post. Some detailed info there on bound buttonholes if you have a coat or jacket in the works. I am happy to have it done in time for the recipient to wear it for this holiday season, even though I took a detour to make my Little Black Dress.  Hey, I am on a roll these days...I better start with some gift making while the sewing is on a hot streak.

Oh I love this little coat (children's size 6, Simplicity 2534)  and I had to give it a lovely blue lining. The collar and cuffs are from a piece of velvet (luscious quality stuff) I have had for ages. No idea where I bought it and the stuff I see available today is nowhere near the quality.  Maybe next time I go to Britex I will buy a yard of the good stuff, so worth it to have when inspiration strikes. The grey wool I bought at Stone Mountain in Berkeley, a lovely weight of wool and very cashmere feeling. I know - I petted all the cashmeres when I was there. Something on my lifelong sewing list, a cashmere coat.  One of these years.

This pattern does call for cuffs and I made them about 3 inches longer than the finished sleeve length I was going for, that way as my little friend grows a bit the sleeves can be made longer by flipping down the cuffs.  

                                  

I did quilt the bodice portions of the lining with fleece, just to give it some more warmth. Not really tricky, I cut out fleece pieces using the pattern, trimmed away the seam allowance, drew the stitch lines with pencil and stitched away.  On these tiny pattern pieces it took very little time.  The piece on the left has been sewn and on the right you can see my pencil lines.

When I sewed the lining at the hem, I first pressed the lining to get a nice crease, and then pull that back and stitch about 1/2 inch from the crease to get that nice bit of ease that you need in a coat lining.

Real leather knot buttons, because after all that work with the quilting and the buttonholes only the best will do. Actually I am crazy about leather knot buttons, always have been and they may be repetitive but I tend to use them often on jackets and coats for myself.  Classic and if I lose one I can find a replacement.  

As I mentioned this coat is going to a little friend who lives in Seattle but I did want a photo of the coat now, so my friend's daughter was very nice to model it for me and she did a great job. 

Another coat finished - my favorite thing to make. Strange, huh?  but it has been that way for ages, since I made the first one I don't know when. 

Up next, some more knit tops and and a couple of mystery projects.

Plus some planting - I went crazy at Home Depot today with the tulip bulbs which were on super sale. Which is great when you are looking at all the pretty pictures on the package, but they don't grow in the package - so I will be digging some holes this weekend. 

Walking out of the store - here was the view. I had a nice moment with 4 other shoppers who were all stopped in their tracks. Beautiful the way the autumn trees show up against the pink clouds.

Happy December sewing, Beth

Winter coat time - starting with bound buttonholes

It is winter coat time here, or as much as that happens here in temperate Northern California. Mostly we are wearing our rainboots and watching the weeds sprout after our typical dry summer. But in the Pacific Northwest the chill has arrived. A pretty coat is a necessity for a little girl to go see the Nutcracker Ballet dressed in her holiday outfit. I am making a wool coat for a little friend of mine who lives in Seattle. She is 8 years old and an aspiring seamstress. We conferred on the color and selected charcoal grey for a versatile coat.
I find sewing for children a nice palate cleanser after a stretch of complex fitting such as my recent pants quest. For the most part, it is choose a size and go with childrens patterns, with some adjustment for height. For this coat I decided to do bound buttonholes, they seemed to go with the fabric. I don't really have a rule for choosing bound or stitched buttonholes, often I do a sample of both on the fabric and see how it looks with the buttons. This may seem counterintuitive but I can get a better result for a coat front with bound buttonholes rather than machine worked, with the machine buttonholes there is always the chance that there will be one little pest that is slightly crooked.

Here is quick overview of my steps to making bound buttonholes.

Step 1:  on the fused coat front, draw a buttonhole ladder (I use pencil), and then run thread trace through the lines. Here I used orange thread for contrast on the other side with the grey.  On the right, the coat front with the thread trace showing. I also went over the horizontal button lines with wax tailors chalk which disappears when ironed.

Step 2:  (below on left) pin on the buttonhole strips. I didn't show how to make those here, I fold and press a piece of fabric about 1.5" x 6 inches, stitch 1/4" from folded edge, then draw a chalk line 1/2" from fold. Cut precisely at the chalk line, resulting in a strip exactly 1/2" wide with a stitched line down the center.  I do several of these and then cut the buttonhole strips, about 1" longer than the planned buttonhole. Here they are pinned on the marked buttonholes. I sew all the stitching in the same direction. For the ends of the stitch lines, I have marked with my yellow chalk marker. Since the thread ladder in orange is there, I  lay the clear ruler along the orange ladder and mark across the buttonholes. This way everything stays in line and each is equal to the other. 

Step 3: (below on right) The moment of truth - cutting the buttonholes. I marked the cutting lines in a red pen so you can see how it is sliced open. I use a sharp scissors, snip the center first, stopping about 1/4" fron the end, and then cutting the sides of the triangle. The most important thing about cutting the buttonholes is to get just to the stitching, literally one thread weave away from your stitching in order to be able to turn that buttonhole and have it be smooth and flat.   By the way, when I stitch the buttonholes I do backstitch at the ends, you can see the stitching is doubled, and pull the thread tails to tie knots. 

Step 3: Turn the button strips to the right side and smooth them out. Now is the time to sew the little triangles down and secure the buttonhole. If they are cut nicely you should have little triangle flaps like this.

I use my trusty friend, the zipper foot to sew these. 

And the buttonholes are done! I do baste them shut on the wrong side, so they don't get wonky during the handling when finishing all the other steps. I did catch stitch down this front princess seam, was a quick step but it keeps the front nice and smooth. 

