New Jacket For Me! McCalls 5191

Whew! What a busy summer. I have been sewing but haven't had time to photograph and blog about it. Remember my shopping bag full of fabric that I bought at Goodwill for about 15 cents per yard? I decided to try out a "jean" style jacket pattern with one of the sportswear weight fabrics. I always liked McCall's 5191 but when I finally decided to try it, it had been discontinued. I found it on Ebay for a few dollars and went to work on a new jacket.

Patternreview link

It's pretty simple sewing but with lots of details and topstitching. I made a straight size 8 but would probably shorten the sleeves just a bit next time around. I have them rolled up in these pics.

The jacket is unlined and I decided that I wanted every seam concealed. I made flat-felled seams everywhere that I possibly could and encased the sleeve seams and facings with bias binding.

Inside of front

Here are the links to my other completed Goodwill projects. I still have many yards left to sew!

Pillowcase dresses for charity
Skirt for my daughter
Hannah's first dress

Goodwill Project #1

I thought I'd better get busy on that 38 yards of fabric I bought at Goodwill for $5.75. I mailed the two yards of ski fabric to duckbucket today. I can't wait to see what she makes with it. I used 2 1/3 yards of green cotton crinkle fabric to make 3 pillowcase dresses to send to Haiti. I used this pattern from Nancy's Notions which includes sizes small to extra large.

At 15 cents per yard, these dresses cost about 12 cents each for the fabric. After adding for the bias binding and elastic, I'm up to about $1.50 per dress!

Total Goodwill treasure                        38 yards

ski fabric sent to duckbucket                2

3 green cotton pillowcase dresses         2 1/3 
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Remaining yards to sew                       33 2/3 yards

Copycat T-shirt

My daughter shops at a popular teen store at the mall where the clothing is trendy and not too expensive. I have to admit that I look around the store occasionally just to get ideas for sewing projects. I've noticed that all of their t-shirts are basically the same pattern with different neckline, sleeve, and hem treatments. I decided to trace the simple pattern for one of her favorite knits tops and use it as a basis for her summer top wardrobe.  I added a self fabric knit binding to the neckline and topstitched with my coverstitch machine. The sleeves have a narrow hem also stitched with the coverstitch and the bottom is finished with a band cut crosswise from the same fabric. I used Design Plus Ultra-Soft Double Sided Fusible from The Sewing Place to fuse the sleeve hem before stitching. With very lightweight knits such as this one, hems tend to tunnel even when stitched with the double-needle coverstitch. The fusible makes the hem very even and professional looking.

I decided that I really like the color of this knit and hated to throw away the small amount of leftover scraps. I cut a narrow scarf across the width of the fabric about 8 inches by 66 inches (the width of the fabric). I let the edges roll rather than finishing them.

I also had enough little scrappy pieces left to make a headband and a fabric flower. For the headband, I cut a strip 5 1/2 inches wide and 20 1/2 inches long. I folded the strip lengthwise, serged a 1/4 inch seam, turned the tube and stitched a seam in the back. I stitched on a fabric flower and it's done. Quick and easy. I had enough left to make another flower which I sewed to a felt circle and attached a clasp pin to the back.

I finally decided that there simply was not enough fabric left to make anything else and moved on to my next project. What are your ideas for using leftover fabrics from your sewing/craft projects?

Sewing Undies

Now this was a fun project! I have always wanted to try sewing underwear. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on patterns, fabric, and elastic only to end up with homemade, ill-fitting undies. I ran across this free pattern on indigorchid's wonderful blog. The idea is to recycle old t-shirts to make underwear.

I had rescued a few old t-shirts from my daughter's trash can a couple of weeks ago because I never really throw anything away which is remotely related to fabric, sewing, etc. She agreed to be my guinea pig for this experiment.

I already had underwear elastic in my stash which came from a local, well-known underwear company. Someone gave it to me because, as I said before, I stash all things related to sewing. The first pair I made with foldover elastic at the waist sewn on with my coverstitch machine. Since I was experimenting with size on this one, I got the legs just a bit tight so I finished them with a self-fabric binding sewn on with the coverstitich.

I ran across this lightweight piece of knit at the local fabric store for almost nothing and tried a different type of elastic. This is picot edge elastic which I stitched onto the edge of the legs and waist with the coverstitch machine.

Birgitte at indigorchid recommends Sew Sassy Fabrics in Huntsville, Alabama as a source for elastic. Their prices are great and I received an order very quickly. Now I'm on the lookout for more t-shirts in need of a recycle!

Once you determine the correct size and the length to cut the elastic, these are extremely quick and easy to sew up and cost less than $1.00 each!