Jalie Tania Coatigan

This was one of those super quick ideas... I have lots of big coats, but since I can't go anywhere they're not getting worn much this winter. What my wardrobe was missing was an easy to throw on car coat. Something for the supermarket run, which is my one outing of the week.

Enter the Jalie Tania coatigan:

I decided on Saturday that I would make this. I traced the pattern off and rummaged around for wool coating remnants. I knew I didn't have enough for a whole coat, but I had this green/black coating, and thought I had enough of a blue to mix the two. 

Not nearly enough of the blue and barely enough of the green/black. The collar needed to be pieced with a centre seam and the inner collar is actually another black wool melton, but it's not really noticeable.

What I did have a little leftover of, was this check wool (flannel weight) that I'd used for P's Jean Paul Gaultier culottes all of six years ago!

I cut it on the bias, fused it to some heavyweight interfacing (the only thing I had to purchase - thank Fabric Deluxe!) and then found another wool flannel leftover (from these shorts), fused that to more interfacing, then basted the two together and treated them as one. Together they were so close to wool melton coating weight it worked perfectly.

I did all the cutting on Saturday afternoon as the kids watched a movie. By Sunday morning I'd decided that i just can't abide unlined jackets, and my mismatched wool flannels would have made for very odd insides anyway.. So I rummaged through the linings stash and found this lovely emerald green lining that was part of my friend's mum's bequeathed stash.

The Tania coatigan does come with a digital add-on for a lining but I really couldn't be bothered printing that off and retracing everything. So I did my "usual" way: I overlapped the front and back pattern pieces so they were single top/bottom pieces. I cut the back piece on the fold which gave me the 2cm of seam allowance (normally the centre back seam) as a pleat  to add a bit of wearing ease.

I've finished the bottom with a kind of mostly bagged and then eventually stitched with the hemming which is indescribable and possibly unrepeatable. ;) but it saved me from any handstitching at all. The lining has an extra 3/8" or so of length at both sleeves and hem so it slightly overhangs the stitching line, also giving that bit of vertical wearing ease.

by this time I was really enjoying myself and so I decided to finish the facing with some bias binding from the very last of the wool flannel. I also threw in a hanging loop and a label. I've stitched the facing down which is visible on the back of the coat - a bit unorthodox, but it's a fairly utilitarian looking coat anyway, and that allows the hanging loop to be functional without lifting the facing up.

I finished sewing it late Sunday night (OK, technically it was Monday morning) and I pretty much haven't taken it off since then.

I chose size V with equates to a european 42, and was the lower of the two sizes my measurements fell between. Given I was using a coating and adding a lining I might have been wiser to size up. It's a tiny bit tight across the back shoulders if I have a heavy jumper underneath and the sleeves are relatively narrow for a coat. This size would be perfect in an unlined linen summer version.

As it is, it works perfectly over a t-shirt, and is exactly the kind of thing I needed to throw on for short outings. Not as big as a full coat, and not as shabby as a Polartec camping jacket.

And all made from leftovers!

Crayon dressing

Being stuck at home (read: crappy, cold rental) made me realise I needed another pair of pull on ponti pants and more long sleeved wool tops.

I didn't have any solid colour ponti and I'm not quite ready for bright, printed pull on pants - give me another month of lockdown and I may yet eat those words - so I set off to Fabric Deluxe who have a great selection of solid ponti fabrics (1.5m needed - note to self). Chocolate brown is my jam!

The elastic waist pants are Vogue 9284 which I'd sewn once before and wondered about their legitimacy. Well, I wear them all the time, and that was before workwear, athlesiurewear and loungewear all got thrown into the Covid blender and became the same thing!

I could certainly do with another pair.

The sizing on this pattern is odd. I measure between the 14 and 16, yet I've made the size 12, even taken them in a little, and you can see they're still not tight.

The side seams are sewn last and that allows for a bit of fit adjusting. The pattern has a 5/8" seam allowance, so if you'd underestimated your thigh size there'd be room to adjust. I ended up sewing my 5/8" seam, and then, instead of a second row of stitching 1/4" into the seam allowance, I did it 1/4" into the pants. I've also added 1&1/2" length at the lengthen/shorten line and I'm happy to say they're the perfect length (the navy ones are a tad short). I can wear these with flats or boots where they have a bit of a jodhphur vibe.

