The Pleather Cardigan and Herringbone Skirt

Let's recap...

I'm on Mood's Instagram account and I see this fabric...

from Mood's Instagram account

...Mood calls it black vinyl...me I call it kewl, unbelievably kewl lacey pleather. I bought 1/2 yard from the NYC store.  I thought that I would use it for a peplum on a jacket but then I got another idea. See I had some black ponte from Mood that I'd been hoarding. Yeah I'll admit it, I have ponte issues, okay?! And when I put the two pieces together ~ the earth moved.  Seriously registered on the Richter Scale...didn't you feel it?

Then I added my TNT jacket pattern to it ~ Butterick 6002. 

I've made this jacket successfully two times before ~ here and here. All of the trials and tribulations for constructing this particular jacket are in this post.

The jacket over my cranberry Michael Kors interpretation dress...

I have to tell you that I'm in awe of how amazing this little jacket looks...over everything. It is so dayum cool, I am beside myself. Yeah it's a little edgy for my corporate day job but so what!  I won't wear it on days that we have very corporate meetings.  I'll wear it on the days that I need to feel corporate-ish yet stylish...and I do meet friends for movies and dinner dates...it would be great then too!

Here it is with two of fall's trends together...

Pleather Jacket and a Black & White Herringbone Skirt

A little info about the skirt...
This version was definitely influenced by the Pinstripe Skirt from last week's Throwback Thursday post.  Originally I was going to make a straight skirt with the black & white herringbone but when I laid the fabric on the table all I could see was the chevron pattern above.  So I knew it needed to become the four gore skirt ~ cut on the bias.

Fabric...
2 yards of a black & white wool herringbone purchased from Mood last year and originally used in this Erdem dress.

Notions...
1" non-roll elastic
black bemberg lining
black rayon seam tape

Construction Information...
I emulated all of the sewing techniques that I highlighted in the Throwback Thursday post, except I did not fold the rayon seam tape in half before stitching it to the skirt.

There are quite a few of these skirts in my wardrobe.  It's comfortable to wear and just works for my lifestyle.

A few more pics of the outfit...

Please note that I'm wearing tights and suede booties with this outfit...indoors...cause I was so hot that I was melting in the house in the air conditioning!  There was no way I was going outside to take photos!!!

Yes, I've used this pattern before.  Yes, I'm using pleather again but it's so hot for fall.  It's everywhere ~ dresses, jackets, shoes & handbags.  I can promise that you'll see more pleather accents on my garments for fall/winter. I've got at least three more items on my sewing list that I'd like to sew.  I'd just like to encourage you to use some (a little or a lot) for one of your own fall garments!  If you've never sewn pleather, come on over to the dark side (dark side get it! hahaha!) and try it out.

Parting Shot ~
I bought these wedge booties and love them!  Just bought another pair in gray...

...as always more later!

Butterick 6002 ~ A Pleather & Ponte Sweater Cardigan

I thought about making a dress next, honestly I did.  I have two pieces of fabric pretreated and set aside and a pattern that's been screaming my name for the last two weeks.  Funny how it's stopped yelling "Look at me, Pick me!" since I've been home...*sigh*  Anyway after finishing up the last of the Chado Ralph Rucci pieces, I couldn't wrap my mind around the necessary pattern alterations for one dress or the pattern instructions for the new pattern. So much for "pick me!" *LOL*

I'd put these two pieces of fabric together weeks ago.  I thought I would have gotten to them sooner but I got sidetracked by the Burda Dress (which I am getting back to) and then the Chado Ralph Rucci fabric. 

The first piece is a lacy pleather that I bought from Mood after seeing it on Instagram - seriously I need to stop being enticed by those pieces!  

The second piece is a black cotton sweater weight ponte from Mood that I've been holding onto waiting for the perfect garment.  I've wanted a version of this topper from Lafayette 148 since I saw it online.  Honestly, I want about half of the Lafayette 148 company's fall offerings...so expect to see more interpretations from this line.

Although the fabric in the inspiration jacket is actually lace, I thought the lacy pleather would work just as well.  So I pulled out my trusty Butterick 6002 jacket pattern to use with these fabrics. 

Construction ~
The jacket shell sewed up quickly since I only used three of the pattern pieces. There were some things that I wanted to share with you about the construction.  

One, the only way that I could sew the pleather fabric to the cotton ponte was with my Teflon foot.  Once I put it on my sewing machine, it just glided over the fabric.

