I had a waterproof breathable jacket that I think I made from fabric purchased when you were still allowed to use the Goretex brand name.  It was a Burda pattern, super simple, and super annoying.  It was a pullover (NO), had no pockets for my hands (NO), a kangaroo pocket (ok), an ill-fitting hood (ok), raglan sleeves (yes), an asymmetric closure (yes), and was color-blocked (yes).  The capital NOs outweighed everything else.

It delaminated from age. And the arm holes would rip out regularly because of the whole putting-it-on-over-my-head thing.

I decided I would be environmentally conscious, and use waxed cotton canvas for the replacement.  It turned out to be not remotely waterproof, except that it was another layer for the rain to soak through before it got to me.

So the replacement replacement had to be waterproof breathable fabric, have the same interesting asymmetry and color-blocking-ness, a kangaroo pocket is fine, a taller front collar, and pockets for my hands.

Enter the Momiji Jacket from Waffle Patterns!


I stumbled across Waffle Patterns a few months ago (or years, whatever). I was immediately drawn to the designs because they had interesting pockets.  Like, there are so many pockets she has a pattern collection of just pockets.  Yes, please.

This jacket pattern is either just a stand-up collar with a kangaroo pocket and tabs on the cuffs, or a hood version with with many pocket variations, also including a kangaroo pocket, but with a hand warmer pocket built in, a chest pocket, a ticket pocket on the sleeve, and a knit cuff.  You can mix and match pockets and details between the versions.  Both have the asymmetric closure. 

I chose view A with the hood and maximum pocket-age, and just a plain cuff. This ticked all the boxes. 

For the fabric, I decided on a blue called Wedgewood and a black ripstop W/P/B. Since the pattern calls for all one color, I had to estimate the amount needed for each block.  I got 1.5 yds black, and 1.25 yds blue.  I could have bought .75 yards of the blue and had enough.

For the pockets, I used a .5 yd piece of leftover reflective fabric from the previous rain jacket project. It's not high vis reflective, but it definitely has a bit.

For the zippers, I wasn't quite sure what gauge I should get, and ended up with #6 for the kangaroo pockets, and #4 for the ticket and chest pockets.  Since I wanted zipper pulls that rotated, I had to buy zipper by the yard. I really wanted plastic zips, but the fabric store had more selection in coil.  I also got a prepackaged plastic zip for the jacket closure.

I wish I had thought more about it and purchased only bottom stops for all the pocket zips.  They don't need to open at the top, and I'd actually feel a little more confident with them closed at both ends.

The pattern pictures have additional details not covered in the instructions.  To the chest pocket, I added a little reflective ribbon tab with a D-ring to hang my compass on.

This is a slim-fitting jacket.  I muslined it and went up two sizes to be able to wear a sweater underneath it (as recommended), and still needed to add 2" to the circumference of the biceps!


The first step in the instructions was to make the chest pocket. Through no fault of the pattern, I had to remake it SEVEN times. Then one of the kangaroo pocket zipper heads disintigrated. It was just one of those projects.  I fixed them both, but it took me days.

The plastic closure zip was an inch too long, so I cut off some of the top teeth with wire cutters, and wow, those things really fly off to parts unknown!  I'm sure I will be finding them in the years to come.

I realized I put the ticket pocket on the right arm, meant to put the ticket pocket on the left arm, and refused to fix it. No more 7-try pockets.

I modified the sleeve cuffs with a couple buttonholes to accommodate an elastic cord and toggle, so I could snug them up over gloves if needed.

Despite being very careful, I managed to reverse the left and right sleeves in the lining. At least it wasn't in the shell, and I can't tell when wearing it.

Seam sealing really slows down the process of sewing, too.  I'm glad I had a lot of sewing knowledge. This was very challenging.

The jacket looks great (imho) in the above pictures and while wearing, but It's a little awkward to put on - I have to twist around to get the zipper lined up,   For the same reason, I don't like to wear it with the zipper fully open. It hangs a bit oddly.  For ventilation, so far, it's been fine just having it open to the waist.

