Birkin Flares

I accomplished something major: I made jeans! Specifically Birkin Flares from Baste+Gather.  I feel so joyful. 

My material is burnt orange corduroy from IndieSew and it's great.  I snatched it up right when it was advertised and have no regrets.  I went rogue for this pattern and didn't make a muslin.  I like the fit. It's right under my belly button and there is negative ease in the hips which means they actually stay up when I walk around.

Everybody says jeans aren't hard, and they actually aren't.  There is a sewalong on the Baste and Gather website that is fabulous and really helped through the challenging bits. 

Close up of the front:

 Close up of the back:

You'll notice that there is something weird going on with the back yoke. The piece didn't look right when I cut it out, but since I didn't make a muslin I just went along with it.  The middle part of it seemed to have too much of a diagonal as compared to the sewalong pictures that seemed to continue up in a straight line from the leg.  I'll have to revisit that next time because the extra fabric makes the yoke wavy. 

I do not plan to wear a shirt tucked in with these and the rest is satisfactory, so I'm OK with that.  Being the opposite of Type A really helps in sewing....

I enjoy topstitching quite a bit.  It makes it all look put together. My sewing machine kept spitting out my needle when I tried to do the narrow row of zigzag on the pockets.  I eventually had to give up on that after doing the best I could. 

I chose to have the front of my pocket lining facing me so I can see the fun burst of color.  Nobody looks inside my pockets!

I highly recommend this pattern if you are a first-timer.  Go for it! You won't be disappointed!

Skinny Bitch Curvy Chick Moto Chic Jacket #2

I found this pretty turquoise corduroy at my local fabric store (Sarah's Fabrics) and decided to make another SBCC Moto Chic Jacket with it because my first one gets lots of compliments.  This was a hard one to find a matching zipper for, so I substituted circular buttonholes. The Craftsy course Couture Finishing Techniques with Alison Smith helped me with those. 

 

I felt like I borrowed Beyoncé's wind machine for these pictures.  The one above is suitable but if I'm being transparent almost all of the others looked like this:

Not okay! I could have waited for another day, but I don't have closure on a project until I've blogged it and I'm itching to move on to something else.

Besides the buttonholes, the only other change I made was to the lining.  The pattern lining doesn't extend to the hem, which leaves some of the innards exposed.  I extended the lining piece with the intention of slip stitching it to the corduroy hem.  I didn't take into account the gathered peplum, and so I had to settle for a free floating lining hem. 

Side view:

Back:





Onward to new things!