In a nice, heavy ponti I like the slight looseness and it gives them more of a nana trouser look and less like leggings that I'm meant to be running around in.

In rummaging around in my stash I found this heavy wool knit that came from my friend's mum's stash (many thanks to the late Barb xx)

There was just enough for a long sleeved tee, so I made a Liesl + Co Metro T, size medium, no mods. Perfect!

  

Because too much brown is never enough, and we weren't quite at lockdown and face mask stage when I took these photos I dragged a kid off to a nice brown bird mural and snapped some pictures.

Of course, most of the time I'm wearing this outfit it's under a coat (even indoors, curse this crappy rental), of which I have quite a few brown ones! (this one is Gerard Darel and I bought it in London in 2001)

I handed the coat to my son to wear while he photographed me and he looked so gangsta and cool in it, I wish I'd taken a photo of him! :)

The shirt is my Liesl + Co Recital shirt in fabric from Phillips Shirts. For a very comfy outfit it almost looks "put together" - at least by my standards.

City Stroll revisit

I made the City Stroll skirt for myself (twice) years ago but I under-grew it (is that the opposite of outgrew?)

Time for another!

I recalled that it could be made with a 1m cut of fabric, so I picked up just that much of this great mustard yellow denim from Fibresmith

It took a fair bit of puzzling to work out how to layout the pattern pieces and I was just about to go and hunt through my photos as I'd definitely snapped a pic of the final layout, when I figured it out anyway.

And then, what do you know, the very next day my phone did that "on this day" thing and showed me a photo from five years ago of the skirt pattern pieces laid out on a 1m cut of fabric!

My previous makes of this skirt had been a size 14 and a size 12. The 14 was always a bit big because I'd actually made it incorrectly and bound the raw edge rather than using the binding as a facing, but it worked back then. Here are the first ones and a link to an Oliver + S guest post showing what can, and can't, be done in a wrap skirt :)

The 12 was the one I'd kept and had under-grown. Thankfully I had traced off the size 10 when I was trying to find some way to make a skirt out of another remant piece of fabric (which turned out not to be possible!)

It's a really nicely shaped skirt with darts at the back, and it truly does behave better than any other wrap skirt I own.

It even works for cute kids: When 4 year old A wanted a "skirt that goes flat like yours" I made her one too by altering another pattern. I should revisit that idea!

I've added 1 inch of length to the size 10 here and the fit is perfect.

And it has pockets!

The pattern intends for you to close the wrap skirt invisibly. Buttons facing inwards are sewn to the outer wrap and buttonholes on the inner wrap.

As I had done on my first one I chose to use some of my snaps. These are a brass snap and looked perfect with fabric. Easy on, easy off I figured...

Only the snaps are so stiff i can't just pull on the fabric to undo them for fear of ripping the snaps right out of the (interfaced and reinforced) denim. So I can only get undressed with the aid of a butter knife! :)

Details:

Pattern: Liesl & Co City Stroll Skirt

Fabric: Denim from Fibresmith

Size: 10, with 1" extra length

V1564 - Sandra Betzina raincoat in oilskin

Settle in and buckle up, this is going to be a long one!

I've finally finished my Vogue 1564 raincoat.

The idea of sewing this pattern and the initial muslin fitting goes back over a year when I was convinced I could sew it in this vintage gifted fabric. I couldn't.

And I realised why I thought I could: The pattern I was working from was missing a whole sheet of pattern tissue and so my first layout on the fabric looked promising. Once I came to sew the muslin and realised a pattern sheet was missing, I was in trouble. 

Until I realised I had inadvertently bought the pattern twice. Well of course I had, it was such a good idea after all. I had all the pieces needed to make a muslin, but now knew I needed a different fabric. The idea got shelved until autumn of this year. (meanwhile I returned the faulty pattern copy, scored a second good one and have now on-gifted that one)

Excited to be making the coat last year I had already tracked down some closures at Jimmy's Buttons. The closures were brown leather and so that would dictate my new fabric choice somewhat.

It seems that sourcing closures one likes is about the hardest part of this whole coat and there is a blog post dedicated to just that problem on the Sandra Betzina website.

