The London Coat

Another coat?! Yes, another coat!

It's not like I need more coats. But coats are good. Coats are comfy, cozy and make winter more enjoyable. And for whatever reason, coats inspire me. Or how would you say it the other way around... when I see other garments, they often inspire me to turn them into coats. It might be strange, but that's the way it is.

What would you have made from this great 60's number?

The Amadeus Coat

How to turn a two piece costume into a coat....
Here is my newest Re-fashion! I have actually finished it a few weeks ago and am proud to say that I am wearing it almost daily, so this one definitely goes into the book of successes! :-)

It started out as a wool costume, which I had bought at the flee market for a ridiculous amount of 5 Euros... It's a fabulous herringbone pattern wool in turquoise and purple! Swoon!

Here is the before and after:

 It was too big for me, and in general I just would have never worn it this way, so please forgive me for cutting into it...

Fab Coat Now Wearable!

Here it is, my February contribution to the Refashion co-op!

I would say there are two categories of refashion projects:

1. The ones you make out of items that are just not fashionable anymore the way they are.
2. The ones you make with garments that don't fit anymore (or that need mending...).

The Diva Coat! Making-of #3

Welcome to Part 4 of my Diva-Coat Post Series, the finale!
This is about the coat I made for the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook, my name there, by the way, is ajtak7171.

THIS FIRST POST gives you an overview, initial sketches and an outline of how many days it took me and what I did on each day.


THIS SECOND POST gives you the detailed description of the changes I made from the original pattern, and details of days 1-4, with close-up photos of the sewing process and whatever bits of insight I can give.


THIS THIRD POST continues with the sewing of the coat from days 5-8, everything up to the lining, again including lots of pictures of course.


AND HERE FOLLOW DAYS 9 - 12:


Half days = 2-4 hrs. of work

3/4 days = up to 6 hrs.

whole days = 8 - 10 hrs.

I always started the day with cutting out the pattern pieces that I would need for the next step. Which meant about an hour of cutting in the beginning of each day...

(click to read on!)

The Diva Coat! Making-of #2

Welcome to Part 3 of my Diva-Coat Post Series!
This is about the coat I made for the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook, my name there, by the way, is ajtak7171.

THIS FIRST POST gives you an overview, initial sketches and an outline of how many days it took me and what I did on each day.


THIS SECOND POST gives you the detailed description of the changes I made from the original pattern, and details of days 1-4, with close-up photos of the sewing process and whatever bits of insight I can give.




AND HERE FOLLOW DAYS 5 - 8:


Half days = 2-4 hrs. of work

3/4 days = up to 6 hrs.

whole days = 8 - 10 hrs.

I always started the day with cutting out the pattern pieces that I would need for the next step. Which meant about an hour of cutting in the beginning of each day...

(click to read on!)

The Diva Coat! Making-of #1

As promised, after giving you a first overview of my coat making-of in THIS POST, I will show and tell some more details in about 3 more posts. Today, I will cover what I accomplished on my first four out of a total of 12 work days for this coat.

This coat was my contribution to the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook.

The Diva Coat!

My Contribution to the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook:

No really, I couldn't say that I often sit at home sulking about the fact that I can't go to a cool party. In fact, I often choose staying at home (and doing something creative) OVER being at a cool party. But today is different. Today is the official launch party for the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook, to which all the contributors were invited. How I would LOVE to be there in New York! I've lived in New York for five years and often dream about going back - today more than ever.

*** HAVE FUN AT THE PARTY! ***

*sigh*

I'm definitely counting on you fellow bloggers and BurdaStyle to take pictures and blog about it sometime soon! Please?

We were asked to keep quiet about it for such a long time now that it actually feels strange to finally show and tell.

I will divide this story up into three or four posts, so that I can share a lot of photos and information about how this coat came to life. Today is just a first overview.

A Blazer for Mom

My mom has always been the biggest promoter, sponsor and motivator of my creative undertakings, no matter what field they happened to be in. So it is no surprise she also gave me a little push onto the next level in sewing: making a tailored garment for someone other than myself... She also insisted on being my first "real" customer, wanting to pay for it. At this point Mom, I apologize for how long you had to wait for this!
She expressed her wish for a blazer in Spring, and I only now got done with it... But then again, we live 800 kilometers apart from each other...

