Simplicity 9187

 I made a coat!  And I am pretty pleased with it.  See my smug face. 

Pattern Description: Simplicity 9187 is a relaxed fit jacket and coat with a shaped collar and pockets. The pockets are fun! There is the option to do a faux fur collar and cuffs with a separate pattern piece.

Pattern Sizing: XXS to XXL.  My measurements put me in a size large but I sized down to a medium because I knew it would be very oversized. Actually, my bust measurement put me in a medium, but everything else is in the large size.  The medium fit perfectly with a couple of shoulder alterations.

Fabric Used:  The fabric is really what inspired the coat.  A few months ago, I ordered this alpaca knit wool fabric from fabric.com on a whim.  It wasn't actually what I was shopping for and I don't really know why I ordered it.  I was expecting it to be much lighter weight. When it came, I was surprised by the weight and warmth.  I figured I better make a nice coat out of it.  I searched around for a pattern that was simple so I didn't have to do too much plaid matching and settled on this one.  Anyway, it's super warm and cozy. It's probably the warmest coat I own.  It's definitely 100% wool because it smelled like a wet alpaca when I washed it!  I spent forever cutting out each piece individually to try and match up my plaids perfectly.  I think I did an ok job.  The horizontal lines match up pretty well, but I did not pay attention to the vertical lines in some places.  At least it's symmetrical.  I lined it with a rayon challis because I couldn't find anything else to match.  The rayon challis is a little heavier than a normal lining, but it contributes to the warmth, I think.

Alterations/ Deviations:  I went ahead and did my standard square shoulder/forward should adjustment before cutting anything out.  I just added 5/8" to the back shoulder seam.  Then I had to wrap my brain around where to add the 5/8" to make up for the change in the back neckline.  I added it to the center back collar seam.  I also added a little to the sleeve cap to make up for the extra added when cutting the fabric.  I probably should have taken a picture of what I did, because it worked well and I'm very happy with where the shoulder seam sits on me.  Otherwise I didn't do any other fit alterations because there is not much else to fit! I made the shorter jacket length, but I used the curved hem from the longer version because I liked it.  I also bagged the lining instead of hemming the lining and coat separately.  I almost think it was easier to do it that way.

Likes/ Dislikes:  I really love the end result.  It is so warm and cozy. It is the ultimate blanket coat.  I can see myself wearing this often, even though it's only cold enough here for a couple of months.  I love the fabric and I love the relaxed fit.  I can definitely fit a big sweater underneath.  The pockets are really fun.  They have an opening sewn with the seam allowances sewn in to the side seams.  I thought they were a little fiddly while I was working on them but love the way they turned out.  The only dislikes I have are the way the cuffs are sewn.  My fabric makes that seam pretty bulky, especially with the lining sewn to it as well.  The sleeves are also very wide and could maybe be slimmed down.  But then again, they work with oversized fit of the coat.

Conclusion: Nice pattern, love my new coat! 

Purple Robe and Anemones

Well, hello there, old blog!  It's been a while, hasn't it?  I thought this latest project I worked on deserved a real bona fide blog post. So here it is.  And boy, is it a long one.  I wanted to keep all my info in one place, so just skim if you are not interested in the whole lengthy process.

I have been inspired by Matisse's artwork since I was a kid.  I remember the painting Robe Violette et Anemones hanging in my elementary art classroom.  For as long as I have been sewing, I have wanted to create my own version of Matisse's purple robe.   The whole 'quarantine art' social media trend gave me the push to do it.  In fact, a local arts festival, Artisphere, put out a contest to recreate a famous work of art at home like the 'between art and quarantine' hashtag that I think originated with the Getty Museum. Years ago, I came across an article talking about an exhibition of Matisse's paintings displayed along side of a collection of his textiles.  Matisse was a textile lover (and aren't we all around here!).  He grew up in a textile region of France and his studio was filled with fabric, clothing, weavings and wall hangings.  Some of his textile items show up in multiple paintings, like the purple robe.  There is an exhibition catalog titled, Matisse: His Art And His Textiles that is amazing.  I ordered it when I began this project.  The book is full of photos and beautiful examples of Matisse's textile collection.  There is even a photo of the real purple robe. If you are a fan of Matisse's work, I highly recommend the book.  