...and yes I used pins to hold the pleather to the cotton ponte.  The fabric is full of holes so who would notice a few pin holes, if you could even see them. Because believe me I pinned the hell outta this piece and you can't see a pin mark in the finished jacket! *LOL*

Two, pressing was challenging. I really didn't want to burn or scorch this fabric so I took a lot of care pressing the pieces...ALOT of care!  It took two days to complete this jacket and pressing or the need to press the pleather very lightly & carefully was a major reason why.  Let's just say that the sleeve board and my clapper got a heavy work out.

I'm loving this sleeve board more with each garment I sew!

Three, to get a flat appearance on the seams of the body of the jacket, I resorted to stitching them flat.  I knew I wouldn't get a good press with steam where the ponte and pleather intersected so stitching them flat worked best.

Four, usually when inserting sleeves, I pin, then baste, then machine stitch. The pleather because of the holes was fragile and I knew it couldn't handle all of that work.  A lot of pins and some careful stitching then alot of steam on only the ponte part got the sleeves in. Though to be honest, I ended up taking the sleeves out (very, very carefully) and making some alterations to the jacket fronts because pleather doesn't lay as flat as drapier fabrics do.  I would have rather put the sleeves in with a flat application but again I was worried about the pleather to ponte seams.

Finishing the Jacket ~
The hardest part, however, was finishing the jacket neckline, front edges and hemline.  The pattern comes with facing pieces but I didn't want to add them because I wanted the jacket to resemble the inspiration piece. So I added a leather binding that I had on hand.

I thought the application would be simple but seriously I wanted to kill myself by the time I got it on. The first step was to serge off 5/8" around the jacket so that I would lose most of the jacket's overlap because I wasn't adding buttons to the front.

Then when I started to pin the leather binding onto the front of the jacket about every yard I noticed that there was a sticky substance for a few inches. I even went back to Simplicity's site where I purchased the binding to see if they said that it was glued together...nuthin'.  

I tried to machine stitch the binding down and the Janome hated it.  The teflon foot got gooey.  The feed dogs wouldn't push it through...it got ugly quickly!  So I decided that I would hand sew it down. Why didn't I just stop then and come up with an alternate?  Because half of the binding had been sewn down by me coaxing the machine, promising it goodies, anything to get it to sew before I gave up...and I realized that I had to find a solution or remove the binding and that just wasn't happening!

So at 2 am, I sat down and hand stitched the binding to the jacket...slowly and constantly removing the gook from my needle by using an alcohol swab to keep it clean.  I then pinned the binding to the wrong side of the garment and went to bed.

The next morning I sat down and using a small amount of steam, my silk organza press cloth folded into fourths, I pressed a section and then added the clapper to hold it down.  To press the entire neckline, front edges and hemline flat took two hours.  After that I applied my teflon foot to my sewing machine and with a little push & pull stitched the binding down.  

I tried the jacket on and the pleather fronts buckled funnily around the armholes....ummm fabric doesn't drape. I resorted to cutting the offending fabric out of the jacket fronts and pulled all of the gathering out of the armholes so that the sleeves would fit.  I'm sure that there is some prooo-fessional way to accomplish this and I'm sure the muslin-ites would say a muslin would have solved this but this time I beg to disagree.  I've made this jacket successfully two other times and never had this issue.  This was a fabric issue that maybe I should have realized would happen when working with it but the fabric whisperer missed that one ~ SERIOUSLY!

The sleeve hems ~
By the time I got to the sleeve hems, I felt like I was in the home stretch.  I turned them under when I tried the jacket on to make sure that I'd gotten most of the offending & misbehaving fabric out of the jacket. 

• Pressed the hems flat then cut about an inch off the fabric.  
• Serged stitch witchery to the wrong sides of the new sleeve hems.
• Pressed it flat.
• Then I added a twin needle hem.

Now I know quite a few people complain of the tunneling that occurs when using a twin needle on hems.  I've been thinking about this wondering why it doesn't occur on my hems and I realized it's because I use stitch witchery in the hems prior to stitching them.  I'm sure that a light fusible knit interfacing would work the same way.

Button & Snap Closure ~
I put the jacket on...snapped a couple of terrible selfies (no you won't see them! *LOL*) and realized that the inspiration garment has a hook and eye closure. Now I know that I had some furrier hook & eyes around but I couldn't find the suckers even though I tore the sewing room apart. Guess I'll be picking some up the next time I'm at Pacific Trimmings.

