Vacation project - PJ's for the boys

So my jacket lays on the table not done yet. It really takes concentration and time to think. Having the 2 boys out of school for the Holidays and peace and quiet do not mix. Simon made me a gorgeous dress for Christmas and now I am feeling the itch to make something myself. We have some left over fabric from last year's PJ's. Tyler loves the onsies and Sam hates anything on his feet. I have many patterns that I vow to use, so into my stash we go....

I made this pattern for Tyler last year and I found the finishing details to be lacking. I can improve upon the pattern. I will make it without the hood and feet.

I traced the next size up, as Tyler grew since last year, and I don;t have enough fabric. Off tot he store we will go for him.






On to Sam's PJ's. I know I have enough for a size T2.Last year I bough Kwik Sew's 3922 but I have not had the chance to make them yet. This is perfect for toddlers still in diapers as the snaps go all the way down. Now I ask all you parents and caretakers out there "How do the people at the BIG 4 pattern companies change diapers?" Take a look at all the patterns out there. Where does the zipper stop? At the belly button. Not very convenient for changing diapers I tell you. Now I don't know about you, but my kids DO NOT sit still when I change their diapers. They twist they buckle, they laugh, they try to escape. All they want is their FREEDOM!
Seriously, this pattern is one of the few I have found that the opening goes down the inside leg. Maybe Jalie has one, I am not sure.

We will make this one without the feet. Sam has many sleepers I made with the feet and he tries furiously to rip off the feet. Not a good thing as I made MANY sleepers. Sigh.

I cut out the McQueen fabric left over from last year for Sam. And we will let Tyler pick out his fabric. Hopefully this will be a good pattern to work with! Looking back on only one year and I amazed at how much Tyler has grown! SOB!

Finishing up *MY* jacket

OK, so where is your jacket, Jennifer? You ask? Well, to be honest, on the sewing table at the moment. Somewhere between Simon's 1,000,000 calculations and the problems with the princess seam pockets I became discouraged. Simon has helped enormously with my jacket after the princess seam pocket disaster. I think he is one of the few in our class that understood the princess seam pockets. This was her first year teaching this class with Princess seams, and the notes were not done beforehand. I think it was a lesson in progress, as it took 2 classes to completely demonstrate the pockets properly. Even then most of us gave up. So many of us became discouraged and vowed never again to do a princess seam. Now that Simon has shown me how to topstitch the pockets properly with the princess seam, I think we can do it again with no issues.
My issue is that I did not make the sleeves long enough and now need to add length to them. When I tried on the inner shell why did she not see this? She saw that the hip area was not large enough and I had to add to that. But what about the sleeve length? Why did we not see this? ARGH. Another frustration. But my suggestion of adding a cuff and putting some nice pink topstitching went over well.

I was thinking that the grey jacket is a little boring and needs some pizzazz. We went scouring for a pink zipper long enough for the front, a 2 way zipper. We went everywhere, then gave up and went to Fabricville, a store that i recently came to despise as their staff has turned into morons who are wicked and mean. Of course they had it, after running around St-Hubert street with the 2 kids in the cold. ARGH.

We were going to do a pink front zipper with the zipper shield on the inside. In the end we will have an interior and exterior zipper shield. The exterior one will have the same pink topstitching design on it to add some color and design the the jacket. We were going to have the front embroidered with a nice pink snowflake, but hat is going to add to the cost and time of the project. I am sure we can do some fancy topstitching to put some color and design that we will like.

We have had a few nights off where we went to sleep with no sewing. Time to get back at it and finish my jacket now, with the help of Simon of course! It has come that we don't want to sew without each other, good Lord! We are too cute,n n'est pas?

Simon's Winter jacket FINALLY DONE!

 It's official! Simon's jacket is finally FINALLY done! And what a great job he did. I think I gave up this past week, the desire for sleep was SO great, after 10 weeks of sewing classes, working every night on our projects, it is nice to have this DONE. Now all is left is my jacket.

Simon is VERY happy that he finished his jacket! He designed this and sewed it all on his own. He took the base pattern for the arms, hood, front and back. The rest he came up with all on his own. 