The biggest issue with making myself a purple striped robe was finding the right fabric.  Over the years I have bought purple fabric a couple of times thinking I could paint the white stripes.  I even thought maybe I could bleach them.  I actually had a length of purple linen in my stash for a long time specifically earmarked for this.  I pulled it out and tried painting the white stripes with fabric paint and it looked bad. Extremely homemade.  I tried bleaching a little piece but it only bleached to pink.  I figured I'd have to dye the stripes to get the look I was going for.  I almost pulled out my batik supplies but I wasn't sure I'd have the time nor the means to get the wax out, so I looked in to painting with Procion dyes instead.

Believe it or not, I had everything I needed to do this except for the sodium alginate, which I ordered via amazon.  Apparently it's used in cooking. This truly was done with things I had at home. I had the deep purple Procion dye and the things needed to mix with it (urea and soda ash).  For the fabric, I had a leftover piece of white rayon challis that I had been using to line things.  I laid it out and rough cut it to fit my pattern pieces.  I used Burda 6740, a pattern from my stash- which again, I think I bought a while back just to do this purple robe.  I only had enough fabric for the fronts, sleeves and facings so I planned on using the printed rayon for the back and belt from the beginning.  I like a bit of print mixing anyway.

When it came to mixing the dye to paint with, I used the recipe from the Dharma Trading Company website to make the 'chemical water.'  I mixed 3/4 cups of urea in to about 4 cups of water.  I mixed it in a big glass jar.  From what I understand, the urea keeps the dye from drying too fast once it's been painted on the fabric.  Then I mixed in about 4 teaspoons of sodium alginate.  The sodium alginate is a thickener which keeps your dye from spreading.  I could have used more sodium alginate.  I let that mixture sit overnight before mixing up the dye.

The next day, I separated half of chemical water and mixed up my purple dye.  I used 3ish teaspoons of deep purple and 2 teaspoons of soda ash.  Soda ash is necessary for the chemical reaction between the dye and fiber (hence 'fiber reactive dyes').  Once you mix in the soda ash, you have to use your dye right away.  And so I painted my stripes.  

I laid each piece of fabric out on a piece of a plastic drop cloth and painted long vertical purple stripes.  I tried to leave enough space in between each purple stripe so the white would remain.  In hindsight, I could have used a smaller brush to make smaller stripes, but that also would have taken me even longer.  Doing these three pieces of fabric took about an hour and half.  It was a little tedious.  I did get some ripply edges because the dye would pool underneath the fabric on the plastic.  It would have been better to have something absorbent underneath, but I don't mind the ripples.  I wanted the stripes to look painterly like the Matisse painting.

After painting, I left the fabric to sit overnight underneath another piece of plastic (to keep it from drying all the way).  I actually sandwiched all three pieces on top of one another with their respective pieces of plastic.  Now, when I was painting the stripes, it was that beautiful deep purple that I was hoping for.  The next day, however, it was much lighter.

I rinsed out all three pieces the next morning until the water ran clear (with gloves in my bathtub).  Then I washed in the washing machine with some synthrapol.  When I took the fabric out to dry, it had faded to a pretty violet-red and had a faint blue halo around all the edges of the stripes.  I still thought it was pretty and planned to use it, but it didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned.

I read around online to try and figure out what happened and came across a great website with tons of info about hand dyeing. One article I found interesting was that some dyes are pure color while some are mixtures. In mixtures of color, sometimes the two colors react with the fiber at different rates, which is what I am assuming happened here.  The website also specifically mentions fuschia reacting faster than blue, meaning the blue will travel longer and create that blue halo.  So that's probably what happened.  I do like the blue halo anyway.

After the fabric was dry, I cut out my pattern pieces and sewed.  The pattern was pretty straight-forward, though there was a little bit of hand sewing the facing at the back neckline.  I tried to avoid hand sewing whenever possible.  I made a medium and left off the pockets, no other modifications.

I was super pleased with how it turned out.  Not only did I plan to recreate the Matisse painting, Robe Violette et Anemones, but I also planned to use my robe for real (and I have been using it with all my time at home lately).  I spent an embarrassing amount of time staging my living room to snap a photo.  I hung pieces of fabric and party streamers on the wall behind my couch and made anemones with tissue paper and pipe cleaners.  My daughter helped.

After I finished everything, I decided to use the leftover piece of printed rayon (the back of the robe) to make myself some pajamas.  I mean, if I'm going to lounge around in my beautiful hand painted purple robe, I might as well have some swanky pj's to go along with it, right?  I used every scrap of the printed rayon to make an Ogden cami and elastic waist bottoms using Simplicity 1112, which is now OOP, unfortunately. 