Instead I went with a snap with a vintage glass button over it as the closure. The button is a little heavy but it works and at this time it's staying.

Are you still here cause this is a long behind post...if so, here are pictures of the jacket on Lulu...

(gonna press that back seam again - it's looking kinda hinky!)

The jacket is done and hanging waiting for modeled pictures, which will happen later. 

So I'm back to my original challenge...what dress next? I thought the jacket would be a quick, easy and relaxing sew while I figured out what to make next.  Instead I need a large cold Mountain Dew to rest my furrowed sewing brow.  Stay tuned because I've gained my Monday vacation day back...I don't need to go into work after all.  However, I swear something quick and easy to sew would be appreciated right now! *LOL*


...as always more later! 

Butterick 6002 ~ A Knit Cardigan

The next piece in The City in Winter Collection, is a knit cardigan made using Butterick 6002 to coordinate with the brown wool crepe pieces previously sewn.

Pattern ~
Butterick 6002 - This is an out of print pattern that was issued in 1999.
It is a semi-fitted, unlined, above waist jacket that has shoulder pads, mock bands, long sleeves and stitched hem.

Fabric ~
Tweedy ponte knit purchased from Mood. Here's a link to additional pontes at Mood.com

Notions ~
Five 7/8" buttons
1/4" shoulder pads
black fusible interfacing

Construction ~
This is my third version of this jacket. My first one ended up going in the recycle basket and my second one became a treasured piece that I wore a lot this summer. 

For this version I made one fit change.  I added tucks to the neckline of the pattern pieces so that I wouldn't have to make darts to take in the extra width.  Here's what I did in my second version...

And here is a close up of the neckline on this version...highlighting how the excess fabric has been removed at the neckline...

The cardigan was primarily sewn on my serger, since it is a ponte and a stable knit. The most challenging aspect of this jacket occurred when I decided not to make regular buttonholes but to make corded buttonholes on the jacket front. You can read all about that technique in this post from my blog.

So a few more pics...

Jacket, RTW turtleneck

TNT pants

Jacket worn with

dress recently made

This cardigan/jacket will work well with the pieces currently in the collection and with future pieces too. Next up is tops. I have two tops planned for the collection...one more than the original plan...but I found an amazing knit from EOS that will work with both the chocolate and the gray bottoms because I need some simple sewing before I head into jacket territory.

...as always more later!

Corded Buttonholes

I've been sewing for over 42 years and I think I've tried every sewing technique at least a time or two.  Back in the '90s, when I wore alot of jackets and skirts or jacket/dress combinations, I made a lot of corded buttonholes.  So I'd gotten pretty good at them...

Well that expertise has worn off, I guess the old adage that if you don't use it, you lose it, is true!  This is what I ended up with as I attempted to make some corded buttonholes on the Butterick 6002 jacket...a hot mess!

To fix this mess...I realized a couple of things...

1.  I was making the corded buttonholes the way I use to make them on my old Viking sewing machine and I needed to figure out the correct way to make them on my Janome.  Enter my trusty sewing machine manual.

2.  I went through my sewing library to read about how to make a corded buttonhole so I thought I would share some of that information with you as well.  I mean it's great to see a technique on a finished garment, but it's even better to get some knowledge on how to make one, right?!

First a definition of a corded buttonhole from the Threads Sewing Guide (page 241):

"For a professional looking buttonhole, and to strengthen and enhance its appearance, add pearl cotton or buttonhole twist under the stitching"

To make this buttonhole, the Threads Sewing Guide recommends that you

a. Placce the cording under the presser foot, and cover it with buttonhole side stitches as you sew.  

b. After you've stitched, pull the cord tails to hide the loop.

c.  Thread the tails into a hand needle with a large eye (use a needle threader), take them to the underside, and knot them together.  Bury a small amount on the wrong side and cut off the excess.

So armed with better instructions and the correct way to thread the embroidery floss that I was using as my cording/filler for the buttonholes, I carefully ripped out two of the three "hot mess buttonholes", marked my fabric better and remade the buttonholes.  This is what the jacket front looks like now...

Buttonholes and buttons on jacket front

Jacket with pants

The Butterick 6002 jacket was a quick sew until I decided that I needed to make the buttonholes distinctive so that they would stand out against the fabric better. Even though at one point I screamed bloody murder at them and wanted to throw my sewing machine against the wall, it was a journey worth taking because it adds the perfect touch to the jacket.

