Butterick 5576 Handbags

Well this is how UFO's are born, but I have a few inbetween my inbetween jacket projects to post.  I am full of excuses why, but mainly while trying to sell our apartment I have had to keep the spare room tidy and constantly putting away the jacket was driving me nuts whereas one evening start to finish projects were good for my sanity.  We've now sold it so I can go back to my messy ways, although we have a very tight schedule now and will be moving the week before Christmas.  And my dad arrives for a two week visit tonight.  Argh!

It's becoming a Christmas tradition that I give my nieces a handmade handbag filled with treats and girly accessories.  This year I made two variations on Butterick 5576, View B (the yellow and silver ones from the pattern envelope below).

I used some leftover purple silk dupion and bits of trim from my stash to make them look a bit different to each other.  I changed the strap to a short shoulder style, but otherwise made them up following the instructions.  I used a medium weight canvas for the interfacings and although I would prefer a much stiffer bag for myself, these will be fine for kids dressing up, plus I'm not sure my machine would cope with many more layers.

Here they are, I have even mailed them already which is somewhat of a miracle!

With bow and satin ribbon trim

With pleated front flap and diamante trim

I have some more stuff to post, but today managed to snap two feet of my dressform stand and I am waiting for the superglue to set.  I promise I'll get back to finishing off the jacket soon and answer your questions from my earlier post then.

Not what I should be doing with my packing boxes!

My inbetween project - Burdastyle 08/2008 - 115 Jacket

Thank you for all the advice on the bias nightmare of a dress, I haven't given up on it yet, just parked it to one side.  It's good to know that we have similar ideas and I had already tried some of the suggestions before and during the 3 separate assaults on the side seams.

Another problem with bias cut patterns is that they can be fabric hogs and leave you with odd shaped leftovers.  As luck would have it the front piece of the dress with the skirt on the straight grain fits perfectly onto my leftovers so I took this as a sign and promptly cut it out.  Next step is to unpick practically the whole dress so needless to say that's as far as I have got with that!

Meanwhile I am working on a jacket, this one from 08/2008 Burda in a navy superfine wool.  It has some interesting details although was originally designed to have raw edges everywhere so I am modifying it somewhat.

I am sure I bought this fabric with the intention of making a classic blazer so why I only bought 1.5 yards is a mystery to me and it took a while to find an interesting pattern that would work.  I managed to squeeze out the pieces for this cropped jacket but I have had to piece the facings and the undercollar is cut in a black wool.

Although making a jacket from start to finish can be a lengthy process, it does lend itself to sewing in small chunks of time which is sometimes the way I like to sew.  Here are a few snapshots of bits I've finished - sleeves and back.

 Despite marking you can see one buttonhole on the sleeve flap ended up out of alignment.  I contemplated ignoring it (heck I even contemplated just sewing on buttons and not making buttonholes at all since they have no function), but I knew it would annoy me so out came the unpicker.  In the process I had an epiphany and realised the little bit sticking out the front of my buttonhole foot is there to help you line up buttonholes.

Naughty buttonhole on the left!

Useful sticky out thing on the front

Completed sleeve hem and flap

Inner sleeve darts sewn on the outside

Two completed sleeves

Back peplum and half belt detail (also with real buttonholes)

Finally my thoughts go out to anyone affected by hurricane Sandy.  Here in HK I have become a little blase about the typhoons we get every summer, but the terrible pictures and tragic stories coming from the States reminds us how powerful nature can be.