New toy for blogging, and jeans progress

I got a new toy this weekend!  Its a respectable camera so no more lousy bathroom mirror shots for me.  I am still working out the kinks and the little icons, but it has a good autofocus (usually), a good timer that you can customize to take as many pictures in a row as you want and it fits on my cute little tripod!  Although I really need a better tripod, I was setting up and it occurred to me that I might not want to put my $200 camera on a $20 wobbly piece of plastic.

The first pictures were well focused, bright and pretty true to color.  But, they were aimed too high!  Cutting off the bottom 3" of everything!
It shows the shape of the shoulders and the texture of the quilting.

(Did I mention that I love this jacket!  It wraps around like a soft cocoon.  I am super happy with the lining.  The silk charmeuse underlined with fusible tricot has the perfect amount of body and softness, and the pop of color is perfect!)

Back to the camera:

Then I switched from portrait mode to automatic and it changed the Fstop.  The texture changed and it focused more tightly on my face, but that zipper is too fuzzy.

I used to know my Fstop and shutter speed settings, back when every 6th grader had a great new 35 mm SLR.  I guess its back to photography for dummies.

Did I mention that it is WiFi enabled and can send pictures through my home network?  How cool is that, my neighbors can hack into my camera and track my pants fitting progress!

Lovely!

I am making good progress on the pants as well.

I've got 4 pairs of jeans, 3 of which are shown here:

I have the fly's, and the front pockets done.  I used Stitches and Seams technique by Debbie Cook.
I just like the simple, straight forward way she walks you through it.  However, I didn't topstitch the edge of the left front, it seems a little extraneous to me if it's all one piece.

The blue and jade are from Emma One Sock and they are denim that is mostly cotton, but it also contains nylon and I think a touch of poly as well as lycra.  Its a strange combination and it runs a but thin and it shows in the lighter color, so I'll be hitting the gym before debuting those in public!

The top pair of jade pants are the perfect shade of jade for the pantone contest this month on PR.  If contests were the guaranteed absolute death of a project, I would swear my allegiance right now.  For this contest you need a coordinating garment that also showcases those pantone colors and the silk charmeuse that I lined the leather jacket with is a perfect match!

So, if I were actually entering the contest and wanted to pick a project to condemn a garment, I would pic a relatively new Style Arc pattern like Style Arc Patsy top with that lovely flounce.  I would cut it on the bias since its a woven being forced into a pattern for knits.

That is if I were entering the contest which always jinxes my sewing, but I'm not so I won't!

The discussion is over, until I get the garments finished at least, then I might mention it again.

Marfy 2286 lookin good!

Thanks to all the great advise from my sewing friends on facebook and PR, I could easily have a big heap of wasted money!

The quilting is fabulous, and the top stitching isn't bad.  My dear old elna doesn't have adjustable presser foot pressure or a walking foot so it often stretched the leather when it went through thick leather or around corners.  The walking foot handled the quilting with a few loose stitches, but it didn't pull or shift the leather.


For the quilting I decided on a nice 2 to 1 ratio that is lengthening instead of boxy.  I got my 2" and my 1" ruler and set the first piece of tape.  I used an old roll of masking tape being careful to not push it down too much.  It did stick in a couple of places and tear the facing off the skin, but not badly. I laid the tape edge to edge and held the layers (hair canvas from Pam Erny and natural batting from Hancock's) together with big Conair hair clips.  As I stitched I really didn't have any pulling.

The advise that I got on facebook was so spot on!
As for the Janome 6500 with the walking foot, it walked through like BUTTER!  It was easy to keep on course and handled all the layers beautifully.   BTW, Gutterman heavy duty worked well when the Coats and Clark HD stuff frayed and split just like Clothingengineer said.
I stitched the lines between the tape, then I pulled off the tape and tied off the ends of the thread.  Then I laid the cross tape strips and stitched again.  This process was tedious and seemed to take forever!  And for the record, between the quilting and the topstitching I used all but about 12" of one spool of thread!
The work was totally worth it.
As for pattern alterations, I love Marfy.  Where else can  you take a pattern out of the envelope, set it on a very expensive pile of skin (that 5 sheep gave their lives for) and cut.  Honestly, if I had cut a muslin I wouldn't be nearly this done.  I made some usual alterations, I made the shoulders 1/2" more square.  I added 1" to the side seams, but sewed it back out.  Its a size 48 and I just needed to add a little bit to the hips because I want it loose so I can wear anything I want to under it.  I'll add an inch to the sleeves when I get the last skin tomorrow.