I knew this project was going to stretch my abilities a bit, a blazer is a difficult garment to begin with, and to fit it perfectly, there have to be several fittings... First, we decided on a general shape and pattern to base the blazer on. I didn't want to have to make the pattern from scratch, as that would have probably taken me an extra 5 years...

We took the 50's blazer that some of you already know from my 1950's Travel Set as a first guideline:

There were plenty of adjustments to be made. I made a muslin for a first fitting, which went surprisingly well and we actually only needed one additional fitting after that.
We changed the sleeves from 3/4 to full length and I added a sleeve vent to it - which was a first for me and I struggled a bit with making the pattern for it...

Me-Made-Mittwoch #15

Deutsch: Grau

English: Blue

Heute trage ich das Kleid, das von mir den Namen "Miracle Dress" bekam. Nicht, weil es so wundervoll ist, sondern weil es wie ein Wunder war, dass es überhaupt tragbar herausgekommen ist...

Today I am wearing the dress that I call "miracle dress". Not because it is so miraculously beautiful, but because it seemed like a miracle that it turned out wearable at all...

Der Schnitt ist aus einer Deutschen Modenzeitung von 1941 und war mir eigentlich zwei Grössen zu gross, mindestens. Das war allerdings nicht die einzige Schwierigkeit -ich schneiderte das Kleid vor über einem Jahr, und dieser luftige Chiffon hat mich noch etwas überfordert. Das Kleid hat einen Seitenreissverschluss und die Raffinesse ist, dass es ein Unterhemd und den Unterrock gleich mit eingebaut hat. HIER sehr ihr mehr Fotos davon.

The pattern is from an old magazine from 1941 and was actually at least two sizes too big for me. This was not the only difficulty though - I sewed this dress over a year ago and this chiffon was a bit too challenging for me then. The dress has a side zipper and the really cool thing is that it has a top and underskirt sewn right into it. HERE you can see more pictures of the details.

Eigentlich ist es auch ein Wunder, dass es bei all den Änderungen die ich machte, am Schluss doch so ähnlich wie das Original aussieht. Was hält ihr von dem gelben Kleid? Ich glaube fast, das muss ich auch mal noch schneidern. Es ist sogar in meiner Grösse!

It's actually also a bit of a miracle that it ended up looking so much like the original after all the changes I made to it. What do you think of the yellow dress? I think I might have to give that one a try too - it even comes in my size!

My 10 Piece Travel Set: 9 down, 1 to go!

Wow, I am actually getting closer! These are my pieces number 8 and 9 for my ten piece fall/winter/spring travel set! I have already presented them on my dress form in the last post, but here they come, modeled by me:

I have already presented the skirt, too, with a full how-to/tutorial HERE, in case you are interested. It features half-circle pockets and a visible zip in the back:

But my biggest pride at the moment is this shirt:

My 1938 Coat: RTW Tailoring sew-a-long - FINALE!

May I introduce to you:

This is the coat I made for the RTW-Sew-along that Sherry from Pattern-Scissors-Cloth was posting. It was an AMAZING sewalong and I cannot give her enough credit for it. This is probably the most precisely constructed/sewn garment I have made so far. And that coming from a pattern from 1938 really means something. I have written two previous posts:

First: RTW-Sew-along THE MUSLIN - where I wrote about some fitting issues
And: RTW-Sew-along ALMOST THERE - where I wrote about the things that I learned and all I had left to choose were buttons.
From the original illustration it seemed like they were using Chinese Frog buttons:

Source: Deutsche Moden-Zeitung, Heft 25, 1938

First of all, thanks to everybody for your input here and on the Flickr group! I really appreciated it and it helped me decide! I first toyed with the idea of making my own. I found some instructions, especially for the button part, but I worried about it a lot. I find buttons can easily make or break a garment, and as I was already liking my coat a lot at that point, I didn't want to risk anything by putting on scraggly little hand-made crooked frogy things. (If this is all you see from this post now, click on the "read more" sign below. It's small and I like to point it out...)

RTW Tailoring sew-a-long - Almost there!

Readers, I am thrilled! The RTW-Sewalong from Sherry over at Pattern-Scissors-Cloth has been absolutely fabulous! We are almost done with our coat - some people even went ahead and finished! - and I want to show you some details before the final post. I will tell you some of the most important things I have learned...
As you see in the first picture, when sewing the muslin I didn't even bother about easing in the sleeve correctly, as the fabric had zero flexibility. I was wondering though how on earth I would be able to ease in that much fabric and was quite worried about it...

