Activewear for the Win! McCall's 7026

Hey folks! February sometimes does bring good news along with all it's never-ending snow and cold (and more and more cold with all the staying indoors with bouncy children that it brings. Mama's going a little crazy.)

I love entering sewing competitions. They help me meet a deadline, tackle a challenge, and do creative problem solving. I've never actually won any of the competitions . . . until now! I placed second in Pattern Review's Activewear Contest and won $75 to Mood Fabrics for my trouble (hello, new Mood Bag!).

You can see all the contestants here and the winners here. I really want to sew Fehr Trade's Surf to Summit Top after seeing the 1st place project by feldmanTcat and the beautiful color combo she chose.

What did I make? McCall's 7026 jacket that has been in my stash for a relatively short period of time (6 months). I found the fabric at Fishman's Fabrics in Chicago when I was looking for navy taffeta for another project (yes, I know, knits are nowhere near the taffeta. Got to be thorough when looking for the right color.).

I was able to sew this up on Valentine's Day when Devon took the girls out for an extended shopping trip (to buy presents and dinner for me, since the day after is my birthday - more February good times). Four glorious hours of sewing time on a Saturday, when usually I have to work or do chores or ferry children on a Saturday. Ahhhh.

I did not sew a muslin for this one because I figured I would run in it no matter how it turned out. I made just one adjustment - adding 3/4" between bust and waist - before cutting. I'm happy with the fit, and I'm glad the shoulders worked out (bit of a risk, but I don't usually need to adjust there on jackets/coats). Next time I'll add a bit to the length so that I can make a deeper hem, grade down to a size 12 from a size 14 at the hips, and interface the collar (pattern doesn't call for this, but I think it would look nicer). You can read my full pattern review here if you're interested in that sort of thing.

The thing I love most about this jacket is the back. Great design lines, right? I'll have to run fast so that I give everyone the back view.

Another great detail is the cuffs with thumb hole. If you have long arms (like me), you'll want to lengthen the sleeve if you're not adding cuffs.

My new jacket has given me a blast of excitement to keep running till Spring. And I needed that blast.

Can we get a break from the snow? Please?

So my first attempt at activewear was a success. Not sure how much of this kind of sewing I'll do (I'm too addicted to sewing pretty clothes), but it was a lot of fun. Would you use precious sewing time for activewear?

Yay. Snow.

Completely fake action shot.
I don't think it's possible to run like this.

A Most Satisfying Refashion

As I mentioned a few posts back, I have a number of refashioning projects in my work line-up. I finished the housecoat-to-tailored coat project at the end of last week, and I'm excited to show you how it turned out.

If you remember, I received a house coat from a client. She had already taken it apart to make the lining, so I received the housecoat, the lining, sleeves, buttons, and a scarf. My job was to put it all together, while adding shape and details.

Here's what I did:

• Added darts to the front and back of the coat and lining and added shape to side seams
• Took out lining sleeves and sewed them back in (client had mistakenly sewn them inside out)
• Added tie interfacing to sleeve heads of main sleeves and attached
• Removed 4" from length 
• Used the scarf to make cuff bands and a waistband
• Drafted collar pattern with a timely tutorial from Rhonda Buss
• Used excess hem fabric to make collar
• Attached collar
• Re-attached neck facing and used interfaced hem binding to face the center front closure
• Added snaps and buttons to closure
• Hand stitched lining to coat 

3" mock up collar - too tall!

2" mock up collar - just right!

Pattern for collar

I think this is my biggest refashion transformation so far and I had a lot of fun solving the various problems that came up during the process. And the lovely Rhonda Buss came to my rescue once again - I woke up the morning I needed to draft the collar and found that she had published the EXACT tutorial I needed the night before! How's that for serendipity?

Vogue 8756: The Finished Jacket

Whew, busy week between finishing the jacket before Elaine's conference, teaching classes, and other odds and ends. At one point my sewing room looked like this:

I think I've got it together again for the most part (or at least my sewing room is in much better shape!), and now I get to show off Elaine's finished jacket and the bracelet that I got in return.

Some details before I get into construction. Elaine is 5'2", so I knew from the get go that I would need to do some alterations to make this work for her frame. I'm actually surprised at how little I had to do ultimately. The fabric she chose was a magenta wool crepe that we found at The Textile Discount Outlet in Chicago.

Vogue 8756 is a generally simple pattern. It's a good pattern if you want to showcase some lovely fabric, as the main feature is the draped front pieces. The recommended fabrics are synthetic suede, lightweight denim, linen or lightweight wool flannel. The pattern also comes with a simple pair of pants.

When I started working with the wool, I decided it was too thin/drapey for this project. So I underlined all of the pieces with cotton batiste in order to give them more body and to stop the fabric from wrinkling too easily. The jacket is lined with a stretch charmeuse I picked up at a thrift store a couple of years ago for $2/yard.

You can read about the first fitting here. The biggest problem area was the shoulder/armscye area and I referred to Palmer & Pletsch's Fit for Real People for most of my adjustments here. Ultimately, I made the following changes:

• Cut one size smaller than Elaine's measurements based on the pattern v. finished garment measurements
• Turned the back darts into princess seams as I needed to get a better fit in back.
• Adjusted for narrow shoulders (about 1/2")
• Took up entire shoulder seam about 1/2"
• Raised underarm 1/2" (and adjusted sleeve to match)
• Shortened sleeves by 2.5 inches
• Shortened jacket length by 1 inch
• Shortened draped pieces by 2.5 inches.