 He wanted the green of his arms to arrive at the pockets, and he was exact in his details.

He wanted to have so many details on this jacket, that it was way beyond me. My first jacket I wanted to concentrate on the basics. 

 

 Look at the stripes Simon sewed on his hood. The eye for detail he has. Some people in our class we wondering how his stripes would come out, like a skunk? No, they are great!

Look at the inside pocket that zips up. Now remember Simon has never sewed a pocket.  He did an amazing job.

 Each pocket has a purpose. One for his cell phone, one for gloves, one for Kleenex.

 He has an interior and exterior zipper shield. He has Polar Blizzard for the lip guard and the back of the collar. Nice and soft.

He even did double stitching on the coat hook

He says that his jacket are heavy when there is alot in his pockets and this will help support it when on a hanger. I don't know about you, but when I am learning a new skill, I don't see all these details the first time. He does. You can't see well from this picture, but he embroidered his name, just in case anyone wants to steal this jacket! .




All in all I am extremely proud of the work he did and I think his jacket is better than anything we could buy! Now time to finish my jacket so we can play in the snow.

Jalie 2108 Winter Ski jacket class 3 & 4

So week three brings our pockets. Seeing as we did the sample of a zippered pocket in 6 steps, we should be good to go to put the pockets now in our jacket.Simon had MANY pockets, and he was able to do them all with no issues, including the facing for the pocket openings. They just took FOREVER! We are one week behind. Here we are Sunday, after class #4, and we are doing class #4 stuff only now.
What I neglected to say was that it is our anniversary weekend, my mom has the kids and we have wasted all this time F***ing around with my stupid jacket and the princess seams. We have redone the pockets on this at least 4 times. I say f**k it, I give up. Simon will try one last time. I don't care.


So class 4 we learn to install a facing at the bottom to the jacket, a drawstring or jupette and the removable hood. So far we have done the drawstring and we are doing the facing. I hope we have enough time to finish Simon's jacket. It is looking really professional. Mine is sitting on the couch looking sad and depressed. I hate my jacket.

 Here is Simon's jacket at the end of a long journey. So glad the finish is in sight!

Bathing Suit: Finally finished

This week I have to go swimming with my Scouts group. I don't have a bathing suit that fits me, or one that is in good condition. The bathing suits I have I would not want to be seen wearing in public, especially not jumping in and out of a pool with kids. That pushed Simon and I to FINALLY finish the bathing suit. It has been sitting in my "to complete" bin since this spring. I had that one last class, then I forgot (not really...) all about it. I was TERRIFIED of sewing on the elastics. I am not sure why, but it was stressing me out. When in fact the elastic part is quite simple.

The hard part was the gather on the front middle. You will notice I don't have one. We tried sewing one on, but I kept putting it crocked, and my boobs looked lopsided. So I omitted it this time. The next time I make it I will give more room for my butt, a higher curve on the hips and lower in the front. This suit is meant to stay on and not move. I want this suit to be able to jump in and out, dive, and hold a VERY active 2 year old in my arms, one who likes to pull on things, hence the high neckline.

I would love to create another suit, and I am no longer afraid of elastics. Let me wear this in the pool and get back to you on that one! All in all I am really proud that I got this suit completed. I feel a sense of accomplishment. Especially with all the sewing we got done on Sunday for our jackets!

Jalie 2108: 2nd sewing class done!

Simon and I made a mistake by waiting until Friday night to start our homework this week. By skipping Thursday our timeline was off. But I fell asleep on the couch putting the kids to bed and we were too tired. Remember what happens when you sew when you are tired? I did not want that to happen again, especially with the price of this material!

I was hesitant putting together the pieces, I am not sure why. But we trudged forward, putting together Simon's jacket first. But it was simple and straightforward. After sewing the pieces together, Simon chose a fun design for the topstitching. He chose a simple black for the contrast.

The next step he chose a contrast red to sew his name. We have the machine that can do this, so why not? We tested the fonts, the fabric and the thread, and away he went! He really likes putting little details like this in his projects. He has an eye for the finishing touches, in sewing and in his construction job. The two are really similar. So, in case he forgets his name....

