Vogue 2494 Double Faced Little Brown Jacket

This pattern has a very special place in my heart.  I made it back in 1990 from a bright pink Liberty Tana Lawn with matching shorts and culottes and I still have all three garments in my wardrobe. I fancy making the culottes into a dress which could be worn with the matching jacket if it underwent surgery to remove the 1980's shoulders.

The reason for its special place in my heart is I wore the outfit on the second date with my partner back in 1991.  I lived some distance from work and used to stay with Cath at least one night a week to avoid the long drive.  The forecast when I left home was for good weather so I packed my matching Liberty ensemble for the date.  Two days later, on date night, the weather was truly rubbish - cold and wet as English summers do so well. To make matters worse we were going out in my beloved's open-top little sports car (a Caterham Lotus Seven which we still have today). So I went on my date wrapped up in Cath's quilted winter coat complete with hood which I needed to protect me from the rain.

Fast forward twenty odd years and I made it again in a charcoal grey merino wool which I had carefully felted and then American smocked. I wear this jacket a lot and felt a brown version would be a useful addition to my wardrobe.

The finished garment

So here is the fourth version of this jacket.  Should I mention that I actually bought the pattern for the waistcoat which I have never made.  Unlined and with lapped seams (as the wool won't fray) it makes a wonderful reversible garment.

Side one

Side two

The fabric

This is a lovely double faced wool from The Fabric Store.

Left: Side One                                              Right: Side Two

For the facings (on side one) I used a brown leather with a faux snake skin look also from The Fabric Store.

The sewing pattern

This is Vogue 2494 a Donna Karan pattern copyrighted 1990.  The jacket is described as loose fitting, lined, waist length jacket has extended shoulders, shoulder pads, shaped front hemline and long sleeves.

The first time I made this jacket was for a work colleague.  Anne had a black tie event to go to but didn't want to buy a new dress. So we went fabric shopping at Owen Owen in our lunch hour and found an electric blue polyester taffeta and I made her the V2494 jacket and a matching large removable bow for her dress. Back in the early 1990's Owen Owen in Uxbridge had an excellent sewing department where many of my patterns, fabric and sewing supplies came from.  Now even Owen Owen don't exist.

The pattern alterations

Given this is a pattern from 1990 with those 1980's extended shoulders and 1" shoulder pads the major alterations were around the shoulders and armholes.

For both the front and back jacket pieces I measured down 1" at the armhole edge tapering to nothing at the neck edge.  This removes the 1" of height allowed for the shoulder pad.

On this pattern the back neckline is 1/2" below the back of the neck so I raised the back neckline by that 1/2".  Then measuring in from centre back I established how wide my shoulders should be and made a mark. At this mark I added 1/2" for my forward shoulder adjustment and drew the shoulder line tapering back to nothing at the neck edge.

Once I had the new shoulder seam marked I used my woven fabric armhole template to draw in the armhole.

For the front jacket piece I measured in from the armhole edge to remove the same amount from the shoulder seam as I did on the back jacket pattern piece.

The other changes I made were:

• lower the bust point by 7/8"
• lengthen the body by 1.25"

I didn't use the sleeve that came with the pattern, instead because I had used my armhole templates I used my favourite woven sleeve which is already adjusted for my forward shoulder.

The sewing

Like all Vogue patterns it uses 5/8" seam allowances but I only sewed 3/8" seam allowances which meant that the circumference at the bust was 42.5" instead of 41.5" which gave me the right amount of ease for this simple little jacket.

The jacket was sewn with lapped seams. The seam allowance was removed from one side of the seam then lapped 3/8" over the other side of the seam.

The hems were turned up 1/2" then the leather band was edge stitched to the garment (covering the hem allowance).

A really simple garment to sew with no fastenings needed.

The outfit of the day

Here it is being worn with my teal velvet burnout Vogue 1250 dress and Mi Piaci Martha ankle boots.  It also looks good with my Vogue 8976 Tree top and brown leggings.

Plus here it is with my World trousers, Verge lace top (one of my last purchases from Quinns of Merivale) and once again my favourite Mi Piaci Martha ankle boots.

For anyone not native to Christchurch Quinns was a go-to fashion store that had everything from lingerie to the finest evening gown, which closed in 2016.  Quinns always had that special piece needed to fill a wardrobe gap and I miss the wide range of designers they had available.

Vogue 1250 DKNY Teal Burnout Velvet Dress

Yes its another Donna Karan Vogue 1250 dress - number four.  In my defence I bought the fabric to be something else entirely but it really wanted to be this dress.  The drape of the fabric just so suited the cowl neck and overall look of V1250.  I do have a bit of the fabric left over so maybe it can become the top it was meant to be, albeit a slightly different incarnation paired with a black rayon knit.

The sad thing is that one of my colleagues has started to recognise this dress pattern, so perhaps four in my life is enough.  Or maybe I should think about altering the pattern for long sleeves or side seams and a more A-line skirt or.....  Definitely something to think about as I do really love V1250.

