Another TV inspired Creation!

This is definitely the time of year where I sew a lot!  I love to sew for others and for myself.  I'm not that good though about focus.  Hence the ungodly number of UFOs (unfinished projects) hanging around in my craft room.  I do vow every year not to cut without sewing but I just get so excited and sometimes cutting out new projects is more relaxing than actually making them.

Well the Sew the Show Facebook page has really helped with the focus part.  I had fun last month thinking about the Walking Dead and those costumes.  This month the show was Firefly.  If you all haven't seen it, its a very short lived- as in 14 episodes- sci-fi series with a huge cult following.  It has a sort of Western meets space thing going on with some Asian influences in ambiance.  I tend to go for sci-fi and it surprised me I hadn't seen the show yet.  Lucky for me Netflix has it all there.  Yeah.  It was fun to watch- and I was very disappointed that there isn't more!  Oh well.

There are lots of fun things that I could have made from this series.  But the one thing that kept sticking out for me was Zoe's leather vest.  Dang, she's wearing a grungy shirt, tight pants but this vest, so awesome!

After thinking and thinking about it I decided to go for it.  I was pretty sure I had leather somewhere in my upcycle stash around somewhere... Plus I was pretty sure I had a princess seamed dress pattern already so I was half way there.

I decided to use the Sis Boom Rebecca as my base.  While the neckline is completely different it has the princess seams I wanted and it is very quick to put together.

I made a first muslin with this random poly suiting I've had floating around my craft room for ages.  Seemed to work well enough.  I needed to tighten it quite a bit and lower the neckline.  I was planning another muslin but ended up just going for the final product instead.

Well, despite the pictures above, I was really digging the look.  I decided that leather wasn't really going to work out for me.  Its just not the look that I really go for on a daily basis and I didn't want to make something for those random date nights that I keep hoping will be come more regular.  So I decided to do my final in comfy stretch fabrics.  

I used the same stretch burgundy corduroy from the Jalie jeans I made a few weeks back and this awesome quilted coated knit fabric I picked up at Joanns.  I love it- you'll see a few other projects in this as well.  The picture really does it no justice.  

The one thing I decided during construction was to omit the zipper.  One I didn't feel like putting it in and two, it suits my lifestyle for the vest to be a little looser than Zoe's.  Since I was using the stretchy fabrics it is super easy to just pull over my head.  

Now I had planned to do a more dressed up photo shoot- pencil skirt or skinny jeans and boots- but life and the weather got a little in the way.   I've had the vest hanging on my bathroom door for a week to take the pictures and just decided this morning to wear it and get them over with.  So this is what I wore to church this morning.  The pants are my modified Judy pants, so comfy but not the most stylish pair I could be wearing.  The rain did give me a chance to pull out my fun umbrella.  You cannot see in the pictures but when it gets wet, little cherry blossoms appear on the reddish part.  

Its really hard to see the details of the back, I'll take more pictures when I have a chance.  The back actually has SIX darts!  I wanted to shaped it as well as I could while still being able to slip it on over my head.  I think I did a good job.

And with that I need to get back to my sewing room!  I have so much going on, I am so excited.  The next few weeks are going to be so busy both in my sewing room and out.  

In my sewing room I'll be focusing on jammas- its that season again.  We'll get our traditional Christmas jammas and I've been living in these pjs the last few weeks, so I need another pair before hubby throws me permanently out of bed (this is the baby's bed).  

AND the super exciting news!  I'll be part of the Sew the Show 6 Degrees of Separation Tour! You can just make out my little head at the bottom there next to Katie.  I've already started working on these pieces.  Hopefully they will turn out as fun as they are in my head!

Lastly- I told you its a crazy season.  I am participating the GYPO Winter Style Challenge.  While I have most of the items on the new list there are a few things I'll be adding from my sewing room.  I have the red wool just waiting to become a great coat.  So fun!  

I Should be Sewing...

