Butterick 5469 Boiled Wool Jacket

Thank you for the nice comments on my wool pencil skirt and weighing in on the tuck-or-no-tuck dilemma!  The comments mostly confirmed to me that untucked is a better look with that skirt, but there's nothing wrong with tucked either.  On to the next... 


I bought this boiled wool fabric at a fabric market in Germany about 4 years ago.  I think I remember being very pregnant at the time.  Boiled wool jackets are traditional in that area (though not very popular for everyday wear now from what I saw), and my mom has a few.  I tried on a bunch while I lived there but the ones I liked never had long enough sleeves for my monkey arms. 

After I found the fabric I liked, I couldn't decide on a pattern.  Thick boiled wool wouldn't take well to darts or a lot of seams.  Eventually I paired the fabric up with Butterick 5469, now out of print, but I still worried there were too many seams.  While I was sewing it last week, the weather was quite cool and I was getting excited to actually wear this jacket here in Florida.  Of course, now that it is complete, we are back in the 70s here.

The only change I made to this jacket was to lengthen the sleeves.  If I were to make it again (I keep thinking it would be nice in linen texture), I would lengthen it a bit.  It is quite a "shrunken" fit. 

The boiled wool ended up working very well with this pattern.  The princess seams lay nicely, and the pockets have great body with the pleating detail but aren't too bulky.

Here is a closeup of the details.  The pockets are pleated to stand away from the body a bit.  Instead of attaching the collar and front facings in the usual way, I just attached them wrong-sides together and trimmed close to the stitching (closer on the outside than inside) for a decorative finish with no bulk.  The sleeve hems and bottom hem are just left raw since boiled wool doesn't ravel and I didn't want the bulk of hems.

This jacket was actually quite quick to make since there is no lining and lots of raw edges.  :-)

 

Wool pencil skirt... to tuck or not to tuck?

When I go through my closet and get rid of things, there are always a couple of things I can't bear to part with yet.  Because of that, I have a pile of older clothes waiting for me to do some type of refashion, and I still have some UFOs, even after finishing or pitching many of them a year or so ago.  Since I'm really working on enjoying what I have (stash sewing and such), I'm going to try to do a weely or bi-weekly UFO finish or refashion.  We'll see how long this lasts...

 

Here is my first entry - a wool pencil skirt.  I've had the fabric for at least five years (one of my very first Sawyer Brook purchases) and the half-finished skirt for about three.  I have no clue what the pattern is, but it's a straight-forward pencil skirt with some waist tucks and a narrow waistband.

Last night, all I had to do was add the waistband, zipper, and hems, and I was ready for church this morning.

Now here is my question - do you think it looks better with a top tucked or untucked?  I don't have a very defined waist, and the waist I do have is quite high, so I feel like I look proportionally "off" a lot of times if I tuck in a top.  I wore the skirt to church today with an untucked top, but I was a little sad it covered the tucks.

I think the proportion looks fine from the back - it's just the front where I feel like it looks super high-waisted

I was worried the pleats would make the skirt poof out over my belly area, but that's wasn't a problem.

Closeup of the tucks.

and super closeup of the fabric.  Soooo gorgeous.  I bought about a yard and a half of this before I knew much about fabric requirements for sewing different garments.  I think it was a remnant and I had dreams of sewing a jacket... with 1.5 yards.  Ha!!  It took me several years to come to terms with the fact that I just didn't have enough fabric, and a skirt was the way to go.

So back to my question, do you think it looks better tucked or untucked?  Am I just way too concerned with the position of my waist ?

Matching Toddler and Doll Clothes

I made my almost-two-year-old niece her Christmas gift this year, and from what I hear, she likes it.  :-)  She is very involved with her "Baby" a bitty baby doll, and Baby only had one outfit, so Aunt Jenny made her and her doll a matching outfit and pj's.

 

These aren't the best photos since I took them a dark December night while frantically wrapping and packing a mailer. 

Here are th ematching skirt outfits.  For E's little tees, I traced an old pj top of my son's in the appropriate size.  I also had my sister take some critical measurements of the little model (waist, sleeve length, diaper girth...)  For the doll, I found a lot of the measurements online and got the rest from my sister also (such as doll head circumference to make sure the shirts fit over her head).

I didn't want the tees to be too boring, so I added a little braid detail to the necklines.

For the jammies, I also traced old 2t clothes of my son's and worked off my baby doll measurements.

I've had this knit print from JoAnns sitting around for awhile, waiting for the perfect niece project.

I think they turned out really cute, and, more importantly, I hear that Miss E likes them.  I'm planning to do the same for her second birthday coming up in a couple months.

Sweater Tunic

It's a new year!  At least, it was about a week ago.  I would do a year review type deal, but I don't feel like I was that productive last year - in either sewing or blogging, so I am ready to just move on. 