I had decided that the Merchant and Mills Dry Oilskin was going to be my fabric. I just had to get my head around the $60/m pricetag.... Armed with my Christmas work shopping giftcard I hit up Fibresmith. I was looking at the different colours of the Merchant and Mills dry oilskin and then commented on the one bolt of the oiled oilskin.

It turns out that that had been an order in error, but it's lovely. It looked like it would age with a really nice patina and be quite awesome. I was about to buy it when I said, in passing, to Leslie that I could only be happier if it were to be dark brown (I don't even remember what colour it was).

She let me in on a secret: There was a bolt of fabric in the storeroom that I might like. It's an Australian made oiled cotton. Probably that famous brand that keeps you "dry as a bone", wink wink. She didn't have it on display as everywhere this fabric bolt leant, it left an oily mark. Do you remember Soul Glo? Think of this as the fabric equivalent! :)

The drape was so much better. Holding up a couple of metres of each fabric it was clear that it had to be this one, unless I wanted to look like a scrunched paper bag. Bonus for being cheaper too!

So I had my fabric and my closures. I just needed a lining. 

I grew up wearing the quintessential Driza-bone drover's coat. I set my dad the task of trying to find a photo of me from the early eighties at horse riding school in a Driza-bone, but that might have been too big a challenge. I'll add it if it ever turns up.

My memories of those coats is that they were always lined in a flannel or cotton, never a slippery lining. And I figured this coat should be a cotton lining, not a slippery synthetic. I wanted an abstract, geometric print that wouldn't require me to match plaid or stripes and that was in grey or brown tones. How perfect is this Stof cotton from Fabric Deluxe?!

I set to work sewing.

The pattern calls for every seam to be flat felled and since the coat is lined, that could feel like a waste of time. But I really like a flat felled seam. They're not hard to do, they have a satisfying thickness to them and they're just so neat. (Here's a tutorial if you've never tried it before)

Flat felling the seams of sleeves is never quite as much fun, but when the sleeves are adult sized and in a regular fabric they're not so bad  (never again flat felled seam blog post here!)

The other pattern instruction I had to take literally was to "press" my seams. Usually we interpret that to mean "iron" them, right? Not with this fabric. I did test iron a scrap for a laugh and instantly soaked a press cloth in warm oil!

I used my bamboo point turner and "pressed" every seam. In making this coat my hands have never been more moisturised and the backs of my dining table chairs have never been better polished!

Eventually I had the outer coat constructed and the lining made. The only changes I'd made to the construction was to sew the sleeve closure tabs to the sleeves before closing the inner sleeve seams, and likewise to sew the back flap closure on before constructing the rest of the coat. Just much, much easier that way.

I'd also added some corduroy flat piping to the facing/lining seam just cause I had it in the stash and thought it looked good. I suspect it was a gift from Emi ages ago? There was exactly the right amount too!

Then just before I sewed the lining in I had a flashback to how awfully cold that oilskin coat of my youth had been. A cotton oilskin, lined with cotton does very little to keep you warm, even if it is keeping you dry and free from windchill.

This coat was already so long in the making, a day's delay to buy some wool batting and insulate the mother wasn't going to kill me, or the budget.

Spotlight had this pure wool quilt batting on sale and it was so wide I only needed a metre. Not only would it add some warmth, but I figured the wool would help soak up the oils and stop the lining from turning into a greasy, stained mess. Have you got the impression this is an oily oilskin yet?!

There's just a tiny peak of my Kylie and the Machine "Yes I Made It" label that I added.

I simply cut and sewed another lining and then basted them together around the periphery.

I was nervous about a batting underlining causing it to be thick and doona-ish, but I think it's just thin enough. I can feel the insulating quiltiness, but I don't get the feeling that I'm looking like the Michelin man due to the extra layer. I'm SO glad I added it.

In sewing in the lining I machine sewed the sleeve lining using that weird technique where you put one inside the other. It's hard to describe but always reminds me of an intestinal intussusception. Medical folk will get it from that description (and understand that it's fatal if you don't get it turned out correctly!). I tried to follow the pattern's instructions for the hem lining but I'm not entirely sure what was going on where the facing met the turned up hem. It worked, but perhaps not as it was intended to. 

