Waffle Dropje shearling vest

I know, all I do is complain about what's wrong with patterns and then I go and make four of them. (here, here and here.)
Wellll you'd think by now I would have perfected this one.

This concept came to me fully polished while I strolled through Upper Mustang in Nepal.  Yep, it was hot and I was sweaty and hiking up hills of dirt, and I was thinking about making a vest out of animal skins.  I never said I was logical.  I did however drive straight to The Fabric Store from the airport to pick out my skins, and the vest was put together the following day.  However they were one skin short so I had to hold my impatience together while waiting to put on the hood.

I had some trouble figuring out the size.  My last post was oddly vague and all my pieces appeared to be size 36.  I thought I had sized down.  I decided that on a shearling vest, oversized was totally ok.  I went with about 1 inch longer than the pattern piece length, but no waist binding.

For the stretchy side panels I used two layers of merino which I sewed together along the top and bottom to enclose them.  Then I just sewed them to the front and back as normal since those seams won't unravel. (Note: I topstitched them down *to the merino side* not to the shearling side, a fact I just recently thought may have caused later problems...)

I then relocated to Greymouth but luckily my new office manager had a sewing machine so there was no problem! I managed to just barely tease the hood pieces out of that finicky little Singer.

I didn't have leather needles, and my usual sharp needles were not very good - I did most of this using the needles that come with sewing machines that are always in the little hidden storage area.  It was heavier duty and generally didn't skip stitches.  The borrowed Singer was not as good as my Pfaff, and I was really nervous about putting on the pockets.  They aren't perfect, but they are definitely fine and are so so cozy!  I just used a piece of paper to measure about how I wanted them, and then traced two.

This project stalled after that because I was moving and didn't manage to keep all my little bits in one place, but also because I noticed something right away - little rips occurring forwards and back of the merino stretch panels.  I could see that is a spot which has increased wear from pulling it on and off, and the leather can't give the same way the merino can.  I had no idea what to do to fix this.  I thought anything I put on it to bind it will be hard to get on and might make things worse.  I don't have access to an industrial sewing machine that might be able to manage lots of layers.  I asked a lot of friends, and my mother, and didn't get any useful ideas.

Luckily despite my impasse, I planned the rest of the steps for this vest!  I bought the bone buttons in Kathmandu specifically for this project, and then got thick waxed leather thread to apply them.

I planned to use strips of the original shearling for the button holders, and I saved the edges of the skins where there was no furry back.  I strengthened them by stitching down the middle of each piece. All the bits were together, waiting for success.  I even realised I could use grommets in the front for the buttons to strengthen them.

Friends told me that if I used grommets around the armhole it would redistribute stress.  I was finally reunited with this project, all those bits, and my grommet kit, however when I was making shoes recently the grommets were a huge catastrophe and all came out bent, so I worried I wasn't on the road to grommety success.

Fast forward to Isolation 2020!  Haha in between binging on whatever project enters my head in a wheeling free for all of sewing, I decided it was my duty to do my old, scary UFOs.  (Also two bras sitting on my desk collecting dust ughhhhh).  I got out the grommet kit and -ahem- read the instructions.  And realised I was using the wrong bits to put grommets in.

I tried to sort through these pictures but I couldn't choose which strange expressions were less strange than the rest so I kept them all.  Go figure I decided I needed an exotic photo shoot right when gale force winds started blowing!

So that's it, in one morning I: installed grommets all over the place.
Put in the buttons.
Sewed down my button holders, just as I had imagined MANY TIMES in the past two years, thank god I'd already marked placement and everything!
I glued the little rips with shoe glue
And for extra support I did a few sets of stitching down the seamlines of each of those suspicious seams.  I'm hoping between the grommets, the glue, and the stitching I will have redistributed stress enough that it won't rip any more, but I'm also more prepared to glue the entire armholes, or even add little strips of leather for support if I have to.
And then I was so excited I went and took those pictures.

This project really stretched my sense of what I could do.  I started out with inspiration and my inspiration was totally, perfectly fulfilled.  Did I mention that I even reshaped the front of the hood to cup my head without a hood drawstring?  So many perfect plans went into this, but it actually took me all of those two years to get the skills, equipment (shoe glue, miracle worker!!) and sheer determination to deal with the unexpected issues that cropped up.  Sometimes things do need to sit in time out for awhile.

Virginia legging experiment in stretch suede

Last year sometime, I discovered Stouls, who are in France and make washable suede clothing. The quality is exquisite and the prices are sphincter-tightening, especially when a relatively weak currency like the kiwidollar is involved.

In the States there is better access so while I was there, I took the opportunity to investigate.  I determined that although they are great quality, they are made with the assumption that you are about 185 cm tall.  And the fit is nothing spectacular.

Well, I can make leggings.

Thus began another sewing odyssey.  A lot of time was spent thinking, for instance, what would I do with the waistband?  Would it require special management?  Could I get away without using elastic? How to sew it together?  I assumed that overlocking would be impossible. 

I bought some stretch suede from the Fabric Store, managing to score it on a day there was huge sale on.  I bought 3 skins. My leather legging cost: 200 dollars.  Stouls leather leggings: 1500 dollars.  I reckon I'm winning here.  

