Stitchin' in My Kitchen

 I love to travel, and I love to use an upcoming trip as an excuse to sew something new!   Next month I’m headed back to Seattle, one of my favorite American cities, and I decided I should make some outerwear for the trip.   I’d had the Jalie 2680 Stretch City Coat pattern in my “to sew” pile for a while and decided the hooded version would be perfect.     I also had 3 yards of this black perforated windblock fleece in my stash that I bought last year from Califabrics.com .   It is medium weight, has nice stretch, and a soft fleecy interior. Since I anticipated rain, I decided on the hooded view. I cut a size U based on my measurements.   There are a lot of pieces, with seaming and topstitiching details, but the construction is quite simple.   I made this on a Saturday while battling a cold and it was still easy!! I used a 90/14 ballpoint needle and had no problems sewing it with the machine (hand-tacking was a bit dif...

My eyes lit up when I saw this recent pattern release by Simplicity - I was super excited about 8214, which is a kind of retro-looking combo of top/dress/jumpsuit/pants. I have a couple of actual vintage dresses in my closet with a similar style.  I decided to start with view A, the below-the-knee dress. For my first pass at it I wanted to use a cute but inexpensive fabric, so I chose this navy polka dot peachskin fabric from Califabrics.  Well, first I googled 'peachskin' - it's just a polyester woven, but it doesn't really wrinkle and has a very nice drape if you're open to polyester in your life.  And the orange polka dots are seasonal for fall. I cut a size 12 based on the finished pattern measurements and I made a few minor changes to the pattern. It isn't very noticeable in the photos on the pattern envelope, but the front buttons down.  Since it fit over my head (like the Style Arc Holly blouse ) I just lapped one side of the front over the other ...

My fabric stash is full of gorgeous wools and faux furs...but Bay Area winters don't really call for the heavy coating, sadly. So I live out my winter coat fantasies by sewing for others, namely my family on the East Coast.  Califabrics recently added some gorgeous faux furs to their shop, and I really loved this pink one , with different shades of black and gray and different pile lengths. I'm not really a pink person myself, but I still thought this was so pretty and unique. So I decided to use it in a coat for my sister for her November birthday. She's a longtime vegetarian but signed off on the faux fur, and this is unabashedly faux - no pink rabbits were harmed! The pattern I used was McCalls 6656.   I made view A and a size S.  This has a big red  "EASY" on the front of the pattern, even though it looks like it would be complicated - it wasn't. It was super easy! It is unlined, uses button closures instead of a zipper, and the edges are unfinished....