I'm not sure how well you can see these, but here are the changes on the pattern pieces. I've laid the altered version on top of the original. The red lines correspond to the original lines and the green lines correspond to the changes I made for Elaine:

This took us from A to B: in terms of fit:

First fitting

Second fitting

For the jacket construction I deviated slightly from the instructions based on Fran S's review on PatternReview.com (thank you, Fran!!). If you follow the pattern instructions, your lining will be the exact same length as the sleeves and jacket and would very likely peek out of the hem. So I made the lining 1 inch shorter than the correct length and made the jacket 1 inch longer than the correct length in order so that the main fabric would turn under like this:

I also used tie interfacing to ease the sleeve head before inserting it into the jacket. I attached the main sleeves before attaching the lining, so I turned the jacket the right way out through a hole I left in the jacket facing (I closed this later with a fell stitch).

And then Elaine wore the jacket when she spoke at a conference and rocked the audience with all her magenta, art business knowledge!

And then look what I got in return!

I must say that I feel pretty elegant when I wear this bracelet. It's the nicest piece of jewelry I own next to my wedding ring. As I mentioned in my last post, you can check out Elaine's art and jewelry on her website ElaineLutherArt.com. And since Elaine would like another jacket down the road, I might be able to pick up some matching earrings.

I'm almost finished with my Darla dress so you'll get to see which fabric combo I decided on later this week!

WIP: Vogue 8756, A Jacket for Elaine

My friend Elaine Luther is a metalsmith. Isn't that a cool word?? I wish there was a word for sewing that included the suffix "smith" - fabricsmith? needlesmith? If there was, I would get a tattoo with that word.

Elaine makes jewelry and art and art jewelry. I met her through Berwyn Makers, a group I co-founded to support people who are trying to make a business out of their creative hobby. Elaine is now a co-organizer with me and I feel lucky to get to work with her. We cooked up a plan to do a trade since we admire each other's work.

You can see what Elaine's up to (and check out her shop!) by visiting her website: ElaineLutherArt.com.

Elaine is speaking at a conference this weekend and I'm in the process of finishing a jacket for her. I'll then get to pick something out of one of her jewelry collections, and I'm having a hard time figuring out what I want! I love how strong her jewelry is - feminine and striking without being too pretty.

Back to the jacket. It's a fairly simple jacket - fitted back with loose, drapey front. It's a good style for Elaine's body type, as it hits above her hip with only the draping dipping down to hip level. A long jacket would just make her look shorter.

Vogue 8756

We took a trip to the Textile Discount Outlet in Pilsen and found some magenta (see! I'm not the only one!) wool crepe. We originally picked out a gray Bemberg lining but then I found more interesting fabric in my stash:

We did a muslin fitting last week, and in spite of the fact that I went down a size from Elaine's measurements, it was still too big. I needed to raise the shoulder and the sleeve and shorten the front drape (Elaine is petite and it overpowered her frame). I also decided to add a princess seam line to the back since the darts nearly met in the middle of the back.

Once I started working with the wool I decided to underline it with cotton batiste to keep it from wrinkling so much and to give the jacket body a bit more structure (without losing the drape). 

I also used a technique I learned from Peggy Sayers for the sleeve head. I decreased the seam allowance to 3/8" and used tie interfacing to ease the sleeve head into shape. It made the sleeves so easy to insert!

Tomorrow I will do a final fitting with Elaine to see if I need to make changes and then I'll sew in the lining. I need to get it done by Thursday  - think good thoughts for the fitting tomorrow!

Nothing Fancy: McCall's 6408 in Black

I made this ponte cardigan for myself a couple of weeks ago now.  I had just decided to abandon the Elisalex dress until spring (I couldn't make myself do the work of picking things apart and redesigning the skirt when I wouldn't be able to actually wear the dress for another 6 months), and I wanted a quickie palate cleansing project.  I've made this pattern up twice before for clients.  Since the weather has turned cold, I've found myself looking in my closet for a black cardigan and the only one I had was a mangy cotton one I bought from Target when I was pregnant.

The pattern is McCall's 6408.

The fabric is a yummy ponte knit from GorgeousFabrics.com.  I started out making View D but decided I didn't like the asymmetrical hemline so chopped it off to make View B.  View B turned out to be way too long for my body shape, so I chopped another 5 inches off the length and gave it a 1.5" hem, and this was perfect for what I wanted. Chopping the length meant that the ties were now disproportionately long, so I chopped 5" off each of them.  I didn't make any alterations to the fit - this garment is not fitted and looked fine as is (apart from the length that is - before I took it to the chopping block it looked like I was wearing a bathrobe).

I had to lighten these photos so that the cardigan details would be visible.
This left me so washed out I decided B&W was better.

The only other modification I made was to add a bit of elastic to the back since the ties come from the side seam and don't really shape the back on their own.  This is a simple technique I've used in the past to give shape to t-shirts or other loose-fitting garments.  I simply cut a 3" piece of 3/8" elastic, drew a horizontal line 4.5" long in the center back, and used a zig-zag stitch to sew the elastic to the line, stretching as I went.

When I make this again, I might add length to the ties so that I can wrap them around to the back and then to the front again, or I might use a wider elastic to gather the back a bit more.

While this seemed like a super boring project at the time, I've probably worn this cardigan 2-3 times a week. Boring, but useful!  At this rate, I'll wear the cardigan 60 times this winter (pretty good price per wear rate).   I'm thinking I might need another one in gray just to mix things up a bit.

I also made the scarf I'm wearing from leftover ponte knit (the taupe pieces are from the McCall's 6408 I made for a client and the purple pieces are from the Cake Tiramisu I made for a client).  I find I almost always have a strip of fabric about 6-8 inches wide left at the end of my yardage when I make up a knit/jersey project.  I've been turning these into fashion scarves (not to be confused with the kind of scarves you wear outside during a Midwest winter).  I'm pretty sure this is what Cora's teachers will receive as their Polderman present this year.

What's the best boring garment you own?