I'm pretty happy with the coat worn open, open but not belted, or belted. It's working for me every which way!

The pockets are welt pockets which were well explained in the instructions. I do rather wish I'd edgestitched the welt flap. I wonder if that was in the instructions and I missed it, as I did see another reviewer of this pattern who edgestitched her welt flaps ("welt flaps" is making me laugh, I keep mis-typing it as 'wet flaps")

Those belt loops are reminding me, I reached for my little plastic shim thing for sewing those on and it worked a treat. Otherwise I did nothing too special in this sewing of this fabric. I started out with a denim needle for most of the coat construction. Then I switched to a universal 70/10 for the lining cotton, then forgot to switch back to finish the coat and even to sew on the leather closures and you know what, it made absolutely no difference. If you give the little Janome a bit of verbal encouragement she can do anything. I think we get too hung up on technicalities in sewing sometimes. Just have a crack.

little bits of wool batting fibres stuck to everything!

To sew the closures on, I used my zipper foot so I could get in close, lifted the top flap of the leather closure and stitched a horseshoe shape under that upper circle. It's nice and secure and perfectly hidden. The clasp side is simply sewn in a curve V shape from the free edge to a point just before where it folds back on itself then back to the free edge on the other side of the press stud.

To mark all the pattern markings on the fabric I had to do tailors tacks as there's no chalk or pencil that would mark this fabric and with flat felled seams I didn't want to cut notches into my seam allowance. I have said it was a long, slow sew, haven't I?

Fitwise, the pattern is pretty good with a few points of note. It is described as oversized, and oversized it is. The sizes are given as letters A through to J. I measured at the bust and hips of a D (typical Vogue 14/16) with the waist of a C. Yet this is essentially a size B.

I did grade out about one size over the hips as I wanted to be sure it would close comfortably over my hips and that is noted on the pattern to be the one part that is fitted.

I would add the lower sleeve. They really narrow down for a coat sleeve.

The upper raglan part of the sleeve is roomy, but the cuff is relatively narrow. The sleeves are also short (emphasis necessary!). I'm aware I'm well endowed when it comes to arm length, but my muslin suggested I need at least 2 inches extra sleeve length. I added 1 inch at the lengthen line and another inch just before the hem allowance, and then maybe an extra 1/3" in a lesser hem turn up. Given how the sleeve narrows it would probably be wiser to add it all at the lengthen line which is around the bicep/elbow area.

I also gave the whole coat 2 inches extra length. One inch of that I added above the waist (and then remarked all the closures accordingly), the other inch I added at the hem. Thankfully I'd made all those notes for myself back when I sewed the muslin last year.

The hood essentially forms a nice collar. Given the oiliness of my fabric I probably need to wear a scarf most of the time! At risk of a bit of Soul Glo hairstyle I popped the hood up for a photo. I wouldn't plan to wear it like this, but at school pick up yesterday in a sudden squall of rain I did, and it worked a treat!

I'm delighted with every choice along the way with this coat. I expect it will last for many years and it will be fun to watch it age, dry out and change over the years. Meanwhile it has it's own coat hook in the hallway so it doesn't rub against anything fancy in the wardrobe.

I'm feeling well prepped for our Melbourne winter drizzle now, and I feel like I nailed the inner-urban-country look :)

Details:
Pattern: Vogue V1564
Size: B, graded out 1 size over hips
Modifications: 2 inches extra body length, 2 inches extra sleeve length. Interlined. Piping around facing
Fabrics: Cotton Oilskin from Fibresmith, Stof cotton lining from Fabric Deluxe, wool batting interlining from Spotlight
Notions: Closures from Jimmy's Buttons. 
For interfacing I used a cotton muslin from stash. The facing and hood are fully interfaced, and sections of interfacing were basted behind each welt pocket, belt loop attachment, closure etc before they were sewn on.
Three ( seriously!) x 100m spools of Gutterman thread.

Maaidesign: See You At Six sweater dress

One of only three pieces of new fabric that have found their way home with me this year was this exquisite remnant of See You At Six French Terry from Maaidesign

I'm over on the Maaidesign blog talking more about the fabric. Follow this link for the blog post and then all the lovely/dangerous links to the new batch of See You At Six fabrics! The moral of the story is don't delay. These fabrics always sell out super fast, and for good reason

Using a remnant limited me somewhat with my pattern and I almost considered a hoodie for my daughter. But once you've felt this fabric then there's no way you're not going to claim it for yourself. And those colours are so absolutely me (even if floral prints usually aren't me!)

