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MADE | Butterick 4610 Camel Wool Coat

December 18, 2014 By Chie

Now this year’s coat sewing is done! I love my new coat. This is a bit lighter than the coat I made last year since the fabric is thinner. It is still warm enough if you layer some clothes and I think I’ll be able to survive the Tokyo winter just fine.

After making two muslins (one of which is wearable), this coat came out pretty quick. I enjoyed working with wool. I get a great joy out of fusing the wool! That sounds so weird but if you sew, I’m sure you understand.

If you are interested in making a similar coat, here are the facts:

Pattern: Butterick B 4610
Size: I blended the size 6 and 12.
Adjustment: Skipped the patch pockets and added the inseam pocket between front panel and side front panel. I also lengthened the jacket by 23 cm below the waist line. The front hem is cornered, instead of round in the original pattern or my pink jacket. Finally, I did the narrow shoulder adjustment by 1cm each side.
Fabric: camel wool fabric. The exact content is unknown since it was from the sale’s section.
Lining: polyester satin in matching camel color.
What I would have done differently: Add the side pockets in between front and back side panels, instead of between front panel and side front panel. When I button up the coat, the pockets open up in a weird way. Or I would add a welt pockets across the front and side front panels. Another thing is the length. I was able to extend the original pattern length by only 23cm since I had a limited fabric, but I would have liked knee length coat.

Outfit details | Shirt: made by me (Grainline Studio Archer Button up), Sweater: thrifted, Jeans: Uniqlo, Necklace: Moose and Nigel, Booties: Rag and Bone Harrow Booties
Bound button holes! I followed this tutorial.

Here is what the inside of the coat looks like. I’ll be making the most out of this coat this winter! I like that it goes well with my skin color and hair color. I tend to wear black and gray a lot in the winter, and my face looked so dull. I didn’t know why until I read Sonja‘s comment on my pink jacket post about the correlation between hair color and the clothes color. Since my hair is very dark, when I wear dark colors, I look like someone from Adam’s family.

♡Check out the muslin for this coat // Inspiration post for the coat♡

今年の冬のコート出来上がりました♪
前回作ったピンクのジャケットと同じ型紙を使い、さらに丈を５センチ伸ばして作りました。
本当は膝丈コートにしたかったのですが、セールで買ったこのキャメル色のウール、１５０センチ幅で１．５メートルしかなかったので、５センチ伸ばしてぎりぎりでした。
結果は大満足♪少しウールが薄手なので、袖をくしゅくしゅと巻くって、ホワイトジーンズなどはけば春先にも行けそうです。
次は、ダッフルコート縫ってみたいな。

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Looking Back on My 2014 New Year Resolution

December 15, 2014 By Chie

Only 10 days left till Christmas and 15 days left for the year 2014. My 2014 resolution was to stay organized, and I am proud to say that I did pretty well with keeping my resolution this year! My sewing room is in order most of the time, and I made sure to put things back in the original spot after I finish sewing. Since we have limited space, every single item needs to have a place of its own.

Staying organized includes being on top of the accounting part of the business so I’m not buried with receipts during tax season. I marked the beginning of the month in calendar to do all the accounting at once for the previous month. At first, it took me about three hours but as the months passed by, I was able to do it in within an hour.

Every morning, I write a list of things I need to do on a sticky note. If it is on a busy day, I write something like “finish shoulder seam of my coat” or “wrap dress for etsy order”, even if I know it takes only five minutes to do. That way, I can get some sense of accomplishment!

I’m mostly done with Christmas cards and New Year cards, which I used to delay till the very last minute. It is so much less stressful to finish it early! I ordered my business New Year cards from Nohana （ノハナ） and personal ones from T print　（Tプリント）. The prices were pretty much the same, but I like the quality at Nohana better. The cards were thicker and glossier. The good thing about T print is that they print the recipient addresses for you without additional cost.

So now I’m done with administrative hassle, I can enjoy some Christmasy stuff. We decorated the Christmas tree on one Saturday morning. We have a rather sad looking fake tree, very much like Charlie Brown’s, but every tree in Japan is like that unless you drive to Ikea to pick up a real tree! We also decorated some cookies. What kind of Holiday things do you like to do?

Also I’m thinking about doing a small giveaway (much like the one I did back in 2012) for the blog readers. Please write in the comments below what you would like as a giveaway gift♡　I would love to know if there is anything you cannot get in your country that is in Japan.

クリスマスまであと１０日、新年まで１５日です！
２０１４年の抱負は整理整頓でした。
今年はけっこう忘れずに整理整頓できたと思います。年賀状も完了したし！
皆様はこの忙しい時期、どうお過ごしですか？

MADE | Butterick 4610 Jacket (Muslin for a Camel Coat)

December 8, 2014 By Chie

Continuing the blog post about my winter wool coat sewing, I mentioned that I made two muslins for the coat, and here is the one! My first muslin was made out of yellow cotton fabric so as to just test the size and length. For the first muslin, I lengthened the jacket length by 10 cm, but it still looked like an office lady’s jacket. I was hoping my jacket to be a boyfriend jacket, like AYR‘s. The length covers the butt, and the fit is not skin tight but slim enough so that it does not look like you are wearing a man’s jacket. So I further lengthend the jacket by additional 8cm, In total 18cm longer than what the patterns say.

Pattern: Butterick B 4610
Size: I blended the size 6 and 12.
Adjustment: Skipped the patch pockets and added the inseam pocket between front panel and side front panel. I also lengthened the jacket by 18 cm below the waist line.
Fabric: pink jersey (same fabric as this girl’s T-shirt to a Dress tutorial)

Outfit details | Dress: vintage, Jacket: self-made, Watch: Michael Kors, Pumps: Salvatore Ferragamo

The pattern came from the Craftsy course, Classic Tailoring: the Blazer. I started watching the class but only finished lesson two and just abandoned it for about a year. I find most Craftsy courses rather boring. Every time I try to watch one while hanging out on my bed, I fall a sleep. I’ve sewn a few jackets before including this men’s tuxedo, so I just skipped the class all together and sewed according to the pattern instructions.

The jacket took me a long time since I had the wrong fabric – I used cupro lining for this stretch jersey outer shell fabric, which did not work well at all together. So I ended up ripping the lining and went without lining. Had I known that I would make this without lining, I would have done something else to the seam allowances, like binding with bias strips or something. By the time I removed the lining, I had spent around 10 hours on this jacket and gotten sick of sewing it, so I just serged the seam allowances.

I’m not 100% happy with the jacket..I don’t like the wrinkles around the shoulder (set-in sleeves gone wrong) and the jersey wasn’t the most fitted fabric for this project. Thankfully, I think this is still wearable and I will be wearing this more in the Spring when the weather warms up. Can’t wait for the warm weather already!

Butterick4610という既成の型紙を使ってジャケットを作りました。
本来のものより長さは１８センチ長くして、ボーイフレンドジャケット風に。
裏地をつけたり、外したり試行錯誤したので、１０時間近くかかってしまいました。。

残念ならら、作るものすべてが大成功っていうわけではないですね。
これは、一応着られるけど、よくみるとあーすればよかった、こーすればよかったってことが多い作品になってしまいました。