 

 Now, check out his work, I am really proud! 

What is left is to sew the liners together. Then we have to do mine, and then the pockets in 6 steps portion of our homework. But I have to finish my bathing suit, as I have to go swimming this Thursday with Scouts. I am a Leader, so it would look poorly if I did not go, I would not want people to think I have a complex about going swimming, but I don't have a bathing suit that fits! So I HAVE to get my coat finished today, as on MOnday I can dot he elastics at home or take a Monday night class to help me finish up my projects.

Jalie Yoga Pants 3022

The last item Simon and I made during our sewing class was Jalie's 3022 Yoga pants. We bought some black Suplex at Stretch Text. One side is super glossy and the other is nice and soft. If your hands are rough it is a pain, as the material sticks to you! And trying to line up the fabric wring side to wring side is a PAIN! But I digress....

We did not adjust anything on the pattern, we cut out according to my hip measurements. And we did not use the pattern for the waistband. I measured where the pants arrived, where I wanted them to go, and that would be the basis.

Once the pants were sewed up, I measured the waist opening, seams to seams, times 2, took 7/8 (more like 3.4 after adjustments) and added 1 cm for seam allowances. 



The result is a comfortable pair of pants. At first try (minus the waistband) I thought they would be too tight, but they are good and comfortable.

 We made a notch in the back of the band, as pants always seem to be too large in the waistband for me

We used a fun topstitch pattern in red for the back 2 seams. The back legs are 2 pieces and this is a nice detail. 

Here you can see the notch better, don't worry, I won't leave the house like this!

Jalie 2908 Stretch Jeans Finally finished

 So I finally finished my Jalie Jeans, thank God! I had an issue with the fly last May, got discouraged and decided to put this aside. My old sewing teacher gave me BAD advice, like the type of zipper to use, not to use a double needle when topstitching, etc.... She did nto even know how to do the fly construction! What's up with that??? The more I take real professional sewing classes, the madder I get at Fabricville for wasting my money with Pauline and her ineptness.













Anyways, here are the jeans. I am happy that I am done, but they are not perfect.

For one, they are a bit high-waisted. The jeans are comfortable, but I am short. I would like to do the rise about 1 inch lower next time.

I would like to reduce the flare on the jeans a bit. As I said, I am short and I  feel the flare is a bit wide for my leg.

but the pocket placement is awesome and it makes my derriere look awesome! 

The pockets in the front bulge a bit and the zipper is a bit too large and pokes out of the fly flap. Next time I will not listen to Pauline's advise. If I wear this Jalie 2566 with it, you can't see the awkwardness of my work.













I ripped out my stitches on the fly at least 4 times. My topstitching gave me grief, and as usual when we tried to do the buttonhole, it did not work very well. Topstitching and buttonholes can kiss my...................

 All in all, I am proud that I got these jeans completed. I could have turned a blind eye and started another project, but I vowed to finish all unfinished projects before starting a new one. Next I will finish the Jalie Yoga pants and then the bathing suit from my sewing class last spring!

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Jalie 2566: Modify for medium and long dress

In our sewing class, Simon and I learned how to modify the shirt pattern to make a dress. The pattern for the regular shirt has a high neckline and is obviously shorter than a dress.

This was a fun pattern to modify. We have made all kinds of necks, V necks, mock turtlenecks,  scoop neck. I have modified the sleeves, full, short, 3/4. Now we made it into a medium and long dress.

 We took the shirt pattern and made it longer for a dress. Instead of making a pattern to fit my curves, we cut straight,

Once sewed, I tried the dress on inside out. Simon pinned the dress and marked my measurements. He REALLY liked this part. 

We then used the curved ruler to trace the measurements, and left our seam allowances. 

I cut the material to the seam allowances and sewed it.

And this is the result:

Modified scoop neck, 3/4 sleeves, length, and Chanel neck binding:

We also made this dress in a longer version with 3/4 sleeves and scoop neck: