The Great Pumpkin...Charlie Brown

Okay; don't laugh...at least not too hard.  LOL.  I ran out of regular muslin fabric and didn't feel like running out to purchase more when I have all this old quilting fabric hanging around not being useful.  Sooooo, I used this pumpkin fabric I've had marinating for about 20 years.  I know I got it in Florida.  I remember it being a bit costly at the time, since it had metallic in the design.  I think it cost all of $6.00 a yard.  LOL 

 Pumpkins are apropos for this time of year, no? 

It's a fairly heavy fabric and more able to mimic the wool/cashmere blend I'll be using for the real deal.  I started out cutting the size 18 since I thought the 16 would be just too fitted for me, it just wasn't the case.  When I made it up, the 18 just looked baggy in the shoulder area on me so I re-cut the pieces down to a 16 for the upper body, out to my more normal 18-20 for the hips.   I was so worried my normal 16 would be "too fitted" I caused myself extra work. 

Have you ever done that?  Sigh.

My manikin Ruby is just a touch smaller than I am and there's no help in the photo dept so you'll just have to make do with manikin pictures.  LOL.  I don't know if I want pictures floating around the internet with me wearing pumpkin fabric anyway.  LOL.

Later!

Butterick 5535 - Coat

This will be the one winter coat I'll be making for the season.  You can still get it, but its on the site as an OOP.  It's pretty simple; semi-fitted, lined jacket with collar, bust darts, patch pockets and princess seams.  I'm going to make the one in the center picture, view B.  Initially I was going to make it from a piece of grey plaid wool flannel I picked up at an estate sale but I really don't feel like matching plaids right now.  So I'm making it easy on myself by using a wool/cashmere blend I purchased at the Cloth Merchants a couple of years ago.  It's at the cleaners getting prepped for sewing.

I will be making a few changes though.  (Don't I always?)  I'll be adding 2 or 3 inches in length.  Since this is a semi-fitted coat, I'm going up one size; I really don't want it THAT fitted.  LOL.  

I'm not a fan of patch pockets so I'm going to try a new technique I found in my Threads archive.  It's called "No-clip welt Pockets".  If you have the archive (or the magazine), it's found in issue #91 on pages 48-49.

It's pretty ingenuous really: you simply fit the double-welt pocket between the seams of a princess style jacket!  I was so pumped when I found this article!  LOL.

Needless to say, I'll be making a muslin to see if going up one size & all the various changes will work with what I need to do to get the fit I'm looking for in this style.  And I'll probably do a practice run on the new pocket. 

Well that's all I have for today!  I hope you're having a nice weekend.

Later!