Tamara's Tote Bag

A few years ago ,I made Tamara a boucle coat and then decided to use the leftover fabric for a tote bag which I trimmed with a basket weave black vinyl. DD was thrilled with this accessory to her coat and said that she had people stop her on the street to ask where she had gotten her coat and bag.

Naturally,when I agreed to make her a new coat, she asked if I could make her a matching bag. Well,after about 10 hours of work,here it is.



It measures about 18' wide (including the sides) and 16" high.
I had just small scraps of the fabric left but did happen to have a meter of red vinyl so I decided to put the two together and after a lot of thought,sketching ,and planning,it finally came together.I may have gotten carried away with the number of pockets on this one!



I covered the boucle fabric with fusible vinyl to make it stronger and and used it on all the trim on the outside of the purse.
The side pocket on the above picture is for an umbrella. The front one is pleated at the sides to make it more accessible and has a magnetic closure.





This little pocket will work well for loonies and toonies (the Canadian $1.00 and $2.00 coins) or for keys.



I added a zipper closure ( I sewed the separating zipper to two strips of vinyl fused boucle,then sewed the strips to the facings of the purse.)



The straps are made of black faux leather from my stash.


The lining is a polyester silky that I was lucky enough to find on the bargain tables at Fabricville.I stabilized it with a heavy drapery interfacing.On one side are a cellphone pocket and another pocket which were both pleated on the sides to make them roomier.On the other side I sewed in a zippered pocket .



Here are the coat and bag together.I have to admit, I was sad to part with this bag but I know Tamara will really appreciate it.





So let me know what you think and if you're interested, I've posted Part 2 of my tips on making a coat (this time the inside) look professional on Diana's Sewing Lessons.

For more pics ,look here.

Happy Sewing and have a restful weekend everybody!

Aint She Sweet?

I just can't help myself! I've just got to show you my new grand-daughter,Riley,at four months old ( today ).





Ok. That's out of my system. Now I can get back to Tamara's tote bag.

Tamara's Coat.... Finished at Last

Well here it is at last...Tamara's coat! ( made from pattern S2764 ).I'm so very glad to not only be finished,but to love it as well! I'm satisfied with the end result and confident that it will fit Tamara.I'm always so nervous that what I make won't fit and that's probably silly because I have Antoinette dialed to her measurements, but there's always that possibility.



I really like the lay of the collar on this garment.
The buttons were from my stash and came from Frenchy's, a local second hand store where I find great buttons.




It just happens too, that the back of the coat fits me perfectly so I'll be making this coat for myself after a major FBA and I may just leave out the front and back pleats too.



I had originally planned on making bound buttonholes for it but to save time I used my new sewing machine which makes very good buttonholes (knock on wood).Having said that, the bound ones would have been more professional looking.

My only doubt is whether DD will like the sleeves.She may find them a bit wide.




Have a look at the red satin lining.Isn't it pretty? You'll notice the facings are not made out of the coat fabric. I didn't have enough so I used a suit-weight linen instead.



I used a polyester silky houndstooth to make bias for the piping between the facings and lining



and the Hong Kong finish at the bottom of the facing.



I attached the lining to the bottom of the coat with a thread chain at each seam.



Although the coat is too small for me through the chest, I thought I'd include a pic of me wearing it because,DD will probably never send me a photo of her wearing it. So here it is! Let me know what you think.





If you're interested, I've published a tutorial entitled How to make Your Coat Look More Professional on my other blog,Diana's Sewing Lessons.

Farewell to Fabricville -Part 2

I was overwhelmed yesterday by the work and the sewing my very busy co-workers and friends at Fabricville went through for the three retirees (including me.)So here are the pics.

This one is the whole picture of my "loot"



To break it down a bit this is a lap size quilt made by Sandra who also made the cup wrap and gave me a Tim's card. ( I love my Tim Horton's coffee).Sandra is one of the kindest women I know and I'm deeply touched by all the work that went into this quilt.