After two nights of insomnia and a sleepover with 4 10/11 year old boys, I'm wiped out!  I'll put up a new post while I drink enough coffee to face my sewing room (have to make a shirt for pictures tomorrow!).

I have been on a Jalie 3461 marathon!  Well for me its a marathon, I sewed 4 in the last month and have one 3/4 done downstairs right now.  I am loving this pattern both for myself and my daughter.  I'll be making a few more pairs for her for sure.

I'm going to show you hers as I have better pictures of those.  My daughter has recently decided she likes wearing pants.  She refused to wear them until about a month ago.  Last year I hunted down this thick sweater fleece to make her "leggings" to wear under her dresses in the winter.  Oy!  I have to say I'm happy about this turn around as it will make winter dressing easier.  On the other hand, my daughter doesn't fit into RTW pants.  She is on the short side of six and on the top fairly average to slim.  She wears RTW size 6 tops and dresses with no issues.  What she does have is a booty.  In order for pants to fit over her booty I have to size up- I bought a great pair of brand name jeans at Goodwill the other day.  I like to buy at Goodwill for a number of reasons, including that I find older styles from before this crazy skinny jeans trend for kids.  Anyway I bought her a size 8 knowing they would be too long.  Unfortunately they were hard for her to pull up and the snap was impossible for her to do by herself.  Frustrating.

So to the sewing machine I went.  I actually dislike making jeans- pants in general.  I find them boring.  Which is silly because I always feel so inspired when I make them.

I looked in my Ottobre magazines but didn't find anything I wanted to make.  I had just purchased the Jalie pattern to make myself some pants and realized I could make them for her first!  I got to check out the construction and fit issues (she and I are similarly shaped) in a smaller size.  Bonus.

I measured my pipsqueak and she measured almost perfectly into the J (which they approximate for age 6).  The only thing was that her inseam, which for some reason I didn't measure, is about 4 inches shorter.  LOL

I went ahead and made a pair up cycled from a pair of stretch cords I had.  While the size fit her well around, the back was way too low and the waist was too big.  I'm going to tighten the elastic on that pair and send them off to my also six year old niece who is not as shapely.  

So for the next pair I used this stretch twill that my daughter had picked out from the red tag section at JoAnns.  I had kind of hidden in it since I wasn't sure I wanted my daughter decked out in animal print.  Well the pants turned out so cute that she got so many compliments from her friends' parents and her teacher the day she wore them to school.

For this pair- and the final- I added 1 1/2" inches to the back crotch length.  I added 1" under the yoke and 1/2" to the yoke.  I also chose not to do the elastic on the waistband the way the instructions have you do it.  Cutting the elastic to size on the back waistband resulted in a waist that was too big.  I used my daughter's waist measurement minus one inch.  I then laid the elastic on the front waist band and cut it as per the instructions.  The leftover piece I stretched to fit the back waistband.  It does gather more in the back than the pattern is meant to and I could go back and adjust the back waistband into a smaller size for a cleaner look.  I decided that it really wasn't worth the extra adjustment for me.

 I'm not sure why I didn't adjust the length before this since the first pair was also super long.  I did end up taking off 4 inches.

After the adjustments I broke out the stretch denim that I found in the remnant section at JoAnns- it was just under a yard.  Yes, I made each pair with slightly less than a yard for the size J(6).  

I added a butterfly stitch (built in on my machine) to the pockets and topstitched with pink thread.  Don't look to closely at the topstitching- I need more practice!  

I just love how these turned out!  She says they are super comfy as well.  

The only Con I found with this pattern was that the front pockets are faux.  Its not a big deal to my little one as she is used to wearing leggings with no pockets.  For me I find myself constantly wanting to put something in the front pocket.  I'll likely draft some pockets next time I make them.  

Here's a look at my second pair made from burgundy stretch cord.  I'll take better pictures and post again after I figure out the pockets!