Butterick 5334 - Purple wool jacket w/ shawl collar

This is my jacket for February. The idea for it was born last fall when Hancock Fabrics put all their wool on sale half off. There were all the usual colors - black, gray, brown, red, and this deep purple. Since I'd stashed quite a few coordinating purple fabrics at that time, I knew a matching jacket of some sort would be the perfect compliment. Wool is usually scratchy on my sensitive skin, so I went looking for a pattern without a close collar. This is what I ended up with. Although this design wasn't originally picked out of the pattern book as a must have, I really like it. It reminds me of all the sweater knit cardigans that have been made up lately by various bloggers.

I liked the wide shawl collar, princess seams, front peplum and raglan sleeves. The cuffs at the sleeve bottoms were also a fun little detail. I added belt loops at the sides so that I could take this jacket off and not have to keep up with the matching belt. Thin raglan shoulder pads were put in for a little definition. Oh, and the blouse and skirt were also made by me last year. I get a real kick out of wearing an entirely hand made outfit .

This collar is surprisingly not scratchy at all.

The front is closed by a fabric loop and a fabric covered button. These are hidden underneath the tie belt. For the lining I used gray Ambiance. I could not find a similar shade of purple nor any fun coordinating charmeuse fabrics, so I went with plain gray to match the gray in my blouse.

Full lining:

Here's a close-up of the belt loop I added to the side seams.

If the fabrics and notions I've used are recent enough to remember, I thought it would be interesting to post how much a garment costs me to make. I meant to do this for my turquoise wool dress but forgot when I was doing the post.

TOTAL COSTS:

Butterick pattern: $0.99

2 1/2 yards purple wool on sale half off: $18.75

1 3/8 yards gray Ambiance purchased with a coupon: $7.42

a yard or so of interfacing (which I purchase large quantities of when it's on sale): $1.50

covered button floating around my button box: $0.50

grand total: $29.16 give or take plus a little bit for sales tax

Not bad for a fitted lined jacket, right?

I must say that this jacket was not much fun to make. I started it in January and promptly lost my sewing mojo. Finishing it was almost painful, I guess because it's a solid color and doesn't have any challenging bits like topstitching or pockets or some such. But I hate to leave projects unfinished. And I knew it would get a lot of wear. Er, maybe next winter on the lots of wear, though. Spring is coming on quickly here in Texas.

McCall's 5523 revisited - Purple tweed skirt

Okay, finally, something that's not brown or teal. Remember this sweater completed earlier this month? Well, here's the first of several garments I'm making to match. This pattern was used in September to make another skirt. I ironed out the fit issues with that one, and this time around it went together incredibly fast. Or, fast for me, that is.

This time around I used the pleated lower back. I shortened it by taking length out of the middle section, and not trimming anything off the pleats.

An invisible zipper was used and I added a full lining. This fabric came from JoAnn's Venice collection, recently purchased for 50% off, and is currently on clearance for 70% off(!). There's quite a bit of it here in San Antonio, in case anyone's interested.

Since I lined it, I couldn't decide what to do with the lower section. I just went ahead and put in the pleats like the outside. Both fabrics are pretty thin, so this didn't add any bulk. Someone asked one time why I make my linings so long. The reason is I like it to completely cover any inside raw edges. I do a sit test and make sure nothing is peeking out before it's declared finished.

Up next is a Christmas dress from a pattern that I feel has gotten an unfair bad reputation. Hopefully I'm right and it turns out pretty.

Amanda's Not-So-Shrunken Cardigan - in eggplant

Another knit is finished! I'm getting closer and closer to my 2009 goal of 6 knits for the year. This pattern is Wendy Bernard's "Marilyn's Not-So-Shrunken Cardigan". In all honesty it wasn't even on my radar to make. But then I saw Lynn's awesome pink cardigan made this past summer, and I had to have one. I already had this yarn in my extremely small stash from last year and the printed gauge was the same, so I went for it. By the way, I made this fun white blouse in January. Isn't it the perfect top for wearing under this sweater? I love the look!

