The Houndstooth Coat

my final assignment for my Clothing Construction 1 class is complete!!...3 weeks ahead of when it's due, might i add :)  i typically don't wear jackets, well, blazer-type jackets, so i chose a coat pattern...and i ended up making the coat for my mom.  we went shopping for the materials and all i did was tell her what i needed.  the part of picking out the fabric and buttons was all up to her.  so of course she wanted a houndstooth coat.  which, houndstooth is very in this season, apparently.

for the coat pattern i used Simplicity 2311.  

the pattern was fairly easy to follow, although there was a lot of jumping around since i made the double-breasted coat.  so, that part was a little annoying.  also, because the fabric was so thick, it's a wool blend, it kept wanting to give me trouble on some parts when i would try to sew it.  other than those things i enjoyed the pattern and want to make myself a coat now, in the shorter, single-breasted version.

another issue i had with the coat was the fabric.  the fabric is great for the coat, but it frays like crazy!  i mean, it's like you just look at the stuff and pieces are falling off.  i had to make sure and be gentle when moving it around a lot to prevent losing my seam allowances.  for the hem it told me to turn up the hem on the part that was left open to turn it and stitch the lining to the fabric.  well, since my fabric frayed so much doing that was impossible.  so my teacher for the class gave me the idea of buying some kind of fusible ribbon to put along the edge.  well, i didn't want to go out and buy that, especially since i didn't know what she was talking about, so i improvised.  basically i took a piece of fusible pellon, that's fusible on both sides, folded it over the edge of the wool and ironed it on.  then i just took some scrap muslin, folded it over the edge on top of the interfacing and ironed it in place.  problem solved!...and you can't see it either with the lining in place.

during this whole process my mom kept trying to get me to do so many different things to the coat and change things.  i told her just because i was making the coat didn't mean she could get all diva on me. hehe  one suggestion she had was to do a cuff on the sleeve...well, that was when i had hemmed the sleeve to where it was supposed to be and ended up being too short.  luckily though, i had just done a slip stitch to hold the hem so it was easy to undo.  once i took out the original hem the length was good, but being the wonderful daughter i am =D i decided to do the cuff for her anyway.

for the cuff, i cut a piece of my fabric 5" tall and the width of the sleeve pattern piece.  then i sewed the short edges together...and serged since my fabric frayed so badly.

next, i turned the cuff piece right side out and pinned it to the inside of the sleeve, matching seams.

once it's sewn you can pull the cuff piece out and the seams of the cuff will be facing out.

next, i just pressed the free serged edge of the cuff down so i could sew it in place.  when turning up the cuff i pushed the seam allowance where the two pieces are sewn together down.  that way when the cuff is in place it gave me more of the cuff inside the sleeve.

and voila! the cuff is done.  and then i added a couple 1" buttons.  i tried to get my mom to get red, since she's gonna be wearing a reed hat with it, but she shot down that idea. lol  now i have a completed coat!

Seein' Red...Jeans

for the longest i have wanted a pair of red skinny jeans.  i've looked in stores but could never find the perfect pair.  well, finally a solution!  for my Clothing Construction 1 class our second sewing assignment was to make a pair of pants.  so what did i do?!  i bought some lightweight red denim and made me some red skinny jeans, of course!

this was my first time EVER making a pair of pants.  i must say though, they turned out pretty darn good!  i am sooooo ready to rock my red skinny jeans.

i pretty much followed the pattern to a 't'...i mean, we kind of had to for the class.  

the only tiny change i did make was adding pockets on the back.  i'm not a fan of jeans that have no back pockets...well, except for my amazingly awesome and comfy pair of denim jeggings...so i took another air of jeans, traced the pocket and made a template.  easy peasy!

also, in class, we talked about the different types of seams you can find on pants...like you have your classic seam, there's a flat-felled seam (which is done on the inside seam of jeans), and a fake flat felled seam(which is when they basically do a traditional seam then on the outside they do a topstitch).  for my jeans i chose to do a true flat-felled seam.  and i'm glad i did because the end result was great!

gorgeous flat-felled seam

and to make the jeans even better is the fact that they are long enough!  for those of you that have never had the wonderful opportunity of having jeans that are supposed to be long but hit above your ankles, you don't know what you're missing.  just kidding!  while many can empathize about jeans being too long it stinks hardly being able to find a pair of jeans that are actually long enough.  with these though, i don't have that issue!...even if i did have to add 5" to the pattern.  that's what i love about being able to make clothing now.  i can tailor it to fit me!

another awesome thing I love about these jeans is that they have a higher rise.  i have gotten to the point in my life-gosh i sound so old!-where i'm not a fan of the uberlow-cut jeans that like to shimmy their way down and make you look like a plumber when you try to do the most ordinary tasks.  these jeans hit me just below my natural waistline...although they could be just a tad lower.  all-in-all though, i love the jeans, and i may just have to make more. 

and here is a great little video that shows how a flat-felled seam is done, for those of you that don't know how to do one.

The Basic Skirt

hello all my wonderful readers!  i know, it's been a while since i last visited with y'all...but of course y'all know that's because I'm staying busy with school.  i'm taking four classes this semester: Design Fundamentals 1 and Basic Drawing (which are basically just art classes, b/c all we do is draw), Intro to Fashion, and Clothing Construction 1.  i have to say that Clothing Construction is my favorite!...but of course, right! in the class we have three projects to do: a skirt, a pair of pants, and a jacket.  we've turned in one project so far, the skirt...and it was easy peasy.

McCall's 3341

the only requirements for the skirt were that it had no waistband, had darts, and then we did an invisible zipper and blind hem.  this was my first time ever doing a blind hem!  i never attempted a blind hem b/c it always looked too complicated...boy was i wrong!  it's so stinkin' easy...especially when your machine does all the work for you!  now that the skirt is finished, it's on to pants!  which, by the way, i'm going to make some red stretch denim jeans!

the finished product

blind hem