Showing posts with label sewing puzzles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sewing puzzles. Show all posts

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Sewing UFO's

In the world of sewing (and maybe other hobbies too) this means "Un-Finished Objects."  In the course of my past career, there were many times when I had to put away an in-progress project and it got forgotten or the seasonal usefulness of it had passed.  In other cases, maybe I was unable to solve an "issue" but was unwilling to throw away the project (I just love the fabric too much).   Then there are the alterations or ideas I had to change the garment to update it.  All in all, I have a space dedicated to "UFO's" now....It's hanging space about the width of a washer (because it's in the former upstairs laundry closet).  I'm a little bit proud that the whole closet is not filled.

Anyway, I retrieved a jacket in progress from the closet last night and started to study it.  I taped and did pad stitching on the hair canvas and a mock welt pocket way back then, but never turned the collar.

It was meant to have had awful rounded peaked lapels (Remember those--what was it, 1969 or something?  What was I thinking?) and the front is slightly cut-away.  The back is gathered into a sort of peplum.  I guess it's supposed to resemble one of Ralph Lauren's hacking jacket-like creations. It's no doubt too small, but my girth alteration is easy--just add onto the sides seams if I have some of the fabric in my stash (or lose weight)..

So I started to finish this thing.  First order of business was correcting "something" that was wrong with the cut of the upper collar and the way it joins the lapel.  Then I whacked away the beagle-ear shape of the lapel peak.  It's still a bit of a peak, but not so wacky.  Looks pretty good.

A remaining problem is that I don't have pattern pieces or envelope anymore and don't even recall how the pattern was supposed to look.  So making a lining is going to be trial and error.

So far, here's what it looks like:

FRONT



BACK


If you love beautiful classic woolens, zoom in on this.  It's a camel's hair and wool blend houndstooth with charcoal gray and camel.  The only way I can wear camel.  :)

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And here's another long-postponed project:  I had the pattern and fabric together and ready to go for ages, then discovered I didn't have enough fabric (I would have had enough for the contrast, must have interpreted the pattern envelope wrong).

This one was made with a rayon and silk woven check, paired with a tropical weight wool gab for the contrasting bands.  It was a very fun pattern to make!  It's a little short on me in the back, despite the fact that I made a muslin and adjusted the pattern.  But, I wore it with jeans the other day (black ones) was pretty happy with it.