Valentine's Day Special: Colorblock Western Shirt with Owls

Remember last year when I made this for my baby?

My friend, Tina, recently gave me a bunch of fabric and notions, so I was going through my current inventory to make room, when I came across this little gem in my pattern repertoire. I had forgotten that I've been wanting to make my husband a western shirt for ages. He likes that retro look, so this shirt was a perfect choice for him. I know it's like. . .two weeks early from Valentine's Day, but. . .I wanted to make sure that I got it done during a time when I wasn't busy, and. . .this gives him time to get me a good present. (Mmmmuhahahaha...)

Here it is! I'm not blogging the process because. . .it's just a pattern, and that's boring. Plus, the whole shirt took me about 12 hours from start to finish and this blog would be a book. I will, however, go over some details. First off, see how the plaids on either side of the buttons match up? Also, my husband is super skinny and tall. (He is so tall and skinny that the daughter of some friends of ours calls him "Tree.") Anyways, he can never find shirts with sleeves that are long enough, because apparently skinny means that you have short arms in the fashion industry, so that was something I considered when cutting out the patterns.

I found the owls on www.embroiderydesigns.com. My husband also loves owls, but as he is a man, I needed to find an owl that wasn't obnoxious and girly.

Most embroidery machines have the capability of flipping the design.

This butterfly collar is for REAL, y'all. I was able to use the last piece of iron-on interfacing that I had for this collar, but when it came to reinforcing the button strip and the cuffs, I ended up just using an extra piece of fabric inside. (By the way, if a pattern calls for iron-on interfacing and you don't feel like running to the store, you can always just use a piece of slightly stiffer fabric. Just make sure you pin it well [or stay-stitch, which I never do because it's a waste of time] before sewing so it doesn't move around. That's the advantage of iron-on.)

I made sure that all the buttons were sewn on with the crown design at the top.

In retrospect, I should have made the button holes vertical instead of horizontal, but they still do their job. I love my Husqvarna machine. It does perfect button holes. (Blogger won't let me center this picture, that's why it's off to the side.)

For some reason, Blogger won't let me type above this picture, so. . .Anyways, here's the cuff! Isn't it great?! 

I learned a new seaming technique: flat fell. The pattern called for it along the shoulder to armpit seam. It's a little crooked because I had to top stitch it from the inside. It bothers me, but not enough to take it out.

This is what a flat felled seam looks like on the inside. It's nice and clean. You are supposed to do this technique on seams that see a lot of wear. In fact, the inside seams of jeans have this stitch.

Here is the inside of the shirt.

This is the seam along the sides of the shirt. It was supposed to be flat felled too, but I got lazy and just did my "surger" stitch that I typically do on jersey. Actually, I didn't want to have top stitching down the sides. I felt like that would be overkill.

The back.

I wish I would have had those pearl button snaps that you find on most western shirts, but I didn't. Anyways, I tried to nod to them at least by putting a smaller button at the collar.

The End!

Red and Black Quilted Jacket

Below is a jacket I bought on eBay. I love it. It is like all the good parts of a cardigan and a jacket put together. I'm a sucker for jersey like this because it has a little bit of give, but holds a nice structure. It is also a really simple design for someone attempting a jacket because there is no top collar piece to worry about. The bodice extends into the turned out bit, so a designer only has to use one piece.

This jacket took me six Dr. Who episodes to make. . .or in layman's terms: six hours. (The quilting process alone took up at least two of those episodes!)

Getting right to it: I laid it down. I measured the lapel flap and then extended it out as though it were unfolded using the clear ruler. I could have easily cut the tacks to the lapel and unfolded it, but I didn't feel like re-tacking it later, and using the ruler was just as easy.

I cut around it all. This will be the bodice front. Notice something: I folded a small triangular portion of the top of the shoulder down at an angle. I will point out why I did this later.

Instead of just interfacing around the collar and outer edge, I decided I wanted to fully line the entire jacket in black jersey.

Next, I double folded the black material and cut out the back bodice piece. Remember the triangular piece I folded down for the front of the bodice? I mentally added it back in at the top of the shoulder here. You will see how cool this looks later.

I cut out my sleeves. They are not doubled/lined like the bodice pieces are.

The first sewing step I took was to sew the front pieces together at the neckline all the way to the bottom hem, and the back pieces together at the neck and the bottom. Below you can see I have sewn the back neckline with the other seams I've explained being pinned at this point. 

I used red bobbin thread and black top thread. I'll explain why later. 

Then, I turned those pieces right side out and top stitched the neck/bottom seams. You can start to see why I used red and black thread here.

Next, I pinned and sewed some black non-stretchy lace on the back sides of the lapels. If you watch a tutorial or read a pattern for making a jacket, they always advise you to reinforce the backs of the lapels so that they fold out nicely and don't stretch out of shape. I worked on the pinning for awhile to make sure both lapels were as perfectly symmetrical as possible before sewing.

I've had this project in my head for probably a year now, and it has always been quilted. I think that quilting takes a simple jacket to the next level and makes it look expensive, like Chanel. I'm not exactly sure how to quilt the right way, and I didn't want to spend any time looking up videos on how to quilt, so this is what my head came up with. I followed the slant of the shoulder line and measured down two inches from that, putting pins at either end, and continuing down with pins at every 2" mark. Then, I just sewed from pin to pin. I'm sorry if that gives you a heart attack, because I'm almost positive this is NOT how it's done.

This was my eye view. See the pin under the foot? I just eyeballed from there to where you see my thumb. I wish the lines were just a tad straighter, but. . .again, I didn't feel like learning how.

Then I just did the same thing with pins going perpendicular to the first lines. Quilting was the main reason I used red and black thread at once.

I don't think my quilting lines look too bad after all, and if you look, they are actually mirror images of each other on each piece.

Next, I sewed the shoulders of the fronts and back together. Can you see now why I subtracted that triangle from the front and put it on the back?

Next, I added the sleeves and then sewed down from the wrist to the armpit and then to the bottom hem of the jacket.

My last touches were to hem the cuffs, dart the back, and hand tack the lapels down so they lay flat, but not completely flat.

Back darts.

I like that it looks a bit like a riding jacket, and there is a tiny nod to the Hugh Hefner smoking jacket as well, but it still looks feminine.

Not bad for my first jacket ever! :)

The End....

P.S. I realized after looking at the above pictures, that one last step needed to be taken. That was to put in breast darts.

Never undereatimate the power of good tailoring!

The Real End. Bam.

Refashioning: Fashion Forward Korean Style 2fer Shirt

Several years ago, back in my South Korea days, I bought this awesome shirt in the subway.

I love how it melds the collared shirt with the off-shoulder jersey look. It's like party meets business in a really really unique and cool way.

A little detail. I like that the business shirt is only attached to the jersey by the sleeves and the armpit/shoulder hem. That way it can move more naturally, unlike those hideous V-neck sweaters that have a collared shirt collar sewn in at the neck, cuffs at wrists, and tails at bottom hem. Those shirts always look fake and horrible. I will say...with that elastic at the bottom, this shirt is no joke. Like...it begs real dedication because it's not easy getting in and out.

Here is a western-style shirt that my mother-in-law gave me recently. I really like the hexagonal red pearl buttons, growth stripes, and the back yoke. I wanted to turn this shirt into a shirt like the one above.

First I folded the western shirt in half and the Korean shirt in half on top of it and folded the sleeves of the Korean shirt in so I could cut around the bodice of the western shirt, using the Korean shirt as a guide.

Then, I did the same thing with the sleeves.

Next, I did the same thing with some red jersey.

. . .And the sleeves.

[Picture missing] The first thing I did sewing-wise was to sew the top and bottom seams of the jersey sleeves. I took a picture, but it didn't transfer, so you will just have to take my word for it.

Next, I sewed the neckline of the red jersey on the front and back of the bodice. (The hem in question is to the left in this picture.)

Next (and after the next two or three steps, I realized I should have done this part after them in sequence, but oh well), I pinned all the pieces together and sewed the sleeves onto the bodice.

Then I sewed down the side seams of the bodice of the western shirt.

Then I sewed down the sleeves.

Then, I sewed down the bodice of the jersey. (After this is where I should have attached the sleeves, because I ended up having to take out some of the seam in order to sew the bodices and down the sleeves...Anyways, if you were wanting to do this, I would advice doing them in the suggested order and not the order I did it. Otherwise, forget I said anything!)

Then I stuffed the jersey up into  the collar so I could quickly sew around the bottom edge of the collared shirt. Typically, I would have folded this edge under instead of sewing it, but this was easier, and since you will never see it, it doesn't matter how it looks.

Then, I folded the bottom edge up about 3/4 of an inch and added elastic through the waistband I'd created. You might notice that I kept the shirt open instead of sewing the bottom hem closed. This is to help getting in and out.

The last step was to hem the jersey and I was done! It took about 3 and a half hours total.

The back is my favorite part.

The End!