The finished garment

Fabulous, as expected. I made and wore this when the weather was cooler with my knee high boots but it works really well for the milder spring weather too. This dress looks pretty good photographed in front of the azalea bush on a lovely spring day.

The fabric

This is a "soft stretchy burnout velvet in teal, 60% polyester, 30% nylon, 10% spandex. 60" wide, 4.4oz per square yard" from Stonemountain and Daughter which is still available on their website.  They also have it in a burgundy colour.

The fabric cut edge rolls quite a bit and being a polyester isn't that keen to maintain a sharp crease (or any kind of crease) which made hemming fun.  It also leaves tiny fibres behind when you cut it so you get sparkly jewels on your dining table (aka the cutting table). Other than that the fabric was a pleasure to sew.

The pattern

A very brief and to to point description - a close fitting dress which doesn't detract from its marvelousness.  Even if it is recognised as "that" dress I won't stop making it. If the right fabric comes along there will be more versions of V1250 in my wardrobe.

The pattern alterations

This pattern is a true TNT for me.  The alterations are incorporated into my tracing of the pattern (forward shoulder, sway back, raised armhole, deeper cowl).  My original post for this dress contains more detail about how I altered the pattern.  I also altered my pattern this time to have 3/8 inch seam allowances as I prefer it to the more traditional 5/8 inch seam allowance, especially when using the overlocker.  I think this version sewed together the best of all due to these 3/8" seam allowances.

The sewing

Swiftly sewn up on the overlocker.  I do get a nicer hip dart if I mark my seam allowance using the French curve. I just find that I guide the overlocker in a more graceful curve and the end of the dart doesn't bubble.  The post for the third version of this dress shows how I do the armhole hem.

Outfit of the day

So here it is as worn in the cooler weather with my Sable and Minx 70% wool and 30% cashmere bright pink cardigan with Mi Piaci Jordan over the knee boots

For the warmer spring weather it is paired with my self made Donna Karan V2494 waist length brown jacket and the often worn Mi Piaci Martha ankle boots.

Creative Construction Quilt Symposium 2017 Sheena Norquay Shining Circles Class

In early October it was the NZ national quilting symposium "Creative Construction" here in Christchurch. So as I can make the effort to travel to the Houston International Quilt Festival every two years I felt I needed to make the effort to attend the event in my own back yard.

These days I am interested in classes that teach me techniques that can be translated into other creative adventures rather than a straight forward patchwork and quilting class.

For Creative Construction I chose a class with Scottish tutor Sheena Norquay.  This was an excellent class with a wonderful giving tutor. Sheena made sure that we all received as much attention as we needed and that we had enough information to finish our piece at home.  For me the intention was to play in the moment. I have no intention of finishing this piece although I may play around with some more free machine quilting on the painted circles so my samples demonstrate the techniques a bit more thoroughly.

The tutor

According to Sheena's profile on The Quilters' Guild of the British Isles members page she became interested in patchwork in the 1970's and started to quilt by hand and machine in the early 1980's. After being a Primary School teacher for 30 years I gave it up in 2006 and am now a freelance quilting teacher. I also make work for exhibitions and have won numerous awards since the mid 1980's.  My work is varied in subject, style and technique ranging from decorative, symmetrical pieces to landscapes and seascapes. I am inspired mainly by nature and love playing with pattern and free motion quilting.

Pearls are not always White 2009
62 x 103 cm
© Sheena Norquay

Out of the Blue 2008
62 x 103 cm
© Sheena Norquay

The class

Shining Circles is a one-day surface design class for intermediate to advanced quilters. This workshop is described as exploring stencilling circles and printing with circles and rings using one or more colours of metallic fabric paint and then free machine quilting using metallic threads.  Different layouts of designs will be shown and discussed.  Students can decide to do a square cushion cover / side of a bag or a long, skinny wall hanging.  Circles, rings and sticky backed Fablon will be provided for printing and stencilling, but you can bring anything circular if you wish.  Free machine stitch techniques taught will include embroidered trapunto, outlined trapunto, incised rings and circles using straight stitched and satin stitching.

My samples

I chose to paint on a black background using two Jacquard Lumiere paints metallic silver and super sparkle, which on the fabric I find difficult to tell apart.

I also took some circular rubber stamps and a metallic silver Fabrico stamp pad.

The stamp pads made much less of an impression on the black fabric than the Lumiere. The photos had to be lightened considerably to show the stamp within the Lumiere circle.  On the whole sample piece at the bottom of this post you can hardly see the stamps.

Cutting circles of assorted sizes out of fablon (sticky backed plastic) then sticking the positive or negative onto your fabric to paint is an inspired idea.  The fablon was much easier to use than freezer paper.

The outer circle for this one was made using a wine bottle cap which had a pretty embossed pattern.  Unfortunately I didn't get my shapes positioned properly to touch edge to edge so I stamped some more to get overlapping wine bottle caps, which ended up just looking messy. Or maybe it is just the imbalance in intensity between the outer bottle tops and the inner rubber stamp.