I made this same pattern a few years ago for the same little girl, a red version. This year I looked at the children's coat patterns and this is by far the very cutest one out there (not much choice in this category)  plus I already had it, and my little fashionista said it was OK with her.

                   
Onward with some rainy day sewing today. Hope all your winter projects are going along well,
Happy sewing, Beth

Tis the season for more plaid

It has become a tradition that I make some holiday outfits for my little cousins, a family of 4 sisters plus their cousin. So yes, 5 matching holiday outfits, for ages 2 - 10.  There is a brother in there too but he escapes - although last year he did receive a matching necktie. 


My 10 year old cousin is quite tall for her age, has outgrown the looks still worn by her younger sisters, and I heard she liked the clothes shown this year by a popular American designer well known for his classic and preppie styles.  So using that as an inspiration I designed this skirt which has a flat front, partial elastic waistband and a faux wrap with ruffles all around.    I think this style will be going on my own wish list - I have a remnant of charcoal grey wool crepe that would be perfect with this design.

For the younger girls I made jumper style dresses, probably will be worn with a blouse or turtleneck sweater.   

This fabric was fantastic to work with, I bought it at my favorite fabric store, Stone Mountain, and woven into the selvedge are the words "pura lana vergine tartan exclusiva".  Totally worth the price to buy virgin wool made in Italy.  It feels almost like cashmere.    I lined them in purple and got a bit carried away with the seam finish on the hems.  The pattern is Simplicity 2320.

A couple of notes on matching plaids.  

• Start with high quality wool.  You may not want to spend the money on expensive fabric when first working with plaid, but usually the higher quality fabrics are very even, not twisted on the bolt, selvedges nice and straight.  This will help with laying the fabric down and getting the lines to match.   I suggest a slim skirt as a first project, takes very little yardage.
• Refold the fabric.  Instead of 1 fold and matching the selvedges, fold both sides of the fabric inward, creating 2 folds.  Then you can place the center front and back of your skirt on or near these folds, and the side seams will be adjacent for matching.
• Check and double check when laying out the fabric.  I start at the fold, and slowly roll the top layer out, matching the plaids as I go.  Then I check by poking a pin through the fabric and making sure it is hitting matching spots on the plaid grid.
• Shift on the seams to match the plaids,  I think it is OK to move the pieces in relation to each other up to 1/8 -  1/4 ", particularly the side seams.  or just a portion of a seam.  Despite what seems like perfect cutting out - there is always a bit of a shift but you can ease it back in.

Another technique is to cut out one piece, flip it over, place it on the fabric matching the plaids and cut out a mirror image based on the previous.  I did use this method to make the dresses above, since I made 2 of the size 3T and wanted them to be the same.   Looking carefully you can see the side front piece on top of the fabric, to use it as the pattern piece.

The only change I made on this pattern was to cut out the center front bodice piece on the bias, to create visual interest on the front.  I love the juxtaposition of straight and bias plaid and this style seemed to call for that.  Here is a look at the front and back of the size 3T.

For another of my small friends I had a Chanel inspiration so I made this little 2-piece outfit from a boucle I ordered from Fabric.com, which has powder blue and sparkly threads among the black.   It may be hard to see, but the hem of the vest and skirt are fringed, very easy to do with a loose weave.  I machine stitched a double row of very small stitches about 3/4" from the edge and then just pulled out the threads parallel to the hem.  Great fast hem finish - I will definitely keep this one in my bag of tricks.   Outfit is approximately size 5T.

For the rest of this week I will be finishing a number of projects, perhaps some Christmas gift sewing for my mom and sis - but that is all I will say as they read this blog.

Then my last big project of 2010, a coat for myself.  I have some black basketweave wool, my first purchase from Gorgeous Fabrics - so I am eager to begin that.

Happy Holiday Sewing to all,   Beth

Vintage for Children

Vintage patterns and styles have caught my eye lately.  The big 4 pattern companies have a number of vintage reissues but so far I have not tried one.  Recently I found a vintage child’s dress pattern at a rummage sale which I bought it for 25 cents.  

Scrutinizing the pattern instructions I found the copyright date which is 1945.  

Here is a photo of the pattern envelope. 

See Jane run!   

This is my first vintage pattern and I was not expecting the pattern pieces to be blank.  That threw me for a loop initially, but once I pulled out all the pieces and pressed them flat plus some actual reading of the instruction page the notations became clear.

2 large circles  = straight grain line

3 large circles = place on fold

notches = match same as current patterns

medium and small circles = dots, mark and match same as current patterns

For some reason the way the pattern pieces are noted by a letter made via small pinholes  made me laugh.  Here is an example for the front bodice “B”

On the first part of the instruction page there is a short paragraph advertising the “Simplicity Sewing Book”  for 15 cents, which is the same as the price of this pattern.

The pattern is a child’s size 4, and as far as I can tell, it is about the same as a modern child’s size 4.  I used some turquoise cotton I had on the shelf, and the white section is a substantial cotton pique that I think I have had for over 10 years.   There is enough to make a dress or two and I am not sure what I am saving it for.  

Finished dress.   The scalloped front is so cute - I think I will use that detail on some other dresses this summer.  It could be adapted around a neckline or hem.  I have done that in the past by making a template on some stiff paper - try using a kitchen glass or something like that to get the perfect scallops in a snap.  Then the template can be put across the bottom of a dress pattern to make both the hem and facing.

For my first vintage pattern, a child’s dress was fun.  The grown up vintage styles take a lot of fabric!  Think Mad Men or I Love Lucy.   Vintage Dress pattern Vogue 1043 is on my desk and hopefully fabric inspiration will strike.  Now all I need is an occasion to wear it.