I wish I had put more reflective material into this jacket while making it. But I refuse to put any more needle holes in the W/P/B that I have to seal! My next project is to get some peel 'n' stick fabric fuse, which despite the name, involves no fusing. It is a way to make stickers from fabric, and I have black and blue high-viz reflective fabric.

I could see making another one of these jackets, maybe out of wool, or something else warm.
...........................................................................................................................................
Started: 1/19/22
Finished: 2/7/22
Cost: ~$100

I bought this pattern in high school. While I really, really like this now, I would have LOVED it then. I originally wanted to make it in a sky blue cotton velveteen. I don't remember why I didn't make it then; maybe I was intimidated by the addition of boning, or maybe it was my short attention span. I have it now!





This is a really good basic bodice pattern, as reviewer Sorrel Smith said over at The Great Pattern Review. Would I make it again? Possibly, using it as a jumping off point. It would probably look good with lapels. I would also need to make the neck a smaller diameter. I didn't compensate for that when I added width to the center fronts.



It is also a surprisingly handy little jacket. It is an unexpectedly warm, light layer and perfect for spring. I can't really wear it over anything other than a t-shirt anyway. the sleeves really are quite tight. I think the jacket would hang better through the back if the sleeves hung on my arms properly.



So no bike riding or harp playing in this thing, or anything that requires me to move my arms forward and bend them.



* Click on any picture to see it bigger.
** Past Patterns has a note on their website for #902: This pattern is currently being updated and so it is listed out of stock. Not sure what's being updated - it seems fine to me.

Fabric: Cotton/acetate faille, possibly from Schoolhouse Fabrics (I still miss that place)
Cost: ?  Maybe $12 for the one piece of lining I needed and thread?
Time: Too. Much. Hand sewing. 3/24 dyed fabric, 3/30, 31 alter pattern and cut and muslin, 4/2 almost killed myself with my iron, 4/3 new iron, 4/5,6 sewed and found I needed buttons and sleeve lining, 4/10 fabric store, 4/11 organized button stash and found buttons!, 4/12 -15, 18, 26-30, 5/2-6 sewed, 5/8 finished! Conservatively, probably a total of about 34 hours.

ETA: My mom refers to the tails as "butt flaps" and I kind of can't not call them that now.

All the pieces of this jacket are underlined, which meant hand-basting around all the edges of all the pieces. If there is a next time, I would probably line it, as well or instead, because the seam edges are also supposed to be overcast by hand. Well, I can tell you I gave up on that pretty quick and got out the serger. And even that was too much sewing.

The fronts and back are made separately, and before sewn together, the buttons are attached to the tails.


And so begins the saga of the buttons.*

I would like to be an organized person. Some things are well organized, like my sock drawer. Other things are not, like almost every single sewing thing I own. I think I mentioned in a previous post I finally organized my fabric. It is nice.

This jacket requires 33 buttons for the size I made. Covered buttons would look nice, right? I looked in my covered button box and had one package of 5/8" size. So I would need 28. Ugh. Do I order in bulk and get way too many? Do I try to find that many in the fabric store and pay way too much?

I dithered for almost a week.

Then I got a wild hair to organize my three boxes of closures, including the one that contained that one package of buttons. In addition to covered buttons of various sizes, I have pearl snaps, grommets (eyelets), a bunch of vintage self-covered belt kits that I picked up every time I went to a now-defunct craft thrift store, and ... a bunch of covered button kits that I picked up every time I went to a now-defunct craft thrift store.

People, I had 32 buttons total.

Aaaargh!

But wait! gorthx to the rescue with the last remaining button!

But wait! Some packages said 5/8" and some said 9/16". Now I had to figure out how to disperse them so the size difference would not be noticeable. Twelve for the tails, six for the sleeves, and 17 for the front.

Yeah, that doesn't add up to 33. I made the above pictured twelve for the tails, realized I only needed ten, then lost track of which size I made. So measured them, and all the buttons were 9/16", even the ones marked 5/8". *shrug*

I made the buttons at each stage instead of making them all at once, so stay tuned for more button content.

* You can click on the top pic to watch a gif. Who knew you could make animations in gimp.

This fabric was originally on the back of a velvet biscuit quilt I made in the 90s, was bubble gum pink, and was going to be turned into a muslin for tuxedo blazer.

