Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Jeans

I am taking Burda's "Sewing and Designing Your Own Jeans" course with Meg Healy. I've taken several online classes with Meg now, and I enjoy her enthusiasm and teaching style. I loved the slopers course I took with her and though I've yet to develop my own patterns from the slopers, I do use them often as a base for other patterns - to make sure I take into account fit issues. And I learned a bit about how measurements affect the finished garment.

Anyway, this is my denim laid out and ready to be cut. This fabric is left over from another project, a denim skirt. It's not the best quality, but I figured I will have an around-the-house pair if nothing else. So, I wanted to make sure I had enough since it was iffy; I laid the pattern pieces on the fabric and I was short. I kid you not, I needed about 4 more inches of material. I had room for everything except a waistband. Are you kidding me? 

Me - Great, now I have to go order more fabric before I can make my jeans. 
My daughter - Mom, can't you just make capris?

Well, duh. So, I shortened the pattern to capri length and sure enough, I now have just barely enough for all the pockets AND the waistband.

This is one of two pair of pants I'm working on. I've never made pants before, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they work out. The first pair is actually nearly done, so maybe I'll have a post very soon to share about those!

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Inspiration Board

Thought I'd share my inspiration board with some of my current/future projects. I just got the corkboard, so it's a work in progress, just like just about everything else.

It's just an 18"X22" cork board. Starting at the left corner, and going clockwise, is a crown of a hat from interfacing that I accidentally doubled, so I have an extra in case I ever make another fedora. To the right of that is a bra cup pattern and some swatches of nylon lingerie fabric. I have not tested this particular bra pattern - I lost my favorite one in a move a year ago and I have not reordered it because I keep hoping that it will show up.

Below that is just a card with a note about the pattern and where to find it; also a little sketch, though you probably can't see that. It's a surplice top from Burda in their Modern Essentials book. I have made one that I need to get around and show. I love the one I have and plan to make another in some beautiful heather grey jersey from Mood Fabrics. (No swatch as the material is about to be put through the wash.)

Just below is a card that says Cigarette Pants from Gertie's Casual Vintage book. There is also a zipper. I have some brown twill on the sewing table with the pattern all ready to be cut out.

Below (right bottom corner) are some lovely swatches from Mood - a couple of nice coatings and a black twill).

Go over to the left and you have my pushpins and a small picture of a hat and purse combo out of wool. As a weaver, one of my goals in life is to be able to sew something from my handwoven fabric. I'd like to weave a purple plaid from wool and make a hat and purse, so that is more of a longterm goal.

Above that is a card from my in-laws with a lovely piece of batik. I coincidentally bought some batiks that I think this would go with, so I'm thinking another bag with this featured as one of the outside pockets.

In the center are cards for Burda's Lace Cardigan and a corset. I have a corset going; I've done a mockup which fits really well, so the next steps are to decide exactly what I need and to order it up.

Although nothing is up there yet, I am taking a jeans-making course from Burda and just finished tracing out the pattern, so that's another project.

I keep a few binder clips nearby so that I can clip entire patterns together and pin them to the bottom of the board.

So those are some of my projects over the next couple of months and beyond. What are some of yours?