Finished Three's a Charm Jacket!

Well I finished the Three's a Charm Jacket!

Really happy with the way it turned out. I ended up having to re-take in the waistline area (apparently I have lost more weight than I thought)! But it really was easy and turned out lovely. My plan is to make a matching pencil skirt for a suit type outfit. This way, I can wear the jacket with other things and the skirt with other things- multiple mix and match!

Decorative button on front

Ignore the old dress form!

Snap closure

So I decided to make a snap closure with a decorative button instead of a buttonhole. I didn't like the idea of making a buttonhole to disrupt the lines of the front of the jacket. This solves that problem by still having the nice, pretty button but yet it is closed with a snap. 

Very please with the way it turned out. And stay tuned because I have decided to tackle something that I have never done but always wanted to do. Lingerie! I have a pattern for a chemise/slip/nightgown type of garment and that is up next!

Three's a Charm Jacket

Well it certainly has been a while since I blogged about anything sewing related. No need to get into all the busy stuff going on in my life, but today I decided it was going to be Sewing Sunday! Yay!

I recently picked up this snazzy pattern from Decades of Style pattern company. They are this really cool company out of Berkeley, CA and mostly deal with vintage patterns. This recent pattern they offered is not really vintage, but something that can be adapted to many different genres and styles.


http://www.decadesofstyle.com


About 6 months ago I had purchased a lovely red wool crepe from a local fabric store on their remnant table. 3 yards at 60" wide for $15? Yes, please!  Yesterday I went back to that same shop and found a perfect lining fabric, a navy and red stripe (similar to a men's necktie fabric). It was the perfect match for the red and gave the crepe a bit of body.

Threes a Charm Jacket Pattern

Lightweight wool crepe

Navy and red stripe for lining!

This pattern is labeled "easy" and it really was. Now I did change some things around. It was an unlined jacket and I wanted to make it lined. Other than that, no real changes, except I have not decided if I am going to put a functional button to close it or not. 

View of the back construction

The lining looks great!

Front closure before the topstitching

Adding the sleeve lining!

I have not completed the jacket yet (still have some pressing and the closure to do) but it did come together very quickly and it was easy. I recommend the pattern, especially if you are new to sewing. Will update once I complete it later on. More to come!

The wedding quilt: What happens when there is nothing on TV!!

Apparently working from home and having so much free time at night proves that the wedding quilt has been coming along rather nicely! I have had quite a bit of time in the evenings to work on it and as you can see it looks great so far! Really pleased with the way it is coming together. I am starting to put the borders on and once that is done will more than likely wait a bit to start quilting it. I try to save quilting for cooler weather since it is such a "warm" activity.

What do you think?

The new wedding quilt: Does it look like a quilt?

Does it look like a quilt yet?

This is the pattern that I have to follow to piece together the triangles and rectangles to make the pattern come "alive". It is rather complicated but if you mark them correctly with the numbers then you can follow along and piece it together.

A headache waiting to happen!

So here is what I have so far. It really is coming together. The major thing is to get the pieces correctly cut out (the right sizes) and to piece it together slowly to make sure the corners match up. Some of the rows are not perfect, but they look pretty good! I am looking forward to continuing along and see how it looks once the top is all finished! More to come!

Not too shabby!

It's another wedding quilt!!!

Well! It has been a while since I posted anything on my sewing blog! Some life changes, a move back East and work has really taken over.

But I am starting a new project and it’s another wedding quilt! My son Connor and his wife Kristen are having their wedding in January so mom has to make a wedding quit! They decided they wanted a more contemporary quilt with solid colors (black and shades of gray). So I have found the following pattern which I thought was going to be not only really lovely, but challenging as well.

I can’t remember where I purchased the pattern directions (it may have been at Keepsake Quilting) but I knew when I saw it that it was exactly what I had in mind. Managed to find all the quilting cotton at local Joanne’s fabrics, although I probably will purchase the backing from Keepsake Quilting online (they have some great 100% cotton backing fabric that is 108” wide.

This is going to look lovely!

Black, gray and light gray!

Stay tuned for updates on how the quilt piecing comes along. In the meantime I am also planning several trips in the coming future and that will be discussed on my travel blog!!