I took apart the quilt a few years ago because it was Time, and kept the backing. I have no idea why I decided to put a bright pink cotton/acetate faille on the back of a heavy velvet quilt. It always slid off my bed within a matter of minutes leaving me freezing.

There were two pieces each about 2.5 yds long and 35" wide. I had drafted a tuxedo jacket pattern that I wanted to muslin, and thought a fancy, shiny fabric might be nice if the muslin turned out to be wearable.

However, not pink. So I got out the dye. Again. I thought I'd try black, knowing that cotton dye would probably only work on the cotton fibers, but hoping for the best.

What I got was so much better!


It came out a beautiful antique lilac color! The cotton is definitely black, but the pink in the acetate just got toned down a bit. Combined they are a color that is an exact match for the Coats and Clark thread color "Light Vintage Purple".

Well, it was mostly that color.

This is why it's important to prewash your fabric before dyeing. I'm going to say this is a bird shape, but it also looks weirdly lewd to me. I washed the fabric with synthrapol, twice, and the water was lifetime-smoker-yellow both times. *shudder*

I do, however, really really like the more subtle gradients of color that occurred in the rest of the fabric. So much! I think it adds to the antique look of it.  I decided this special fabric needed to be a much more special jacket than my original plan.

Enter the Victorian equestrienne bodice that I've been wanting to make since high school.


Stay tuned for more...

*click on any picture to see it bigger.

I made another pair of Burdastyle 07-2010-104 zippered trousers, but I didn't add zippers, and made them longer, so I guess they are actually view 103B or C.

The pants were so comfortable I wanted another pair, but in black. I was so sure I had seen the same olive fabric in black - a dense twill weave with about 20% stretch. I either hadn't, or it was gone. I thought, "I'll dye it!" and bought some.

These went together super quick after finally pre-washing the fabric, probably because I wasn't destroying zipper tape.

I left them un-hemmed because I figured the hot temperature of the dye bath might shrink them. Normally, you don't have to use super hot water to dye cotton, but this was Hot Black, and it's extra special. It takes 130° to 180°F water (as opposed to 105°F hot tap water), 2x the amount of salt, and 2x the amount of time, plus using the recommended dye fixative.^1,2

After dyeing and letting them dry a bit, I ran them through an actual washing machine because the dye was  e x h a u s t i n g  and wouldn't stop, despite the fixative.

They seem to finally be stable and are hemmed, and once again, I love them. Bonus: they have replaced a pair of pants I don't love, so I have maintained closet equilibrium.

Fabric: Cotton stretch twill 60"wide 1 3/4 yds
Cost: $26.23 fabric, $6.59 dye
Time: 3/13 fabric purchased, 3/21 cut out, 3/22 sewed and finished, 3/24 dyed, 3/25 hemmed and finished

1. I dyed some other things the same day. That might be another post.
2. Also, I bought four cans of salt, and ran out due to the multiple dye jobs. I'm glad I didn't get the same checker at the grocery store the second time.

Burda 07/2010 #104  (link to the German site, the American one still seems to be having issues after the change in ... management?) is a pattern from over a decade ago.

I made this pattern before and it was... not great. The fabric was way too stretchy and weirdly polyesterish.

This time, I used my jamie jeans as a fitting template. This fabric has about 20% stretch. Jamie requires at least 30%. The pattern pieces are so different, but it looked like this pattern was about 10% bigger through the hip. So I just cut on the original lines. And that size was either a size 38 or 40.

I took in an inch width of the center back seam at the waist, and subsequently had to add 1 1/4" in height, which gave a deeper yoke.

These jeans would be slightly more comfortable with 4.5 gauge zippers. Apparently, the color I wanted is not sold anywhere in continuous yardage. All I could find was 5-gauge and they are a little too beefy.

Making the zippers was a bit of a learning curve. I ended up mangling a couple of the tapes trying to remove the teeth before I figured out how to cut them off without getting the tape caught in the jaws of the wire cutters. It looked like I had discovered gold - flakes were flying everywhere.

