Fun With Fleece Part 3

Fleece has been largely confined to active wear and casual attire.  I decided to experiment and see if it would work in a more formal setting.

I made this jacket with Kwik Sew 664 (out of print).  The pattern suggests fleece as one of the possible fabrics to use.  I chose black to make it more formal and to use metallic thread embroidery to enhance the idea that it's a formal garment.

The jacket has raglan sleeves.  The challenge was to create a design that was the right shape for each half of the sleeves, so that the sleeves could be embroidered before the sleeve seams were sown.

I started with an Embroidery Library design.  The design was not the right shape, but I figured that I could use an editor to move the stars around to get the right shape.  I ended up going to a friend's house and working with Floriani Total Control for the first time.  I did get the stars moved into a suitable shape and started thinking about buying digitizing software for myself.

Does the jacket work as formal wear?  There are limits. I would wear it for a nice night on the town, like to the Huntsville Symphony, but not to a really formal, wear a long dress, kind of event.  In the climate of Northern Alabama, fleece makes sense most of the winter and wool isn't really necessary.  This sort of jacket works well.  In a colder, wetter climate, I'd choose wool.

Raincoat Fix

I made a raincoat and blogged abut it here and here.   There's only one problem: the hood isn't quite long enough and the top of my head gets wet.  I decided the solution was to add a visor to the hood.  This will lengthen it and even keep the water out of my eyes.

The project started with a drawing of what I wanted the shape of the hood to be.  Because the visor will be symmetrical, it's only half of what I need.

I cut two of the visor shapes from the scraps of the raincoat fabric and two from sew-in interfacing.

All four pieces are sewn together to form a two-sided visor.  I tried using the seam tape on this again, but it didn't work well.

Finally, I opened the seam between the hood and the lining, inserted the visor, and sewed everything back together.  The seam isn't completely waterproof, but hopefully, that won't be too much of a problem.

Come back next week for more fun with a sewing machine!

Cork Wallet

I have this old wallet.  It's served me very well for many years, but it's worn out.  I also have this very interesting cork material that I bought at the Houston International Quilt Expo.  Maybe the two of these could meet and create something special.

Here's the old wallet.  Two of the things I like about it are the coin purse (on the outside) and all the pockets on the inside.

The idea is to replicate the wallet (mostly) in new materials.  The exterior is this lovely cork material.

It's a thin layer of natural cork bonded to canvas.  It is very flexible and not at all stiff.  It is a little thick.  I've seen it dyed a variety of colors, but I liked the natural look better.  The piece I bought also had this nice flower print.

The cork is too thick to make all of the lining pieces from it.  I chose to use ordinary polycotton broadcloth.  A binding material is also needed and I chose a 5/8' ribbon type material.  I managed to find both of these a 9PM at Wal-Mart after I got a wild hare to work on the project.

The first parts I made were the pocket sections for credit cards.  There are two sections, on one the right side of the wallet and one in the middle.  Each section has 3 pockets.  The top pocket is made from cork for decorate purposes, all of the others are just broadcloth.  Each pocket is 4.25" x 2".  The first step is to put binding on the top edge of each pocket.

The pockets are sewn to a backing piece that measures 4.25" x 3.375".  The idea is to make them evenly spaced.  The bottom of the pockets are just sewn to the backing.  Since polycotton broadcloth doesn't ravel, the bottom edges weren't finished.

Here's both sections of pockets sewn to the front of the bill pocket, which measures 4.25x7".  There's actually a sandwich here -- one layer of broadcloth, one layer of interfacing, one layer of broadcloth and then the pocket sections.  The left side and top of this piece then gets binding.  There's two hidden pockets between the pocket sections and the bill pocket lining.

Now it's time to assemble the outer part of the wallet.  The lining is a simple piece, 5" x 9".  The loop part of hook and loop tape (Velcro) is sewn to one side, with just enough clearance for the binding.

The real outside is a bit more complicated because of the coin purse.  The cork piece is 5"x7.5".  Then there's a zipper, and then a 1" strip of broadcloth with the hook side of the hook and loop tape.  The whole piece should measure 9" long when finished.  Also, there's a 5"x 3.5" piece of broadcloth sewn to the underside, under the zipper for the coin purse.  The bottom of the coin purse is attached with a line of stitching through the cork, the other side will get caught in the binding.

The outside and lining are put together, then the bill pocket piece is added.  Binding is sewn around the outside of the whole wallet.

Here it is: the inside  of the finished wallet.  I've been using it for a few days and it works great.  I really like the light color and distinctive pattern: it makes it lots easier to find my wallet in my purse.

Come back next week for more fun with a sewing machine.