I'm late to the Ogden cami game, but I love it.  This is the first one I've made but there will be many  more.  This is a size 12 graded out to a 14 under the bust.  Next time I'll add an inch or two of length and I'd like to experiment with making a wider strap.  The pants pattern I've used too many times to count (see my faux jumpsuit from a couple of years ago).  I cut a 16 but added a smidge more to the hip area (weight gain, yay).  I used every bit of fabric I had, so there is no pattern matching anywhere and the length hit just below my knee.  I wanted more length, so I found a teeny, tiny scrap of a cotton and steel rayon (leftover from a romper I made for my daughter) and added to the hems.  I love the end result. And all from the stash! Woo hoo. 

If you made it to the end here, you are a champion. 😆 All in all, it was a fun and really rewarding project where I got to combine my love for art and sewing together.  And bonus, I get to look pretty fancy while I sit around my house and sip my tea during this time (but not with my mask on).  Stay safe and healthy, friends!

Rainbow Leopard

It's almost Halloween!  You know what that means- time for another homemade Halloween costume.  There aren't too many traditions I've made a conscious effort to start with my child, but a handmade Halloween costume is one of them.  I plan to make her one every year that she'll let me.  And hopefully one day she'll take over and make her own.  Next year I'll have two costumes to make...

This year, Jane was a lot more opinionated about what she wanted to be for Halloween.  Although the idea to be her rainbow leopard Beanie Boo came about kind of organically.  I started asking her what she wanted to be about two months ago.  First it was a duck.  Then a tiger.  Then a fox, which she settled on for a while.  I'm thankful she asked for animal costumes because they are fun to make.  I figured a fox would be a cute costume.  So I started talking about buying orange fabric for her fox costume.  Well.  That was when the floodgate of ideas of opened up.  She didn't want to be an orange fox.  She wanted to be a pink fox, then a purple fox, and so on and so forth (the animal changed multiple times, too) until she settled on a rainbow fox (with spots and stripes and sparkles).  While talking about the rainbow fur with spots and stripes and sparkles, we had a revelation that she was really talking about her rainbow leopard Beanie Boo, Dotty.  And that was that.  I searched online for "rainbow animal print fabric with spots and stripes" and found this awesome fleece blanket on Amazon.  I told her that once I ordered the blanket, that was it.  She wasn't allowed to change her mind or give any more suggestions, which luckily she didn't.

Anyway, I used Simplicity 1731, a pattern for an adult, child and DOG jumpsuit.  Just in case you wanted to make the whole family matching onesies.  I honestly want to make myself a fleece onesie that will accommodate my pregnant belly this winter.  I am serious.  The pattern is great.  I measured the length against a set of footie pajamas that Jane wears all the time.  The length was exactly the same (I used the child's size XS/4-5) as her pajamas but there was a ton more width.  After getting the fleece blanket in the mail, I decided not to narrow any of the width down due to the blanket being so incredibly fluffy.  The rainbow fleece isn't a typical fleece, it's more like faux fur.  It has a super deep fluffy pile on both sides of the fabric.  It was a pain to cut, a pain to sew and a huge pain to clean up later on.  It shed something fierce while cutting and sewing.  There was rainbow fluff everywhere.  It would fly up in the air and then settle all over everything like rainbow snow.  I found it all over the house.  It was all over one of our cats at one point.  I am pretty sure I inhaled some of it.  I sewed everything with a zig zag stitch and serged seam allowances to reduce some of the bulk.  I really had to pull the fabric through my machine due to the pile being so fluffy.

Here she is showing me how fast leopards are and how they sleep in the grass :D

I made a couple of small changes while sewing. I rounded off the back of the hood.  And, of course, added the ears, tail and white belly.  The double layer of fleece at the belly was way too thick to install a zipper, so I had to sew it along the seam line and trim off the allowance of the white fleece.  The white fleece is leftover from her kitty costume from three years ago!  I also sewed on cuffs at the ankles and wrists instead of using elastic.  I used some scraps of black bamboo knit.  I did shorten the sleeves a teeny bit but the legs are the length per the pattern.  The tail is stuffed with a little bit of poly-fil.  And we found almost the exact same shiny pink fabric for the front of the ears.

She loves it!  And I love it.  She's like a big, snuggly stuffed animal when she's wearing it.   She's been wearing it around the house and actually wore it out to a restaurant to meet her grandparents the other day. And thank goodness it will be cold on Halloween this year because this thing is warm.  We took these photos on an almost 80 degree day and she was sweaty afterward.  She could wear this thing in the snow.

Happy Halloween, friends!