I made a practice pair from some black fleece that had similar stretch characteristics.  High waist, size XS.  They were amazing!  In fact they were so great that a friend begged me for them and I gave them to her.  They confirmed the fit, and I just used a piece of the fleece for the waistband.  I cut about 3" off it to make it tight enough. With the high waist that was perfect.  They were a little tight on my calves, and I reckoned 3" too long.

Another investigation: I washed a piece of my beautiful blue stretch suede.  It seemed to do ok, confirming that they could be washed in an emergency, but I wasn't sure if the stretch was just a bit lazy after that.  So better not to wash them. 

To prep the pattern, I cut off 3" of the bottom of the legs, and I used that same length of waistband that worked on the fleece pants.  I traced all my pattern pieces and then started chopping the piece up until it fit on my skins.  I ended up with a lower leg piece, a horizontal seam, and two thigh pieces with a vertical seam.  I cut the waistband in 2 pieces.

This suede is pretty thin, so after only minimal hesitation I went for it and used the overlocker.  Absolute success. I overlocked the crotch seam, inseam and the waistband, but just straight stitched the pieces together on the sides, and also straight stitched the lower calves onto the upper legs.  Some topstitching was involved to help strengthen those seams, and I topstitched the back crotch to add stability.  I found that the topstitching decreases the tension on the seam, which obviously is a good thing on stretch leather trousers as who wants the butt seam to fall apart?

Added pockets.  I measured them to be the size I wanted, where I wanted.

When I tried these on I discovered an interesting technical feature of stretch suede.  What stretch it has widthwise ends up shortening the fabric lengthwise.  So the fixes that I borrowed due to the fit of fleece leggings were not helpful - the leggings are much shorter and the crotch height is much lower.  The waistband, because the stretch is horizontal, was too loose. I ended up fixing this by opening up the back seam and adding in some elastic. I hadn't wanted elastic but now I'm really glad for it as it makes the pants feel more secure.  They feel a bit tighter than the practice pair but overall I'm happy with the fit. 

So the best thing about doing it yourself is that you can add pockets!  I have pockets!  They are so stretchy that I should have reinforced the pocket tops by folding them over, otherwise they are great, and of course the right size for my phone (left pocket) and my car keys (right pocket).

Verdict: some learning and a huge amount of thinking for an awesome result.  I'm so proud of my suede pants and I think I'll get a lot of wear out of them before the weather gets too warm.  I finally feel like a fashion success when I'm strolling around town after surfing!

Stretch suede Colette Mabel Miniskirt & the #sewfrosting challenge

This was a project that I thought up last year while I was binge-making these miniskirts.  I had one  stretch suede skin, in this dark wine red, and I tried really hard to get all the skirt pieces to fit onto it.  I cut each piece flat, I jigsawed like mad, but I couldn't magic my pieces to fit onto one skin.  I was stumped, because the colour and texture of the skin meant nothing quite matched.

The idea languished, until I discovered a blue stretch suede skin at The Fabric Store.  I had to brainstorm how they would match up, and came up with the idea of triangles.  I finally got working on it in October but immediately lost hope yet again when I saw that my triangles were too wide - one of them fit on each skin, but I needed two per skin.

It took the #sewfrosting challenge for me to realise something sort of obvious: if you can cut a piece in half once, you can cut it in half again.  I cut each triangle of the back skirt in half, making two triangles of each colour, and remembering to add my seam allowances.  I sewed these together right away so I wouldn't mix up which piece was supposed to line up where.  And I top stitched everything in its own colour.

Two triangles of the back skirt sewn together

Entire skirt!

This project was really hard only because of my terrible sewing machine.  It was frustrating to accept skipped stitches as the status quo and to let go of the idea of perfect topstitching, but I just don't have the equipment to do better (and honestly it's not like this miniskirt is going to be worn out too fast...) I had to switch to a new extra sharp needle after every 15 inches of sewing or it would skip too much.

I also forgot a lesson that I had learnt early during my miniskirt marathon, which is that the entire waistband has to be overlocked.  I stitched it on the machine and then understitched the waistband lining and then had to undo all that.  At least it meant I got to overlock at the end and enjoy one machine that worked well!

Once I got started actually sewing this was a relatively fast project, though I took a lot of breaks due to sewing machine frustration.  

I added the pocket by eyeing where I wanted it and marking the spot with chalk.  I also measured the size of my pocket by what I'd need to fit a wallet and phone.  (truth!) Luckily I had enough fabric for that - I chose to do the blue waistband so I could do a red pocket.

in my imagination this was going to come down to a perfect point.  Hm, pretty close though!

My miniskirt is great!  It is so stretchy!  Interestingly, I get horizontal lines above the hips which remind me of trying to fit the very classic and well loved Vogue 1247 skirt (here's mine) - just like I had to shorten the Persephone pants across the pelvis, maybe I have to shorten everything on "high waisted patterns" (ie ending at the belly button) between the waist and hips.  I've never measured my rise - I think I've just gravitated towards pants that fit without making any adjustments because of being a lower rise - except for the Persephone pants which have been worth the effort.