Jerilyn - Houndstooth Dentistry

Or perhaps you'd take houndstooth to the Veterinarian? I'm not sure.

Upon dissecting the mens blazer that I will be using for fabric, I discovered 4 holes in one of the inner sleeve panels. My guess is that they are cigarette burns.

Here's how I repaired the damaged "teeth":

Step #1 -

I was able to salvage some black interfacing from the sleeve cuff, it easily tore away from the fabric, so I wasn't sure that it would re-fuse upon ironing, but it did!

Step #2 -

I stitched back and forth over the holes with black thread to prevent fraying. (the 2 larger holes are pictured below)

Step #3 -

Lastly, I used a small tight zig-zag with cream thread to mimic the original pattern.

It's not perfect, but I couldn't afford to lose any portion of the fabric, and it shouldn't be noticeable from a distance.

As for my muslin, it's as far as I'm planning to take it:

I added darts to the chest, and then fixed the arm hole to compensate for the darts. I'm going to cut my panels longer than the pattern/muslin because I think the length is appropriate as it hits unhemmed.

The next step is the most challenging... figuring out how to cut all these panels out of the original jacket! The sleeves had an inner panel similar to the pattern so they will go smoothly, but the back is 2 panels vs the 3 panels of the pattern, and the front... oh don't get me started. There's a small breast pocket on the original jacket that is making me pull my hair out, but I figure it's all downhill after surviving this (she says with the blind optimism of someone at the beginning of the this project).

I'll be sewing this weekend... will you?

Jerilyn - New Kid on the Chanel Block

Hi, this is my introductory post... I'm definitely getting a late start, but too many stars aligned after discovering this blog, so I felt compelled to join.

I do a lot of refashioning which I share on my personal blog and a refashioning blog. I saw "Coco Before Chanel" a few months ago and was inspired to dress better, but then I came across this post by Mary Anna who said "For me it's more about sewing in the Chanel spirit. Taking a piece of menswear, and turning it into women's wear in a simple, fitted style." and I knew this was the challenge for me, the refashioning addict!

But as in most creative pursuits, there's a difference between having the inspiration to take on a project and finding the skills and materials! Before signing up I went to a local thrift shop to see if anything caught my eye. Nothing interesting on the Ladies rack, so I headed over to Menswear and there it was, calling my name...

The fabric is a black and cream houndstooth in tight woven wool.

When refashioning, the size of the original garment is crucial to the overall success of the project. It didn't have a size tag, but I'll take the Rochester Big Tall Clothing tag as a positive sign!

I had rummaged my pattern stash and found a few items suitable for undertaking the muslin, but before leaving the thrift shop I looked at their patterns... and what are the odds? They had an unused Vogue V7975 in my size (cost: 25-cents)! How could I not sign up after all that?