So have you ever made a corded buttonhole?  And if so, when and where have you used it?  I don't remember seeing a lot of these on garments on sewing blogs, so I was wondering if it's an unused technique or just forgotten.  

I'm moving onto a TNT dress pattern now...cause I need some sewing peace! Relearning old techniques is challenging...I'm gonna have to do these a couple more times on some more pieces so that they come natural to me again.

...as always more later!

Butterick 6002 - A Sneak Peek

This is my third time making this jacket.  The first one was a bust...serious and total bust.  The second one became an essential part of my wardrobe.  I've reached for it time and again, for work, dinner with friends, it even went on the cruise with me.  So I wanted to make another one from a knit fabric.

See I have this St. John fascination.  I love those suits.  I love how polished they make a woman look.  I love the ornate yet simple silhouettes and it's a style I would like to emulate in my wardrobe, minus the hundreds of dollars a suit costs, of course!  I believe that the Butterick 6002 jacket can help me in my quest.

When I was wandering the ponte aisle at Mood, I was drawn to this textured mid weight ponte and knew, just knew that it would work for a cardigan.  I want a sweater like jacket to add to the collection (yes, that collection, I told you I added more pieces!!!) and this piece screamed at me, to take it home.  I'm telling you people I really do believe that I'm from the Fabric Whisperer tribe.

So I reread the blog post about my last set of alterations, copied and pasted those suckers into a word document and printed them out to go in the pattern folder.  As an aside, I try to keep all pertinent information relevant to the construction of a garment in the folder I keep the pattern pieces in.  I also try to remember to print out a picture of me wearing the garment and add it to the inside flap of the folder along with the date of the blog post about the garment.

I took scissors to cloth and constructed the shell of the jacket primarily on my serger.  Here's a sneak peek of the jacket so far...

See how wonderfully it works with the chocolate basics already constructed!  Then I found these buttons in the collection that work so well with the fabric...you know they merge into the colors of the fabric but don't melt in and get lost.  Perfect! And they aren't so prominent that they won't play well with the other pieces...a definite win win.

The jacket will be finished this weekend and included in Sunday's photo shoot along with the finished Jason Wu dress and one more dress that I'm working on. I love that this jacket and the Burda cardigan both coordinate with the completed chocolate pieces, as well as, the gray ones that have yet to be sewn.

...as always more later!

Butterick 6002:The Jacket for the 10 yd wardrobe

I used this jacket pattern in the Lavender and Gray wardrobe.  I've never worn that jacket.  I had an idea for a jacket for that wardrobe and the execution of it didn't work.  So I wanted to make it again. Mainly because I believe the jacket failed due to the felted fabric I used instead of a drapier one.


So for the Ten Yard Adventure, I decided to make two jackets.  One from Butterick 6002 and the other from my Burda 8869 out-of-print cardigan.  To start I did something I hardly ever do, I came home one Friday evening and sewed. It was easy since I'd cut several of the pieces (B6002 Jacket and TNT Dress) out the previous Monday evening. 


I've been totally intrigued by this jacket. However, once I picked the correct fabric, I realized that this jacket has no front darts. What the h*ll was I thinking? Seriously?  I have a pretty nice sized bosom, why did I think I didn't need darts?  And what is this preoccupation of mine with jackets without any allowance for my bustline? *sigh*


I got the jacket shell sewn up and of course it was too big.  Again, another one of my common mistakes, making a garment too big because I'm so concerned about having enough space in the abdomen and hip area, that I don't properly check the ease in the neckline and upper chest area. Because I overlooked this, I ended up making a ton of alterations to the pattern. So, of course, my jacket doesn't look like the original...but after letting it sit for a couple of weeks, the changes are growing on me.


Here's the alterations I made:
1.  Added darts to the neckline on the jacket front to remove the excess space in the neckline area of the jacket.

2.  Altered the side seams by removing 4" of excess space.  Two inches on each side tapering into the original sides 5/8" side seam.


3.  Because I altered the sleeve opening, I flattened out the sleeve cap to remove the excess fabric.  The first sleeve installation was nasty because I forgot to do this...


4.  The sleeves were cut on the bias to add a little stretch for my bodacious biceps.


5.  Omitted the side & back facing on the jacket.


6.  Topstitched the jacket everywhere...darts, entire jacket front and sleeve hems.


7.  For a simple unlined jacket there was quite a bit of hand-stitching in it! 


A few photos of the jacket in action...