A baby quilt! (for a gift!!)

Well! It has been a little while since I posted anything. I had actually finished this quilt a few weeks back but couldn't post anything until it was packaged up and shipped and received!

So a good friend of ours is expecting his first child so I just had to make up a cute baby quilt. They know that they are having a girl so I went with a very "girlie" pink theme! Since I am currently not traveling for work the last few weeks I was able to work on this in the evenings at home and finish it up in no time!

As you can see from the pictures, I went with a very pretty selection of pinks and greens purchased at Joanne's Fabrics. I know that the pattern for the quilt blocks probably has a name but I just kind of "winged it" to create the look I wanted based on how the fabric went together!

How cute is this fabric?

A photo of the block before it is stitched together

Yay! Completion

 The finished product is really cute and I am so glad that I decided on the bright pink for the fabric backing. I wanted something very feminine and also bright because babies like bright colors! The teal green I chose for the binding was not my first choice. I wanted a pink binding but couldn't find the color that I wanted so I chose the teal. I am SO glad I did. It really "pops" and brings the whole quilt together and also the darker color won't stain as easy!

The bright pink back!

All 100% cotton fabrics with 100% cotton batting for ultimate softness! Machine pieced and hand quilted by yours truly! I really like making baby quilts because they go together so quickly and you see results much faster than bed quilts.

And the parents-to-be notified me that they received the quilt and love it so it was a success!! Until next time....

Fabric! And more Fabric!!

So the small town where my daughter had her wedding was Den Bosch, Netherlands. The actual spelling of the name is  ‘S- Hertogenbosch. It is a town about an hour south of Amsterdam. There is an adorable little town square and the actual church the wedding was held in is about 4 blocks away. It is a 14^th century cathedral and it absolutely stunning inside.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'s-Hertogenbosch

You just don't have churches like this in the states!

Amazing!

The town square holds weekly open-air markets for all to enjoy. There was the normal stuff like cheese, bread, bags/purses and goodies. There are also several stands of fabric! Yay! In heaven! In addition to the fabric, there are stalls of lace, trims and zippers/bindings. I did not purchase anything there but you can bet I bought some fabric!

Now in Europe fabric is sold by the meter and not by the yard. (I checked with my son-in-law beforehand!) The fabric stalls had multiple bolts of fabric all out for everyone to see (and touch), and there were also some fabric hanging from the ceiling of the tents for display purposes.

The day after the wedding (Saturday) the fabric market was in full swing. So, unfortunately, was the rain. It came down for about 20 minutes like someone had turned on the faucet. I didn’t complain as I would rather had it rain the day after the wedding and not the day of! The vendors had rain-ready tarps and gear to protect their wares so this must be a regular occurrence!

I ended up purchasing 3 kinds of fabric. One was a kid print for a friend who has small children and also sews. I purchased just a meter of it, you don’t really need that much for small children. I thought it was so cute and almost wished I had little ones again so that I could make up a cute dress in the fabric. Almost.

Then other two prints I purchased 2 meters each of. They are dress/shirt weights and appear to be either 100% cotton or a blend of poly/cotton. Very pretty and perhaps might make tops out of it. Not sure yet what I am going to do with it, it would also be pretty in a skirt.

Very pretty!

Perhaps a skirt?

The total cost of all three fabrics (if memory serves correctly) was about 25 Euro. That is about $32, give or take the current conversion rate. The gentleman who waited on me was very nice but his English was limited. No matter: Fabric is a universal language! (Or it should be!) I was able to communicate with him just fine and was very happy with my purchases! I found that most Dutch people understand English at least on a basic level. If they don’t speak English very well, they tend to at least understand what you are saying. Which is good, because I have zero understanding of the Dutch language!!!

Another fun thing to mention is that my daughter's mother-in-law found out that I liked to sew and she presented me with a small amount of fabric for me to use! It is what she called "traditional Dutch scenes" and it is so adorable! I have no idea what I am going to use it for but I want to use it for something special! It is lovely!

How cute is this Dutch fabric!!

Fabric shopping in Europe! Yep, I did that!