Dernier Cri Extras and PRP Fails
When I first brought home my sewing machine, I took my daughter to the fabric store and told her to pick out a fabric. She chose a red sequin fabric. She was too excited for me to say, “no, I don’t think I can do that”. Instead, I took it home and did my darned best. During this competition, I used a lot of patterns that were new to me, drafted 11 patterns, and tackled some challenges that were on my list of things to try. And, I feel wonderful about the journey. I did my darned best.
February 2019- Valentine’s Day Outfit - I had only had my sewing machine for a couple of weeks. She loved it, and I love her, so we kept going.
Lark at her middle school open house.
I’ve been obsessed with outerwear lately. I live in Minnesota where jackets and coats are a big part of the wardrobe. Making this coat was awesome. I am going to develop the pattern further. I had picked this double-sided wool which is so beautiful, but it did limit me when it came to choosing a binding. If I had gone with a solid color, I could have used a faux leather or perhaps a wool fold over binding. With this particular color, I had to really search for a good match. Luckily, I did find this wool ribbing. I think of the next one, I will round the edges of the front and also make the pockets integrated into the front panels so I won’t have them hanging inside. Overall, I think it came out well considering it was my first complete sew up of the pattern.
Wanted to share some of these beauty shots. You probably know that I have a fabric store of my own, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have other favorite shops. Super Textiles is one of mine. So many buttons! This is a shout out to them for being cool.
Tip: If you come across silk at a good price, get some! In many cases, it doesn’t really matter what color it is. The silk I used here was a pinkish purple, but when you put it up against the harvest of the pinafore, it takes on that color. For linings and pockets, silk can’t be beat. I find organza to be the easiest to work with. It has some structure and is almost weightless. Another way I use silk is for no bulk waistbands joins.
I love Kelly! I can’t wait to make one for myself.
A few notes:
a lot of pieces = a lot of steps
It is a project that should probably take a couple of weeks. The sewing is pretty straight forward, not tricky. The directions are very well done.
I had never sewn with waterproof fabric or leather. Fusible interfacing doesn’t work, you can’t iron it, and the fabric didn’t want to take pins. I did get my silk pins to work on areas with only two layers, but I think I will have to buy new ones now. So, do a little homework before you start to prepare. You also have to pay attention when using leather because it will try to stretch out. You can stay stitch it first which give it some stability.
The pattern actually comes with 3D pockets. Here you can see the inseam pockets I put in. My reason for making the change was to keep the outside of the jacket visually as simple as I could with the tartan.
For the same reason as with the pockets, I gathered the quilted lining with elastic. This allowed me to put the drawstring casing on the inside of the jacket.
Failure is an option.
You don’t make 4 collections without some failures along the way.
#1 Bag Fail
I wanted to have a leather bag for my Dernier Cri collection. After realizing that my leather was very soft and stretchy and wouldn’t work with my usual fusible interfacing, I came up with an alternative plan. I had some wool felt from Cali Fabrics. The idea was that I could make a modern structured bag with the combination of leather and felt. The felt (in theory) would give it structure. I cut out all the pieces and thought the leather could simply be applied to the felt. It didn’t work. The leather had so much stretch, it went all janky. This was a half baked idea.
#2 This Dress
Yikes. I was so confident when I started this one. The lighter color is a silk organza with little tassels embroidered on it. The dark brown is a silk charmeuse. How could it go wrong? My husband described it as an Art Deco nightgown; not in a cool way.
#3 Favorite Cardigan
This one can work with some tweaks.
There was a brand a few years ago called Ever/After. The store carried Pima T-shirts, leggings, easy pieces. They had a cardigan that I wanted to recreate. I tried doing a rub off, and it was close, but I didn’t like how the shoulder was fitting. So, I didn’t keep it. With some work, I hope to get the pattern to a better place though.