The next pic shows an apron made by Jana who also made these chenille pot holders. I'm very intrigued by these and will have to find out how to do this and post it on my other blog.Jana is the manager of Fabricville and was very easy to work for and with.





Here you see three wall hangings. The larger one which will be perfect for my dining room was made by Debbie, a sewing buddy and very good friend; the one on the right by Brenda the assistant manager who showed me many kindnesses through the seven years i was there,and a very dear friend, and the tulip one by Linda who is new to Fabricville and who also made the green quilted bag you'll see in the next pic.( I'll be taking this to Paris with me in September).Linda is a superb quilter.



In addition to the quilted bag made by Linda, the Christmas wreath wall hanging which I've been coveting, was made by my dear friend also named Brenda another sewing buddy who is a talented quilter.She also hosted our party, (Thank you Brenda)
The beautiful pottery bowl was given by sweet Katie, who is a sewist extraordinaire.( The bowl is to hold my Wednesday night popcorn which I always have on my Big Sewing Day for supper along with a big glass of wine).The small black handbag was made by Deborah,another extraordinary seamstress and also new to Fabricville.



In addition to sewn gifts,I was also given by Lorena this wonderful marking pencil and refills and I can't wait to try it out as well as a gift certificate to ,of all places Fabriville.Lorena, I hope you can join us on our sewing get togethers sometime.Rebecca our cashier and a student gave me a small sewing kit which will also travel to Paris with me.



Debbie also gave me this project planner book which I'll put to good use and Janice a very nice lady whom I don't see very often, gave me a copy of the May issue of Threads together with a Tim's card.( My addiction to Tim's coffee was greatly abetted last night).And Janice ,I was up till 1:30 looking through my Threads mag!!



I hope I didn't leave anyone out. It was a fabulous evening of stories,good food, and friendship.

Au revoir,Fabricville!

A Farewell to Fabricville

This is just a quickie. This afternoon, I'm going to gathering of my co-workers at Faricville. The guests of honour are two other women (who quit working at the same time I did at the end of December) and me.

For the occasion ,I spent two days making these gifts for Ellie and Melanie and I thought I'd share them with you.

For Ellie I made these oven mitts and personalized them on my new embroidery machine.



I also designed and made this Sewing tote because I want Ellie to come to the sewing get-togethers that a couple of friends and I have once a month on Wednesdays so now she'll be all set.





For Melanie ,who loves pink and is a very feminine young woman, I made matching oven mitts and an apron which is my own interpretation of McCalls 5997.





I had great fun making these gifts and I hope the ladies like them.

Have a great week everyone and I hope you find time to sew!

The Coat Lining

I mentioned in my last post that this pattern Simplicity 2674 did not call for a lining. Imagine ,a coat without a lining. I just don't get it!

Well, I had all kinds of problems with that. Since I had sewn up the pleats in the front and back, I closed the back pleat on the pattern piece and just cut another back out of the satin lining adding a three inch center pleat..



The front was a different matter.I decided to fold the center front piece under and that left me with a princess side front. I cut the lining out of this piece knowing it wouldn't be exact.



I cut the sleeve lining out the sleeve pattern pieces. I sewed the lining together and fitted it over the coat shell on my dress form (Antoinette). I then pinned the facings to the collar , coat front and lining front. I also pinned the side seams of the coat and the lining together.I ended up with this.



Then,using a marking gadget, I outlined the facings onto the lining . I removed the facings, added a seam allowance,cut the excess off the lining ( I forgot to take more pics) and sewed it to the coat.




This process worked quite well. It's hard to tell if there's enough ease in the lining and I'm a bit worried about that.

Here's where I'm at now.

About the Power Sewing Web TV Shows

Have any of you subscribed to Sandra Betzina and Ron Collins Web TV shows?