The yarn is Knit Pick's Merino style 100% wool and it is super warm. I feel like I have discovered a new thing in wool sweaters. They just don't seem to sell them much in Texas, or perhaps they've been out of my price range. Anyway, I hate to be cold, even with our light southern winters, so wool sweaters are great to have on hand.

This pattern is suppose to be looser - hence the name - but I wanted something more form-fitting. I separated the sleeves from the body at 9" diagonally from the CO edge, instead of the called for 10". I just knew this would be a perfect fit. When I finally tried it on after I had done the bottom ribbing, I thought it was a bit snug. Hmmm. I guess I'll check my gauge now. Instead of getting 22 stitches per 4 inches per the pattern, I was getting 24 stitches! Duh! Totally a rookie mistake. I ended up knitting a wider button band and putting the ruffle directly on it. It was still snug, but not too bad.

And then do you know what happened?! I washed it and blocked it and the thing grew to the perfect size!!! Huh? Is this normal behavior for wool fibers? Do you knitters out there expect your wool to grow and knit sweaters smaller because of it? I'd really like to know, because while I know a lot about the behavior of fabrics, I know nothing about yarns.

Aren't these ruffles cute? Thanks, Lynn, for sharing your great modifications. I found the perfect buttons at JoAnn's. After I made both button band and buttonhole band and tried to close it, the buttons kept popping out. I had to go back with needle and thread and whip-stitch around the buttonholes for reinforcement. I'm just learning new knitting techniques left and right with this one!

I chose this purple yarn because I love the color but don't have anything like it in my closet. I also have some wonderful matching fabrics built up to make coordinating garments with, if I ever get finished with the wardrobe contest.

BWOF 10-2008-119 - Floral wrap top

Oops! I know I wrote about all the completed projects from last week I had to post here. This week has been super busy for some reason. We were suddenly out of everything, including pants for my 4 year old that didn't have holes in the knees. So I've been running here and there purchasing things... But here's my new blouse!

It's a simple wrap top made of stretch satin from Jo-Anne's. I really love the fabric and was excited to see this blouse in the October issue of BWOF (Burda World of Fashion), also made from stretch satin. The front is cut on the bias giving it some lovely drape. Here you can see the invisible side zip:

And the other side with the gathers:

I so enjoyed making this blouse. I had zero fit issues, the fabric was a dream to work with, and everything went together smoothly. Plus, since it has some stretch to it, it's very comfortable.

Okay, here's a few detail shots. As you probably know by now, I like the bias tape. I couldn't find a light gray to match the background, but I thought this fuchsia/red matched pretty well. This is the inside neckline and facings.

This is the shoulder seam. I did french seams here and more bias tape around the armhole seam:

At the bottom hem I also used bias tape. I usually don't do this, but since in the front there were two layers of bias cut fabric, it would have been too bulky to do my usual turned under invisible hem. Plus the bias tape kept the fabric from stretching out while I stitched the hem. I used gray thread for the top and fuchsia/red for the bobbin. That way the gray showed through (barely) on the front hemline but the bias tape didn't have gray stitching showing on the inside. Here you can also see the side french hem.

Here's the sleeve hem. This is what I usually do, turning under the edge so there's no exposed raw fabric that needs to be finished.

Here's the line drawing:

You might notice my blouse wraps in the other direction. This is because after I'd cut it out, I noticed some marks on the right front of the fabric. That problem was easily solved by sewing the left side on top instead of the right.

I intended to wear this blouse with a matching gray skirt. I started this skirt last week with the intention of having it completed last weekend. I'm having fit issue upon fit issue with this dumb thing. I want to wave the white flag of defeat, but I just purchased this fabric so the cost is fresh on my mind. And I think the style is cute with that side ruffle and inverted pleat at the bottom. So I might just set it aside and come back to it in the fall. Which is something I never do. Once I start a project, I follow through until it's either completed or in the wadder pile.

Anyhow, I have a sweater completed that I need to have photographed. I guess I'll get around to that on Saturday. Have a great weekend!