We are completely lacking in energy here. The temperature hit 32 C (89 F) today. Not a common thing for us! The whole family just lounged around waiting for the cooling fan to rotate towards them.
Needless to say, after a long work week and today’s heat nothing much has been accomplished. But I did get a lovely package in the mail and another from a friend at work. Let me show you …
I have watched the Craftsy course “Sew Better, Sew Faster: Smart Construction” quite a few times while waiting for the accompanying sewing pattern to arrive in the mail – the “Motor City Express Jacket“. I have wanted to start working on that one for a long time!
And with such good timing, a friend at work gave me about 2 meters of fabric that she had purchased but decided not to use. When I first saw it I asked her “Was it going to be curtains?” No, she replied. No matter how many times I asked her “So, was it going to be curtains?” The answer was always No. Eventually, I had her yelling from her office “It’s NOT curtains!”
Can I help it if every time I looked at her lovely fabric all I saw was curtains? It happily reminded me of Carol Burnett’s lovely dress from curtains, when Ms. Burnett did a parody of “Gone with the Wind” on her TV show. It’s on Youtube, you should check it out, but here’s a photo for you…
I suppose that was Vintage Refashioning? 🙂
I am not sure of the content of this lovely woven fabric, but the embossed design shows up differently on the right and wrong sides and even in different lights and at different angles. This is exactly what I imagined when dreaming of fabric for my Motor City Express Jacket – a solid colour that is not really a solid colour!
It was a substantial length of fabric but I still needed a length of matching but contrasting fabric for the front flaps/facings and luckily I found it in the remanent basket of my local fabric store.
When I cut my fabric out I use weights and I love using my ruler with the lip on the edge. It holds my fabric in place while I slide up and down my fabric to check if it is on grain, before I place my weights and cut.
I decided to use the wrong sides of both my fabrics. The wrong sides had less shine, but the embossed design still appeared and disappeared in the light, and there were also horizontal threads that ran through both fabrics randomly on the wrong sides that added so much texture to the fabrics. Have you ever used the wrong side of the fabric deliberately? (I have accidentally too – but we won’t talk about THAT!)
This is how far I have gotten so far in my project. The jacket back.
Dolly wearing the finished lining – still needs sleeves.
This is the lining turned inside out.
And the lining back, turned inside out.
I just love linings with “POP”!
I still haven’t tried on the lining. It is way to hot here to be trying on anything. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit cooler. In the meantime. I slipped the lining into another jacket, my Jacket Express, another pattern made by Islander Sewing – just to see what it is going to look like. My Jacket Express turned out well and I like the fit, so I have no fears that this one isn’t going to be the same.
I hope to have more to show you next time. I am looking forward to sewing in the sleeve and pocket zippers and bagging the lining.
Next weekend is a trip to Vancouver to help with fabric choices for the MOG (Mother of the Groom) dress I am making for the MOG (Mother of the Groom), hopefully there will be time for me to sew & blog too, but if not, you keep posting and I’ll keep reading!
Happy Sewing!