I bought 2.5 yards and had about 10" extra, and that was a good thing. I lengthened the pants 1" longer than the pattern, and I definitely don't have longer legs. The zippers do NOT open all the way up, there is a backing strip that ends just below the knees.

Also, I didn't realize the zipper pulls weren't the dangly kind, ie, with rounded corners.

They fit and are very comfortable. They do, however, tend to stretch out and not quite recover. I'm guessing that's a function of the twill weave, not the stretch part.

This was another project I immediately wanted another pair of. What is happening.

Without zips, though.

Fabric: Cotton stretch twill 60"wide 1 3/4 yds
Cost: $26.23 fabric, 3.10 thread, 14.27 zippers
Time: 1/30 fabric purchased, 2/9 zippers purchased, laid out pattern 2/14, sewed 2/15-16, finished 2/16

With the thought of an unknown number of many more months of pandemic staying-at-home, I wanted to indulge in something cozy to wear. I haven't had flannel pajamas in forever, and another pair were wearing out, so I splurged.

None of the flannels at the fabric store were really jumping out at me, until I walked past the sloths hidden among the pastels of the childrens' section. Sloths!


I have my TNT (tried 'n' true) pajama pattern I traced from a pair I got from delia's (or I should say dELiA*s (remember the mixed case trend?)) many years ago. Oh wow, 20 years ago. That prompted me to think, "Are they still in business?" The reply is, "I guess?"

Anyway.

Instead of the delia's top, I used a vintage camp shirt pattern that I traced from an existing shirt and made it long sleeved.

I like using patterns based on manufactured clothes, because their construction tends to be based on efficiency, and I can always make my jimjams super quick. The piping slows me down, but is so worth it. I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.


I made a few changes when cutting this time:
- shortened pants like a previous pair I made, and they could be longer
- added 1 inch to inside leg on both front and back at crotch, tapering to knee
- skipped the elastic in the waistband


Things that still need to be changed:
- back pockets need to be longer
- sleeved head is still too wide for armscye

Say, maybe I need to redraft this pattern.


I finished at 10pm, just in time for bed... aaaand realized I cut the drawstring 10" short. Whoops. I had a bit of a panic when I woke up to use the bathroom and found the drawstring tightly knotted. Nooooo!

Now they are done just in time to stay cozy during the cold and snow. (Still not holding my breath.)

Fabric: Riley Blake Designs Pattern F7804, JOEY by deena rutter c2019, www.RileyBlakeDesigns.com
Cost: $56.95, ulp! But so worth it.
Thread and 5 yds of piping: $7.76
Time: 1/30 bought fabric, 2/7 laid out pattern, 2/8 cut out and sewed, 2/9 finished, or rather 2/10 finished the new drawstring.

I finally found an online source that answers my question about how much ease is supposed to be in a sloper. Dresspatternmaking answered that for me. 

Also, there's an explanation of blocks and patterns on an odd site called EssentiaList.

A moulage is an exact replica of you in fabric - the measurements are the same with no ease and could be used to cover a dressform to make it your double.

A sloper fits you with a little bit of ease. (Possibly 4" in the bust, which to me is not a "little bit". Or maybe I need to reread some things.)

A block is made from the sloper and has ease added depending on what it is, say a jacket, dress, or a sleeveless top sloper.

The actual patterns used to make the garments are drafted from the blocks, so you could make several different styles of jacket patterns from your jacket block.

At least, this is the information I found that finally makes sense to me.

In April, I cut up a bunch of clothes and made news clothes. One of the things that resulted was a haori from the Wiksten pattern. I had to do a bunch of piecing and I drew lines where some of the piecing happened.


The dark blue linen used to be an SCA garment similar to this tunic, without the front gore. It was a really wonderful way to use up an entire amount of yardage. However, I wore it once, and regretted not wearing it again. The haori is another way to efficiently use fabric.

The collar is silk dupioni from my stash that I also had to piece.

The inside (which you can wear on the outside - this is reversible jacket) was the lining for a robe that I also never wore. I didn't have to piece that as much.


I always have problems with fusible interfacing. I've never not had it bubble. The smaller collar piece on the left is cut on a different grain than the rest, and the interfacing seemed to do worse. ?



I wear this jacket so much!