I settled on Butterick B6494, a raglan sleeve dress pattern that I'd bought when I was one my hunt for a good raglan pattern (just before Liesl + Co released the Neighbourhood Sweatshirt which I could easily hack into a dress)

It was a bit tricky fitting it onto the fabric (sorry I don't know exactly what the cut was - maybe more than 1m, but less than 1.5m), but doable thanks to the six, narrow panels of the dress and the fact that I didn't have to match my print, and the fabric is a generous 150cm wide.

Too lazy for a proper muslin I hit up Sewing Pattern Review for tips. Based on that "research" I sized down one size from my measurements - after all, I knew with this fabric I could get away with figure hugging. The other change was to leave off the pockets. 

The pockets are normally set into the princess seams at the front and would end up overlapping each other by an inch or two at the middle. That puts five layers of fabric, two for each pocket and one for the centre front panel, right on one's belly spot. No thanks! - and I adore pockets... I toyed with the idea of a kangaroo pocket which would give me a three layer thickness evenly across the centre, but I actually didn't have enough fabric leftover even for that.

Since Flipper is particularly fond of this dress I have no need for pockets as he seems to magically appear whenever I put it on, and so I can simply hand him things to carry! 

So there you go, make cuddly pajamas to get more hugs from your kids, and sew a tight dress for a more helpful and attentive husband! All the lifestyle tips on this blog :)

You're welcome.

As I was sewing I basted the side seams and tried it on several times before overlocking the seams. I reduced the side seam allowances down to 1/2" from the pattern's 5/8" to give myself a bit more breathing room, but then had to take it the shoulders and arms by an enormous amount. I think I ended up reducing the upper arm circumference by almost two inches.

It appears to be drafted for a much larger upper chest/back and upper arm than the waist/hip size. The sleeve length is also generous. I took 1cm off before cutting as I just could not eke it out of my fabric remnant any other way, and even with my long-ish arms they're a great length.

I'm almost looking forward to colder weather now. Bring it on!

Details:

Pattern: Butterick B6494

Size: 12

Modifications: Sleeve widthe reduction

Fabric: See You At Six french terry from Maaidesign

End of summer Perth Dress

It was cooling off and feeling like summer was over in mid February and then a sudden, late heatwave just before the official first day of Autumn had me scurrying to make one last summer dress.

I'd planned this dress last summer and never got around to it. When the weather forecast predicted 38C on the day of a school fundraiser evening party, I had the perfect occasion and motivation to get it sewn.

The pattern is the Perth Dress by Carolyn & Cassie. I'd already traced off the size 40 last year and so I cut it out in one evening, sewed it almost entirely the following evening, and then added the collar and finished it off in the brief afternoon period between work and school function.

It's a fairly straight forward sew and the instructions were perfectly fine. I was going to use a new method of doing the pockets that I just learned from a Japanese sewing book, but I forgot and went ahead with a more regular way - and the way this pattern had it described as well. I should photograph and blog the Japanese technique as it results in a finished pocket seam allowance towards the back and an open finished side seam with no snipping seam allowances or weak spots. It's kinda magic.

I sewed the sleeves in flat as I find that quicker, but otherwise I followed the instructions.

Fitwise, I'm happy with it except that the collar sits a bit far back for me. I don't think it's the shoulder seam as that's sufficiently forward such that the sleeve head sits well. But I think I would need to do a considerable high, round neck adjustment to get that collar to sit closer to my back neck.

It's noticeable with this pattern as the way the pleat at the front is formed is by closing the collar - you really can't wear the dress unbuttoned. Buttoning up the collar makes it clear that it's sitting too low at the back as the front feels a bit too close. Not choking, but overly close.

I recall only doing a high, round neck adjustment once on a Vogue pattern and that was only by about 1cm. This one looks to need closer to an inch. I was thinking to go back to my Liesl + Co Recital Shirt and button it all the way up to see how that feels. I wonder if it's an adjustment I would often need to do and I just never notice it because I don't wear things buttoned up...