This is the only one of my shapes that I free machine quilted with pebble quilting in the circle and a haphazard feather around the outer edge.

The masterpiece in its entirety.  Luckily I only went to play not to produce a work of art.

And in the best use of play we learnt a lot including some useful tips and tricks. For example, did you know you get better control of fabric paint for a delicate line by applying it with a tooth pick rather than a paint brush.

It also gave me lots of ideas and you might see fabric painting on a garment soon.

If I sort my pictures out from the exhibitions I might do another post of my favourites some time soon.

Vogue 1454 DKNY Gorgeous Butterflies Top

It is quite amazing how easy it is to blog or not depending on the priority placed on it.  Over the last few weeks blogging has seemed like just too much effort and it would be very easy for my 10 September blog post to be my last as there are so many other things to do.

Like all of my sewing done over the past few weeks it took longer than normal - two weekends to get from start to finish of what is a simple pullover top.  Tidying up to try and limit how far the builders dirt travels through the house takes up valuable sewing time.  (Progress on the renovation is being made and I am sure it won't be too long now before our bedroom and ensuite are finished).

The making may be slow but it is the photography that is the rate limiting step. I even enjoy the writing although I am a bit compulsive about the proof reading. However onwards and upwards with a new post.

The finished garment

We took the photos in the dappled evening light by the ornamental cherry tree (which looks fabulous when in flower).  But the photos are perhaps a bit too dappled so I took some more the following day to try and get the pictures of the top a bit clearer.

This is a great top that feels luxurious to wear especially if you ignore the envelope sizing and make it according to the amount of ease you like in your tops.

The fabric

Whilst the fabric has been in my stash for three years I don't think I can class it as old given the age of some of my fabric. It is a silk crepe de chine purchased from Gorgeous Fabrics in 2014 to be made into a top for my trip to the Houston Quilt Festival. Like many sewing plans before a holiday the list to be sewn exceeded the available time so this fabric was consigned to a plastic box waiting for its moment.

I haven't bought lots from Gorgeous Fabrics but it will be sad to see them go as their fabrics have always been high quality with excellent customer service.

The pattern

Described as very loose fitting, pullover top has back flounce (wrong side shows) longer than front, side slits, and stitched hem on sleeves.  And very loose fitting it certainly is.

This pattern is copyrighted 2015 hence it wasn't the garment I was intending to sew when I bought the fabric. So it is just as well the fabric matured a while as it worked really well for this pattern.

The pattern alterations

This first thing to mention is that I started off with the size 6 not the size 16 which in theory is the size appropriate to my bust measurement.  The size 6 according to the finished garment measurements on the pattern tissue is 43" at both the bust and waist. Ideal.

The size 14 (the largest size in my pattern envelope) is 48.5" at the bust so I estimate that the size 16 would be at least 50". This would give me 12" of ease and the finished top would probably resemble a sack.

After I chose the pattern size most appropriate for the amount of ease I like in my garments the following alterations were made to the front pattern piece:

• lowered the bust point 1" (slightly less than my normal alteration of 1.5")
• created a bust dart to give the garment some shape
• lengthened the top in total by 1.75"
• 0.5" forward shoulder adjustment
• narrowed the shoulder by 2.75" (this top was meant to have a dropped shoulder which I changed to a normal set in sleeve which I prefer)
• raised the armhole 2" by using my favourite armhole template to re-draw the armhole shape

For the back pattern piece I made the corresponding changes for the overall length, forward shoulder, shoulder width and armhole shape.

For the sleeve I used my favourite sleeve pattern from Silhouette Patterns Traditional Blouse for the cap height and sleeve width but kept the same length as the original DKNY top.

The sewing

As this was such a nice silk crepe-de-chine I felt it needed to be nicely finished so used french seams for the shoulder, sleeve and back flounce.

For the side seams I used the standard 5/8" seam allowance, pressed the seam open, turned the seam allowance under and top-stitched.  This gave me a neatly finished side seam and a narrow hem on the side slits.

For the neck finishing I cut a 1.25" wide bias strip rather than using the facings provided.  The bias strip was folded in half, stitched to the top right sides together (with the cut edge of the bias strip at the neck edge) then folded over the seam and catch-stitched in place on the wrong side. This gave me a nice 3/8" narrow binding around the neck edge.

Outfit of the day

Nothing very exciting just thrown on with my Andrea Moore trousers and One Trick Pony pink loafers. Even my hair looks flat (the end of a hard day).

I found this outfit rather underwhelming so here is a second outfit of the day.

Still Andrea Moore trousers but in navy blue this time with my navy Vic Matie Theo shoes. Just love the way the back flounce flutters in the breeze.

Or thirdly worn with my United Nude Fold shoes in colour Horizon and my Untouched World wrap (for when the air conditioning gets a bit much). Please excuse the squinting I was facing into the sun which makes for good picture lighting but a screwed up face.