Lately, I've been considering dropping this blog (and I'm sure some of you thought I'd already done so), but I would miss it, so I continue on with my sporadic posting, and as always, I really appreciate you stopping by to see what I'm up to.  :-)

Just a few words on the the new year, though - not really any resolutions per se, but I do have some thoughts that pertain to my sewing.

     1.  It's time to go for it - I often scale back my vision or plan for a fabric because I fear I'll be too scared to wear it or I might just not like it and will have ruined "good" fabric.  I am invariably happier when I go with my original plan (see tunic below!), and I don't want a closet full of safe, blah garments anyway.

     2.  For heaven's sake, I need to sew things I will wear.  I do not need any more church-only dresses!  Conversely, I need to wear what I sew - if I make a little cotton skirt to wear for "everyday," then I need to shave my legs and wear it and not throw on the same jeans as always.

     3.  No more tweed or wool or thick sweater knits.  I need to make peace with the fact that I live in Florida, not the northeast.  Embrace the cotton and linen!  It's January and 80 degrees out today, afterall.

Of course, numbers 2 and 3 are flexible if I am using a fabric already in my stash.  :-)

Now, for a recent creation:

I made this tunic from Sawyer Brook's Banana Cream, a pretty cotton wool sweater knit.  I really liked the shape of this Sixties Jumper from Boden - the looser sleeves and funnel neck - and I liked the pockets on the Retro Jumper.  I envisioned it as a tunic to wear with leggings, but I almost chickened out.  I figured if I made it regular sweater length, then I could wear it a lot more often - with jeans or skirts, and places where I don't feel comfortable wearing leggings, but really, I don't need any more plan old sweaters. 

My pattern for this was my basic tee, Butterick 3344 (out of print).  I just lengthened and widened the hem to a tunic, and I widened the sleeves a bit.  I also drafted the funnel neck. 

In the morning, I wore this with black ballet flats, but by the afternoon, I was chilly and switched to boots.

 

Ignore the cami shadow - I need to wear it with a different cami.  :-)

In the end, I am really glad I forged ahead with the tunic.  It's a shape I don't really have in my closet, and I think it's fun and comfy!  The cotton in this sweater knit keeps it pretty cool.

 

Simplicity 2181

Thanks so much for the comments on my red sweater.  That was a real labor of love, and I'm so happy with how it turned out. 

Today, I'm going to share a top I made about a week ago for a little break from my cranberry jacket.  I really want to finish that jacket up before I leave for a short Thanksgiving vacay in a few days.  All it needs is buttons and a couple of buttonholes.

This is Simplicity 2181, which I made once before here.

I love how this one turned out, also, but I wonder if I should shorten it a few inches.  It's giving off a bit of a sloppy vibe here to me, maybe because it's paired with the slouchy knit pants (also recently sewn, which I'll explain in my next post)

Maybe the solution is to try it with some skinny jeans today and see what I think.  If I still don't love the length then, time for a chop.  What do you think?

Of course, skinny jeans seems to be my go-to for unfrumpying my comfiest tops.  :-)

Here is a closeup of the front detail.  The fabric is Magenta Magic from Sawyer Brook.  I love when I make this top how it all comes together in one step when you put in that little strip to make the fabric bunch up.  I still think this is a great pattern for a really fluid jersey. 

The only change I made was to give my hips a bit more room, probably about two inches total.  If you recall, on the last version, I hemmed it a bit shorter because the hip area was tight.

 

Red Sweater

This sweater was a long time in the making.  I had the vision last fall sometime and then had to work out the cable chart.  Then, the knitting took awhile, including what seemed like yards of ribbing.  Finally, I cast off only to decide the ribbing at the neckline wasn't long enough, so it sat around for a month or so until I worked up the desire to rip out and rib some more. 

THEN, I got the genius idea to try to submit the pattern to Knitty, but about 1/3 of the way through writing up the pattern, I decided, um, no, but I did try to take halfway decent photos.

The yarn is a Noro Maiko that I got at a LYS near my parents' house, Kitnit.  I don't know if I've mentioned them before, but I LOVE that yarn store.  :-)  Such great yarn and a nice, calm atmosphere.

Here is the page on Ravelry.

Pirate Vest

This is the first  year I've sewn something for one of my boys for Halloween.  I'm just not a big Halloween-loving person.  (Last year, I did sew Tinkerbell for myself.) 

 

My little guy wanted to be Jake the Neverland Pirate (from Disney Junior).  You can buy costumes for this character, but it's so easy to recreate without any polyester!  Jeans, a white tee with a slit at the neck, and a vest whipped up from stash fabrics.  I self-lined it, so there are no raw edges exposed at seams.  I matched up all the raw edges and covered them with yellow bias tape (also from stash fabric).  The boots are adult pirate costume boot covers that I resized with a few snips and zips through the sewing machine.  A strip of red fabric for the head, and a store-bought sword complete the look.

 

My ninja's outfit is polyester, courtesy of Target.  :-)