the winter coat I've still not added buttons to

I've been meaning to post pictures of this jacket for a long time and still have not put buttons on it, which really means that I spent enough time making the jacket that I wanted to find my sewing machine manual to practice using the button hole feature before I tried to wing it on my own. So it's still not happened and now the once deeper purple fabric with blue polka dots has faded to a lighter shade but only because it's been loved.

For this jacket I used a pattern, project runway inspired in fact. The pattern is for a larger coat and longer also. I took out the pattern and looking at the difference between the sizes estimated where a size 2 would be and I drew it on the pattern. Then I traced the pattern on to another piece of paper and cut it out so I could place the pieces to waste the least amount of fabric. I bought this fabric from Piedmont Fabrics (which is about 50 miles away) and originally I grabbed it at the last minute thinking it would make a cute pair of pants. The fuchsia mohair wool I got was supposed to be this years coat but now I'm thinking maybe next when she's not drooling. I managed to squeeze this out of 1 yard of fabric which is a heavier weight made in Japan, almost a decorator weight fabric, definitely not quilting fabric which is what most fabric stores seem to carry.

To give warmth I used a layer of flannel and based on a suggestion by one of my talented girlfriends I steamed the collar around the neck of my dress form with a towel underneath and left it to set overnight before assembling the jacket together.

If I had to do it over again I would have put buttons on, obviously I still can, but seriously I might have left the length a little bit longer, even just a few inches. I cut the pattern shorter than it was which is great for a moving girl.

In these picture I've made the rest of what she is wearing except for the knit top which you can barely see underneath. The pants are made from the same line of fabric as the jacket and the days she wears them together it feels like an explosion of polka dots, but I think it's okay.

 

                  

                     

The damask top is one I made last year, I LOVE, LOVE the fabric and think I could cover everything with it and be perfectly happy!!! yes, fabric makes me happy and so does sewing.

une poire

Finally, I finished 2 sets of pears with a little help from my friend Becky, she did the fine stitching on this one which is especially significant since it was for her mother and they lived in France so no translation is necessary here. This pear goes with the set in the next photo.

I tried to choose a variety of fabrics and initially started out cutting out several of each print only to realize not many are needed to complete an arrangement.

This grouping I made for my MOM who has red tones in her kitchen and upper level.