50 Things! A milestone calls for something major. For me, that’s a coat. I sewed a coat! For the first time ever. That feels like an enormous accomplishment.

Tasia at Sewaholic is one of my favourite independent pattern designers. She lives in the same town I grew up in and her photos and pattern names make me just a little homesick.

I’ve made a couple of Renfrews but today’s Thing is the Minoru jacket, made for Esther, my youngest.

Since it was my first crack at this pattern I didn’t want to spend too much. Esther wanted purple, I wanted cheap, and I met both those requirements at the Haagse Markt (the big market in The Hague).

I found some lavender wool priced at 3 euros a metre, but the man gave me the rest of the bolt (just over four metres) for 9 euros.  A few stalls further I found purple and black polka dot satin material (some polyester or poly-blend) — perfect for the lining, and just a euro a metre.

The notions stall had YKK zippers for a song, as well as affordable two-inch elastic, and purple thread to match the wool.

A couple of weeks ago I traced the pattern onto Swedish tracing paper — love this stuff! — and hacked and taped the pieces into the right fit. Tasia designs for the pear-shaped woman, and I was making this for my not-quite-eleven-year-old daughter, so a few adjustments were necessary. I raised the waist by two inches and took two inches off the length.  I also lopped about four inches off the sleeves. 

Ta-da!

 

What I loved about this pattern:

• It’s beginner-proof, especially if you follow the sew-along. I haven’t sewn a lot of clothes, and certainly never a coat, and I’m pretty chuffed that my first attempt was this successful.
• The fit is casual and comfortable, but the elastic waist and cuffs give it a stylish shape
• It’s a well-drafted pattern, all the pieces match up easily
• The hood! Dramatic and cozy, and zips away for the dry season (okay, we don’t have that in the Netherlands, but a girl can dream)

 

 

What I changed/added:

• As mentioned, I sized it down to child-size
• I lined the hood and added a channel for a drawstring (the hood is large, and to keep it in place on a windy day Esther wanted a drawstring. I haven’t actually put the cord in yet but the channel and buttonholes are ready.)
• I added side seam pockets made with the lining fabric using Amy’s tutorial at Sew Well

 

Challenges/glitches:

• I’m still working at putting zippers in straight. It wasn’t perfect but the instructions were very helpful and I’m getting better at it.
• The hood zipper is supposed to be 18 inches, but when I prepared the opening it was too big for the zipper.

I fixed it by adding a patch to each end of the zipper.

Good enough:

• Stitch in the ditch — this is where you attach the exterior to the lining at the collar line, and oh my, what a lesson in self-control. (I failed.) The first time was a disaster:

The second and third tries weren’t much better. I could not get the inside and outside to line up properly.
I think part of the difficulty was the thickness of the fabric. I gave up on perfection after my fourth try.

 

Because Tasia’s fabric requirements are generous and because I scaled the pattern down to fit a ten-year-old, I have lots of leftover fabric. Enough for another jacket, even. But for now, we’re both happy with this one.

 

 

 

I also wrote a review of the Minoru pattern at Patternreview.com.

 

Costs:

Wool: €9 (but used less than half)
Satin lining: €2.50 (also used less than half)
Zippers (2): €3.50
Purple thread: €1.25
2-inch elastic (2m): €2.70

I stocked up on some general supplies at the market, too:

Interfacing (got 9 metres, should last me the year): €5
Serger thread cones (€1 each at the market, this will last me forever): €8
Regular thread: €7
2-inch elastic (bought enough for future projects): €5.05
Zippers in all colours, mostly small for pouches and the like: €6

 

Cost of this Thing: €18.95 (with enough leftovers to make another)

Cost of General Supplies: €31.05

Cost of all Things to date (including general supplies): €71.79

I’m way over budget but I have lots of free Things coming up and plenty of supplies to keep me going awhile.

I’ve lost count of the number of pairs of jeans I have in my stash, all rejected from my wardrobe for various reasons — worn out, out of style, wrong fit. But denim is so versatile so I can’t throw them out.

I found this pattern for a fabric basket at Victory Patterns blog. (Love her patterns! I want to try the Lola pattern this fall.) I used one jeans leg for the lining and a piece of burlap for the exterior. I didn’t have any interfacing on hand so I lined the burlap with quilt batting to give it some stiffness. It’s more soft than crisp, but it stands up on its own so we’re good.

 

 

I rolled the denim up a bit when topstitching the edge to give a small contrast band.

 

 

If that’s not enough contrast, I can always roll down the top like a cuff.

 

 

A basket like this is great storage for  all kinds of things. Legos, figurines, fabric scraps, buttons…flowers…

 

 

I still have lots of jeans left. Maybe I need to make a denim pouf. Or quilt. Or pillow. Or a new pair of jeans.

 

Cost of this Thing: 0
Cost of all Things to date: €21.79

 

 

Yesterday’s Thing was cute. Today’s Thing is the Anti-Cute.

Esther (my youngest) needed a costume for a Griezelfeest — Horror party — with her gymnastics club. As an avid Harry Potter reader, she wanted to go as a Dementor.

Time was limited. I was off to a weekend in London with some friends and with everything else going on I had about half an hour to give to this project.

I pulled together supplies from my stash: a graduation gown from when my husband got his MBA a few years ago, and several pairs of old worn out black dress pants (I have quite a collection because I can’t thrown out anything with fabric).  

I cut both legs off one pair of pants, opened them up and stitched them to the underarm seam of the graduation gown, like wings. Then I tore the fabric in strips, to give a creepy, ghoulish effect.

For the hood I chopped another leg off at the knee, undid the hem, opened the side seam part way, and called it a hood.

Isn’t she sweet?

 

 

A generous serving of grey eyeshadow around the eyes and mouth, and this soul-sucker was ready to party.

 

 

 

Cost of this Thing: 0
Cost of all Things to date: €21.79