I suspect it may be both: That the pattern leans a little to the low side, and I am a little to the high side.

This photo gives the truest representation of the fabric colour (but there was way too much squinting into the light for it to be a good photo spot :) ). It's a super light linen from Phillips Shirts that I bought over a year ago.

I threw it on for the school party and was perfectly comfy and received a few compliments on the night. I volunteered to sell cold drinks on one of the stalls and was kept very busy. The length of the dress had me mindful of how I bent over to rummage in the bottom of the ice buckets - it's short, but I think it needs to be to balance the width and shape.

Two days later I threw it on again (hence the wrinkles) for these photos at a dinner party but given that it hailed today I suspect summer really is finally over. It can be hung up and will still seem new next spring!

It's feeling like time to start sewing outerwear and jeans. I'm not overly fond of cold weather, but I do love sewing cold weather clothes.

Sew Japanese in January - my turn

Having made a few Japanese pattern garments for A during January, I saw the invitation from Blogless Anna and Crafty Jane for a social end of the month catch up.

Of course, I felt the need to make something for me, and I knew I wanted a pair of culottes in the leftover linen. Did I have a Japanese pattern?...

Well, it turned out I did. Nearly all the Japanese sewing pattern books for women that I own came from a local second hand Japanese language bookshop (I know, I used to have one of those at the end of the street, cool huh) when it closed down.

Sadly, sewing books weren't their strong point, and while they had lots of those Stitch Idees embroidery magazines that I love, most of the sewing books were circa 1988. Think floral, drop waisted dresses with low hemlines, long sleeves and huge, white peter pan collars. Of course I took them all, so if you ever need to dress up like a Japanese version of Lady Di then I've got your pattern!

The one, beautiful book I have came as a gift from the lovely Emi, and it's a Dress Style Book which has you drafting every dress you want from a basic block. No culottes and too much work for my end of the month deadline.

Thumbing through the older books I found one that might be as recent as the early nineties:

In there I found this pattern for matching jacket and culottes. Mmmm mmmmm. :)

Eventually I found the sizing information on the pattern sheet and cut the second largest size. I could just fit it all on the remnant of linen. Yay!.

Well, I say I cut it all. But I couldn't cut the waistband or the fly shield as I couldn't find any pattern pieces for either of those. I used that funny Google phone camera app for some translations as the jacket and the culottes pieces were all marked on the cutting layout and it was hard to be sure what was what. It's not a super helpful app as sewing terms are somewhat beyond it, but it got me as far as realising there were no pattern pieces for those parts.

I figured I could sew the pants then just cut a waistband to fit, and for the fly shield I just winged it with a rectangle that was similar to the Hollywood Trouser pattern. In fact, I pulled that pattern out and used it for the pocket technique and the fly construction as there were close to no instructions for the culottes.

The pattern suggested belt loops but I left them off. I couldn't quite make out what was meant to happen at the gather/pleat points on the front and back of the shorts. I just gathered these sections to about as small as I comfortably could and then cut the waistband to fit the raw edge. Zoom in on that button, it's a perfect match!

The linen is every bit as soft and swishy as it looked when A was wearing her culottes and they feel fantastic to wear. And of course, being shorts, you can do everything in them!

The back shorts are cut more on the bias than the front shorts and they have a very skirt-y feel to them.

Dinner in the city with 17 other Japanese sewing book or fabric enthusiasts was wonderful. I wore my culottes with this same top - the upper half of the Vogue Guy Laroche (V1339) dress seen here.

I've worn them quite a few times since. I don't have many pairs of shorts as, while they're very practical, they're not something I've ever felt particularly suited to. But these skirty-shorts feel good.

It amused me to have a photoshoot at the end of the back lane by this purple wall as it just happened that the Instagram posts of P's pants and A's culottes were against the same wall and they were neatly aligned in my feed. Curating your Instagram feed is a serious thing and you gotta know I'm all over that level of blogging (heavy sarcasm font).

But more importantly, you get to steal figs from that tree down the lane...

And the kiddo modelled her new birthday dress for me. More to come later on that one, but I can't help but share this photo of the two of us (almost photobombed by a brother on a bike)