Is it spring jacket time yet?

'Cause I've got mine! Vogue 8480, a few yards of sandwashed twill, and upholstery thread (ha!) makes quite a nice little jacket. I particularly like the bell sleeves. I'm not terribly enamored of the pockets (not very deep, which means they won't hold my keys or mp3 player securely) and I wish the pattern included a lining. I especially wish this because it would be fun to line this little coat with quilter's flannel--something cute that would provide a bit of extra warmth. All things considered, though, I'm really tempted to make this pattern again . . . in lime green or violet.

Displayed on my new dress model!

A detail of one of the buttons--fake vintage, but cute!

Pattern Search

I wish that someone would start a website where I could go and ask a knowledgeable group of people "hey, does anyone know the pattern number of a Vogue, Christian Dior dress and coat ensemble? It's a yellow coat. Double-breasted."

A bright yellow coat. That's got to be memorable, right?

At least, I did wish for that website until I remembered about the Vintage Sewing Pattern Wiki. Ask and you shall receive!

I missed it at So Vintage Patterns (in my size, too!). Guess it's back to eBay.

A Winter Library Dress

It is getting colder here in Northern California (read, ~65 degrees), and so I've been poking about for a nice coat pattern. Unfortunately, the coat will have to remain in a theoretical (yet perfectly made) state since I'm still at the sewing stage in which I struggle with finishing seams. Something tells me that before I tackle coating wool, I should probably practice a bit more. Not that this has stopped me from buying patterns, of course. Or thinking of ways to alter said patterns so that I end up with something along the lines of this:

Mint, by Jodi Arnold

Anyway, I decided to compromise and make a coat dress instead. Looks (somewhat) like a coat, but without all the hassle of me screwing it up. An eBay pattern search finally turned up the following cute bit:

There were, of course, problems. I knew going into it that I'd need to resize the pattern a bit, but these ladies (hard to tell, I know), are evidently even more buxom than described, because a good 8 inches of girth needed to be removed. I took out at least 6 when I made the muslin version (not to be shown here for reasons of decency). You'd think that would have sufficed, but not quite. The thing was turning out to be more coat, meant to be worn over several layers of down-filled garments, than dress. However, most of the way through the final version I decided I didn't want to take out all my nice flat fell seams, so I just created a seam straight down the back, thus removing another 4 inches.

I know, I know--you aren't supposed to "resize patterns" that way. Next time I'll do it the right way [fingers crossed].

The dress turned out okay--the front is still a little loose, but I like it. I used some green corduroy with tiny little white and yellow flowers on it, so it feels a bit like it was made out of a flour sack--if flour sacks were made out of corduroy. With brown tights and ballet flats, though, it'll be the perfect dress for poking about in the library stacks on rainy days in January, particularly in my favorite section, good old PR6015.