Butterick Jacket with RTW

black tank & wide legged pants

Butterick jacket with RTW

black tank & elastic waist straight skirt

Some stats:
Pattern:  
Butterick 6002 - out of print


Notions:
5 - 1" buttons
1 pair of 1/2" shoulder pads

The rest of the pieces are finished, so I will be sharing them in the next couple of days...


...as always, more later!

Lavender and Gray Skies Jacket - Part 2

Okay I'm officially back on track...*grateful sigh*  My solution worked.  So what was the solution?  Well the "all sweater" arms was too great a contrast.  One solution would have been to find more ways to incorporate the sweater knit into the jacket so the knit sleeves wouldn't look so extreme.  But that wasn't the path I wanted to take with this jacket.  Instead, I decided to use the small piece of felted fabric I had left to make the sleeves.


I folded the sleeve pattern in the center to take some of the width out. I cut out two sleeves from the remaining piece of fabric.  Then I folded the cut sleeves in half and cut them into two pieces.  I pressed the knit sleeves that I had removed from the jacket and cut the center out of them, stitching the new smaller centers onto the two each side of the sleeve.  Here is how the sleeves looked flat:

With much trepidation, I pinned the sleeves into the jacket.  I wish there was a way to add a drumroll here...*LOL*...but it worked.  Here are a few "not so great" in progress pictures to show how the sleeve now looks in the jacket...

A bad mirror shot

A hanging shot

A view of the sleeve on my arm

Laying on the cutting table with the buttons

I'm thinking I need to invest in a new camera and move away from the point and shoot, but I digress.  Because the jacket will work.  It will fit around my body and will play well with the coordinates.  But here's the thing...I don't think the jacket is me.  Seriously.  I know all of this drama and now I'm not sure.  I don't know about you but there are two sides to me...my business side and my creative side...and I'm always trying to jive the two sides of me.  My creative side loves this jacket...the manipulation of the fabric...adding the knit fabric...making something different and unusual.  However, my business side likes a cleaner, linear line, something serious and same...this jacket ain't that!

So I will finish the jacket.  And I will make the coordinating pieces because I want them.  But right now, I don't honestly know if I will wear the jacket often...then again, I don't wear many jackets often...*sigh*  Maybe that's why I'm on the continual quest to find "the perfect" jacket.  Something I can make multiple times, have it work in all situations and feel comfortable in.  I even wonder if that mythical, perfect jacket exists?


Anyway...this is my journey.  This is where I'm at in the making of this jacket and wardrobe. This is my thought process as I work through the construction of these pieces...


...as always, more later!

Lavender 'n Gray Skies Jacket

I think I'm going to stay away from felted wool jersey because I don't think it likes me anymore.  I've made several successful garments from it but lately the last few things I've made just haven't worked.


I'm saying all this to say that my lavender 'n gray skies jacket looks like cr*p! How did this come to be?  Well I ran short of fabric even though I purchased 4 yards.  I thought I bought more than enough to felt but obviously it shrank more than I thought both width and lengthwise.  And then in a fit of inspired stupidity, I added the sweater knit to the jacket as sleeves thinking I would emulate this Valentino jacket.

www.style.com

Since this is the basis for my wardrobe, I started to get a little hysterical at the thought that I wouldn't have the main piece of the collection.  And that's when from the back of my brain I pulled the remembrance of the Valentino mixed fabrication jackets.  Now in Valentino's collection the sweater knit used for the sleeves matches the jacket fabric exactly...but since I don't have the Valentino designers fabric budget or influence, I used the heather violet sweater fabric that I'd bought for the cardigan.

Sweater Knit from Fabric Mart

At first I was concerned because it is darker than the base fabric but then I thought that it would be funky and fun so I went ahead and cut out the sleeves and sewed them onto the jacket. Well ain't funky and it ain't fun!  It just looks crappy!

So I have to come up with a new solution.  And since I had to go into work today for a couple of hours, I've only gotten as far as picking this all apart so that I have the base of the jacket and nuthin else.  Anyway, I think I have a solution.  I'll work on it tomorrow and hopefully this will solve the problem.  If not I really don't know what I'm going to do...*sigh*...because Fabric Mart has no more of the lavender wool jersey.


...as always, more later