I was really hesitant about signing on because I was afraid that they would be designed more for the beginner rather than one who has been sewing for almost 50 years.(Yikes! 50 years! When did that happen?).


Well I've been pleasantly surprised! If you subscribe for a year you get access to the archives and I've watched quite a few episodes and I've got to say that I've learned something in almost each and everyone.

Yesterday, I was making an apron as a gift and I needed to make a lot of bias tape. Well I had been told about continuous bias by a customer at Fabricville and she had even made me a paper model of the technique.That was a few weeks ago and I really couldn't figure out how that went. I had noticed Continuous Bias was the name of one of the Power Sewing lessons,so I clicked on it and learned this remarkable shortcut to make yards and yards of bias tape.I'm putting a tutorial on making continuous bias on my other blog if you are interested. And no, it's not plagiarism because I got it from that customer first,remember?

Today I learned (and I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't know this) that you can use Steam-a-Seam for a permanent hem! I thought it was only for temporary seams.Now I have to admit that I'm not a reader of directions so.....Need I say more?

Anyway,I'd love to hear from you if you subscribe and what your opinion of the shows is.

Hope you have time to sew this weekend!

Tamara's Mini Winter Wardrobe -Part 2

Two more pieces are finished and I'll send off the four pieces to Tamara early in the week. The hounds tooth check spring coat will not be ready for another couple of weeks so I don't want to wait till then to send the other pieces.I want DD to be able to wear them now.

The white blouse ( S2501 ), was changed quite a bit. The tie became longer and the sleeves were made narrower with a wider cuff..(I just cut them from another shirt pattern.)I used the body of View A and the collar of View D.[This is one of Simplicity's patterns which have separate pieces for B,C,& D cups so I want to make one for myself].

The fabric is a white pincord cotton shirting which I really love but it's been in my stash for quite some time so my loss is Tamara's gain.As usual with natural fibers,this fabric was a joy to sew.It looks great on Antoinette and I'm sure will look great on DD.And I think it complements the plaid bias skirt quite well too.








Has anyone else out there made this dress S2473?,It's a great pattern!I think it's very Audrey Hepburn don't you?

This should be a nice addition to a work wardrobe for a young woman. I had originally intended to pair this dress with a Chanel-type jacket out of the black and white houndstooth check , but DD asked if I'd mind making her a coat instead. Well, I can't say no to any of my children, so of course I agreed. But then, the sleeveless dress didn't make as much sense anymore. I didn't have enough of this wool flannel to add sleeves so I got the idea that Tamara could wear it as a jumper with the white blouse or a black turtle neck sweater or a black cardigan,even.Hopefully she'll see it that way too.

The fabric again is wool flannel and of course was great to sew . I made the sleeveless and straight skirt variation. The only changes I made was to lower the neckline to accomodate the tie on the blouse.This photo shows how I lowered it.





And I lined the dress although the pattern didn't call for it but a piece like this must be lined.Since I didn't have any red lining on hand and had promised DD I'd use my stash as much as possible,I lined it in charcoal grey Bemberg but made fabric facings to make sure the lining wouldn't peak out. This is how I worked it out.

I sewed the lining and dress together with wrong sides facing each other.



Then I sewed the facings to the outside of the dress in the regular way.



I clean-finished the facings by sewing fusible interfacing to the right sides and turning them to the wrong side and pressing and fusing the two.





That might be too much information so I'll stop there except to say that I hand stitched the edges of the facings to the lining .I put a tutorial on understitching the facings and why it's important to do so here for sewers who are beginners.

This is what the inside of the dress looks like.


I attached the lining to the kick pleat and at each seam and not all around the hem of the dress.I had used a pretty lace hem binding and didn't want to hide it.



I had wanted to do hand picking for the top stitching but it would have taken too long and I have sore thumbs so instead ,I used this decorative stitch in regular black thread and I like the results.





So here it is and I truly hope it fits.



More pics here.

Happy Sewing from Diana