A Whole New Outfit

As promised, I have a new outfit today.  I didn't get to take pictures until I got home (I planned on doing it at lunch in the park across the street from work, but I couldn't find the piece that attaches my camera to my tripod).  I will be honest, I am not thrilled with these pictures.  The lighting in my apartment kind of sucks, and it doesn't look as good as it did it real life.  It's a bummer when the pictures don't turn out well, because it just doesn't make me want to write. 

How I feel about these pictures, my elder son took them very unwillingly, and I think purposely took bad ones.

Anyway, let's get to the nitty gritty.  The jacket is B6105 which is a pattern by Gertie, the button down is a heavily modified Bellini by Capital Chic patterns, and the skirt is self drafted with curve help from Victory Patterns Nicola.

See- the face is slightly out of focus.  This was after I asked him to slow down to make sure the pictures were in focus.  I really need to get a new tripod.

The fabric- you might recognize the plaid as the same as my failed Colette Dahlia (blogged here).  For the skirt I used the meter of fabric I bought to fix the dress, and for the jacket, I used scraps from making the dress and the actual dress.  The black pinstripe fabric is a wool that was bought last year in Nizhny Novrogord, I had 45 inches of it, so I had to use a different sleeve pattern (Simplicity 2449 I think). For the Bellini I used a shirting cotton I bought from Mood Fabrics late last year.

This is after a day of wear, which explains most of the wrinkles.  I also did not muslin the jacket.

For the skirt- it is just two rectangles sewn together.  I cut my piece of fabric in half; I'm pretty sure that I did this vertically because it was wider than long.  The plaid looks square, but is actually rectangular.  I didn't worry about pattern matching too much on the skirt.  I think I ended up with three black and yellow stripes instead of the needed two.

More evidence of my son not wanting to take photos.  Is that a smile? Grimace?

One of the major things I did with the jacket was take off the ties and change them to button holes.  Conveniently, I was able to use the waist seam to do so.  Inconveniently- I don't think any of the black buttons I used actually match any of the other black buttons.  Luckily they're black, so you can't really tell unless you're looking closely.  Due to the lack of fabric, the sleeves are bracelet length, but I think it works, right?

Ugh, I really apologize about these pictures.  I swear the shirt does not look this bad in real life.  I think part of it was that it was at the end of the day, and it had been smushed under the jacket all day.  I made several changes to the Bellini- first, I used a different pattern for the collar, Burda, I think.  I wanted a collar that had a collar stand to go with it.  Due to the addition of the collar stand, I no longer needed the facing, so I turned it into a fold over placket.  The placket is a little too wide, but it's a wearable muslin right?  I heavily starched the shirt to make it, it will probably photograph better after a wash?  I used french seams throughout, so it's a well made wearable muslin.  The buttons are white with a metal edging- I'm pretty sure I got them in Bueno Aires.

Oh I forgot to mention about the skirt, the waistband- it's leather.  I love this waistband.  I cut a piece of leather 3 inches wide and a piece of coutil to match it.  Have you ever sewn with coutil before?  It's mainly for corsets, but I think it's a great alternative to interfacing a waistband.  It pretty heavy duty.  The skirt is held together by snaps.

Here finally is a better picture- just not on me.  I walked into the kitchen this morning, and my husband named checked Alicia Silverstone specifically her character from Clueless.  The outfit definitely has a 80s/90s - ish vibe to it.  It kind of reminds me of some of the outfits from Heathers, without the giant shoulder pads.  Do the 80's and 90's count as retro, or is it just dated?  I really liked the outfit, and got loads of compliments today. 

Everything is fully lined.  And brightly too!  For the jacket, the yellow is poly-satin cheapo worst fabric ever, but it matched color-wise (bought here in Kyiv in December).  The upper sleeve, is also poly-satin cheapo not as terrible fabric (bought in Sao Paulo May/Juneish).  The pinks were slightly different so I didn't want them next to each other.

The skirt is lined with polka-dotted something or other.  It's been in my stash since August of last year.  I bought it in Kansas City.  If you've been keeping track, the plaid fabric and yellow lining are from Kyiv, Ukraine, the pinstripe is from Nizhny Novrogorod, Russia, pink/black polka dots Sao Paulo, Brazil, white/black polka dots, white cotton, leather, and coutil, the United States, and buttons from Bueno Aires, Argentina. This outfit really shows my willingness to lug fabric around the world.  It has all been in my stash for sometime or another, so I am happy that it's is now clothing!

Here are the remainder of the shots.  Just a couple of last thoughts- it was fun trying to figure out how to make this out of remnants of fabric, I really had fun thinking on how I was going to squeeze it out. The not pattern matching on the jacket turned out better than I expected.  Unless you look really closely you can't tell that one lapel is on the straight grain and the other is on the cross grain.  This is how I learned that the squares are really rectangles.  Also, the yellow poly-satin is terrible- it would shred if I unpicked it, I had to interface a couple of places that I had messed up.

The only place where it's obvious I didn't pattern match, but no-one should be seeing that!

Button hole!

Sleeve vent, not perfect, but not the worst I've done.

Non-matching pattern- hopefully not that noticeable.

Anyway, that's that! I definitely love this outfit, even if it's a little bit Clueless-y or Heathers-y.  It reminds me of my younger wilder days, when I would mix plaids and pinstripes more often.  However, this is much more work appropriate.  Now I just have to get started on my next project.  Until we meet again, happy sewing!