Sherry writes such smart little things like "let the feed dogs do the work". Wow, I never knew about my feed dogs abilities! I admit that I am guilty of having stretched and yanked at my shorter piece of fabric like crazy in the past... woops! I will never do that again! It even once happened that I eased too much, because the feed dogs were so hungry! :-)
Now would you look at this fabulously gathered and eased in sleeve...

 In the picture above, I left the collar up, so you can also see another great thing - how the upper collar is "rolling over" the seam... you know, I DID know about cloth allowance before, but we actually made two separate paper patterns, while in the past, I would just sort of cut the upper collar a bit wider...
If any of this is interesting to you, go check out the sewalong. It is full of really great, professional sewing knowledge.
Making the paper pattern really took a long time and put my patience on a test. But it was so worth it! Especially when working off a vintage pattern, which can be a lot of guess work as it is...
We made an extra paper pattern for all the lining pieces, too. We determined how long the hem will be and calculated it all out beforehand. But don't be scared, she explains so well!

 This is a bit of my inside, shoulder pad and sleeve wadding, as well as facing...

Here is the collar and lapels... A bit of magic after all the planning: the roll line really just fell into place automatically, just as Sherry promised it would. Cool. I think it is pretty grand, though I do have to give it another session at the iron. I have what another sew-alonger calls a dimple at the gorge line...

So now it comes down to buttons. In the original illustration they seem to have cord buttons - I believe they are called Chinese Buttons in English (German: Posamenten-Verschluss)? I am looking for instructions and decide on how to make them, if anyone has suggestions, they are highly, highly welcome! Has anyone of you ever made them yourselves?

I will surely make another jacket and go back to those posts - my coat was relatively easy, as it has no pockets, and no sleeve vents. I have lost all fear of coats and jackets now and will move on to even bigger things, ha!
Hopefully I will be back with the final post very soon.

You know what I did last Sunday?

Yes, we are all excited about spring kissing our cheeks. But I am behind schedule with my winter set. Luckily it is a Fall-Winter-Spring set (a travel set with 10 interchangeable pieces of clothing), and this was the last really wintery item on the list. It makes the hopefully short return of the 1-digit-temperatures more bearable:

Oh, don't say it... I know it. Santaclause, right? So what? I like the little bit of Santa-ness of this jacket, and I know I will love it when the next winter comes around. Somehow it's more of a before-Christmas garment.
I once bought a really great coat in the middle of summer, and it made the arrival of  winter so much better! On that note, this jacket has built in make-me-happy-power for next October.
I came up with the pattern myself. It's basically a circle. If you want to see how I did it, read on...

Brogues, a Coat and Courage

What is your reaction when you see these?

New Coat, Old Pattern - from 1935!

It would have been much easier to come up with a 10 piece winter travel set if it didn't include outer wear. The set from 1953, which inspired me to do my winter 2011 version, included outer wear, so I couldn't cheat out of it either. The coat had an almost impossible list of requirements to meet:

• Well, logically, it has to work with absolutely all the other pieces
• I have to be able to wear my cold, cold weather faux fur vest or knit jacket underneath without the armholes tearing
• It had to be elegant enough for me to take it to the opera without leaving it self-conscious next to all the fur coats while waiting for me to come out
• While at the same time being sporty enough for a snowball fight

Well, look: this one actually does that all!

Click that tiny little "read more" button right underneath, if that's what you want to do...

RTW Tailoring sew-a-long - the muslin (unfinished...)

Back to school! Sherry from the fabulous blog pattern - scissors - cloth is making a sew-a-long that is right up my alley!
As much as I enjoy vintage patterns and the hand-sewing I usually end up with when tackling one, her RTW techniques really interest me. Having just finished the coat for my 10 piece winter travel set, which I will share with you very soon, I didn't really have one lined up on my wish list. Then I remembered how much I love a summer coat that I own, which is torn along the sleeve scythes in the back, so I went hunting for a pattern in my vintage magazines and came up with this one (click on any of the images to enlarge):

Source: Deutsche Moden-Zeitung, Heft 25, 1938

It's a pattern from 1938 and yes, of course I will make the dress, too! Sheesh, the list gets longer instead of shorter... To see my fabric choices and muslin fitting, read on...