I also have a fabulous lining picked out of course!
Got it at High's last Sunday, its perfect!

BTW, I have so much money in this, is there anyway to LoJack a garment?  I can just see me leaving this on the bus somewhere.

OK, I still need that last piece so that I can cut the sleeves and belt.  Roz should be picking it up for me today so I might have it bragging-worthy by Sunday for the Fashionista club.

Leather Quilting Score!

Score!
I so love PR friends!

Clothing engineer totally solved the stitching problem. I got Gutterman heavy duty thread and a topstitching needle and I can actually quilt the leather with the much prettier heavy duty thread.

If this turns out at all, I will owe fabulousness to her!

Now for the details:
Quilted with heavy duty Gutterman thread with a size 16 topstitching needle.  I layered one layer of natural batting between the leather and my under-layer which is hair canvas.  I spaced the seams with 1" masking tape which didn't mess up the finish of the leather.  I chose the hair canvas because of its crispness and its ability to hold shape.  I saw no reason to add the bulk of another layer of leather.

You can see on the backside that there are still some thread loops and knots, but I don't see that being a deal breaker.  FWIW, I think the trouble with the thread loops arose from where the top thread got caught on something in the bobbin case.  Just my thoughts.  I will handle this by putting some fray check where the thread comes through so it doesn't pull through to the right side.

For the record, the hardest part was getting a straight piece of masking tape off of the ancient roll that I found in a box in the garage.  It sticks and tears very easily, but it doesn't leave a residue on the leather.

Sorry, someone pointed out that I hadn't posted a pattern picture.  This can still be found on sewing patterns.com (I think).  Or you could just do what I do and send Marfy and email and ask them to send it to you.  They will kindly oblige and send you a paypal invoice.  As long as UPS doesn't lose it!
I am quilting the front and back yoke, omitting those front yoke tabs and using a Riri rainbow zipper instead of those buttons.

Marfy meets lambskin

It all started last November.  OK, it was probably earlier than that, but it began in earnest in November. My absolute favorite garment of all time, my baby blue leather jacket from 2005 (or 6 or 7) has gone past 'a little tight' to 'just let it go' too small.  This picture is from about 2007.  It actually buttoned at that time.  I used a vintage (even at the time) pattern Vogue 1919 pattern (Pattern Review is here) I will spare you the gory details, but I made this before I knew that you weren't supposed to put bound buttonholes in leather with out written approval from congress and an edict from The Vatican.  They turned out pretty good, for something that I wasn't supposed to be able to do.

Still love it, really love it.

But its the time of year when a young girls thoughts wander through too many shopping sites and her feet wander through Nordstrom too frequently and she gets the wanderlust for a beautiful new motorcycle-esque fab jacket.
It helps that my favorite fabric retailer has so graciously assumed the duties of lambskin dealer...

My favorite to replace the blue is remarkably similar to the emerald that has been declared the color of the summer.

I also love the look of that super soft quilted leather.  Its a sure sign of my Kate Spade obsession.  I am determined to find a way to do this.

My first tip was to get a walking foot.  Since my dearest elna didn't have one (from 1977) I borrowed a machine from a dear friend across the hall at work.  Yep, thats just the way sewing enthusiasts roll...  Its a Janome 6500 with some kind of dual feed adjustable feed dog synch sewing magic going on.  It sews the leather quilting wonderfully.  It feeds evenly (my biggest concern) without bunching or skipping.

The results for this specific purpose are wonderful, but I wouldn't buy a $2,000 machine just for that.  It doesn't sew well through 4 layers, and not at all through 5.  When you think about it, this can be a problem in garment sewing.  When you sew on belt loops there are 4 layers in the loop so sewing it to 2 layers of waistband (or jacket seam) is out of the question as is a jeans hem with a flat felled out- seam.
Another problem with the Janome, it refuses to sew with heavy duty thread, it shreds it like crazy in about 6".  Vangie agrees so it isn't operator error.  I was hoping to do the quilting in a heavy duty thread that is half a shade lighter but I guess not.
Anyway, I'll post more later...