NFL Football and sewing with family, oh the love.

PJ's for game day. Win or lose, it's always so much fun to watch our Texans football games with the family. Even more fun when we dress the part.

These are the coolest pjs I have made. Not because they are Texans fabric, but because I get to sew and enjoy the things I love with my "Mini-me".

Man, I get so much joy from sewing with my granddaughter!! It takes me back to the days when I watched and sometimes joined in to help my mom. Though, I think then, she did most of the sewing.

I made my pair using the easy Simplicity pattern 2414. It's a pattern meant for cargo pants. But I just left off the pockets. What drew me to this pattern is that the waistband was separate and had 3 elastic channels plus buttonholes and a drawstring.

For Mini-me I self-drafted a pair from a sloper I use from my Cameo Professional pattern design software by Wild Ginger.

We sewed these on the sweet, 780 sewing and embroidery computer on loan to me from the lovely folks at BerninaUSA! All the serger finishing were done on my Bernina serger (bought by me 30 years ago!!).

The eye cover is copied from another pair I had. The sweet detail about them is the nose guard that helps keep the light out.

These are the lounger/pants my students sew in my beginner sewing classes. They are roomy and very comfortable. Make yourself a pair. (I almost sound like a commercial. 😇. That's pattern reviews for you.

Catch me at the game next week, I'm confident our boys will do better.

Saints and Dallas fans need not comment!!

I call her "ENVY", but she was first Samantha's Jacket

The Teal Leather Jacket... they whispered at Pattern Review weekend back in May.  "Did you see Andrea's Jacket?"  "Did you see all those zippers?"   Should this be considered a late arrive to the party...  I have so much to share, but where do I start?  Should I begin with telling you about how Envy, as she is known, manifested?  For many of you, this post is the prose to the picture you have been seeing in my header for the last six months.  And I hear the cries!!! its about darn time she shared!!   Well I say to you...my lovely sewcialites....here she is!...

Envy!!! has arrived in blog land.

"Why, would I name my jacket a name such as that?"  Well, I say, when I am sewing, I have the need to name garments that require a lot of emotional input to get it done.  This here was an emotional roller coaster.  Sewing leather is easy, it was the pattern fitting that was the problem.  (I'll get to that more later.)   

Back to the name.... I don't suppose I'm no different than the pattern designer who finds it necessary to name their creations as well.  

After a period of time, when I have taken on the challenge of constructing, or fashioning a garment from someone else's base pattern, it has now taken on a new personality, a new flare. I have essentially "adopted" that baby and now after giving it a new home and a new look, I then decided on its new name.  

No matter what the original name given by the original owner, they have essentially given me rightful ownership to make of it what I please, or to just leave it the same, as is with a car or home purchase.  "It is mine now, origins only known by me and others who have "adopted" from that same agency/pattern company."  I share it's origins to those I chose, besides, not all adoptees want anyone else to know they were adopted. Am I right?!  

But, oh'.. us sewcialites, we "want" to know the origins and the inspirations,  who's pattern we used, or who's design we copied, either a couture garment from the famed runways of Paris, or the pattern books at the local fabric store, or indie pattern company from any etsy shop.  We want to share, and we want to know, "what pattern" is that?

I put a lot of emotion into every garment I design or construct.  For me, I think I add a little blood, guts and some tears along the way. Thus is the case with Samantha's jacket here, put out by Silhouette patterns. 

A little history
Last year I was on a "pilgrimage" in New York on a fabric buying trip with Silhouette Pattern's, Peggy Sagers, when I came across this leather at Leather Impact.  Gorgeous!!! just absolutely gorgeous...! The most supple lambskin I have touched in a while.  Well not really.  lol, I have others that are just as nice, but I just don't have enough to make anything substantial.  But this stuff is still really very nice.

The leather is extremely easy to sew.  I find it more difficult sewing on silk than I do with leather.  It has a little stretch and is very weak around the edges.  You must be sure to plan and position the pieces carefully to make sure stress points don't end up on the areas of the skins that are weak. 

I traced the pattern pieces for duplicates and multiples in order to avoid missing any "cut 2" or "cut one on fold" kind of stuff.  It could get really easy to miss something when you are switching back and forth between skins, while checking placement.

I used a total of 5 skins for this one jacket.  Whew... that seems like a lot, but with the odd shapes, and the size of the pieces, you have to maneuver each area carefully.  Also, avoiding waste is a job in and of itself.  

FIT.... you will have to get all the gory details in a separate post...it is just too much to talk about in one post. I am so sorry to have to disclose these points about my so loved Silhouette patterns.  But, every designer makes their patterns for their own fit model.  I just don't fit this model.  My shoulders aren't wide enough.

Please stay tuned.

Andrea