Christine's Fishin' Hat

Christine asked for a hat like the one I have been wearing, mine is pretty goofy, but I'm getting known for them soooo...

The hat is made from a Kwik Sew pattern #2236 view B. And almost one old pair of blue jeans. I had to be creative to get the brim pieces out of the jeans, all but one of the hat panels was on the straight of grain. I didn't use a whole pair of jeans, but I used all I had left of this pair.



I made mine about 10 years ago when I knew much less about sewing than I know now and there were things I didn't really like about it, so I fixed it for Christine's.

The pattern asks you to sew all the pieces together and then finish with seam binding. Here is a pic of my old hat:


I've never liked this, so this time I left a part of the panel open on the inside to turn everything thru:


My new hat inside looks like this:


I'm very pleased with the result.

Finished side view:


Finished front view:


The hat is cute, unfortunately I can't sell this particular style hat because it is made from a copyrighted pattern. I do think that the top of the hat is a little poofy, so if I did make a pattern of my own I would fix that. I think the hardest part will be to get the brim with the correct curve. I'll have to go to the mall and look at some hats see if I can't figure it all out and draft one myself!

Vintage Windbreaker Repair

Outside Repair
Originally uploaded by Diane Slade Inc

I have this beautiful vintage windbreaker up on etsy.

When I was getting the measurements, I discovered that the side seam stitching was unraveling.

The jacket was sewn with a serger and chain stitch, if the chain stitch gets dinked at all the whole thing comes out. I don't know what caused the problem, but I went all the way down the side twice to fix the problem. And just because I'm not sure what caused the problem initially, I did the other side for safe keeping.



My thread *is* orange, but doesn't match the jacket. The repair is neat though and doesn't show on the outside.

Busy-Busy

Things have been pretty busy around here. I made 19 more garments for Christine on top of my regular stuff and I'm working hard to straighten things up. I'm going to have to write more about Christine's patterns, she is doing some really great stuff and I really learned a lot.

I'm in the process of moving my workspace from the basement to the upstairs. This is an undertaking because the upstairs has been used as storage space. I'm very suprised at how much I've collected over the years. I'm definately a pack rat.

I've been working hard at purging things, but I've still got to sort thru a bunch of sewing supplies. I'm trying to convince myself to sell some of these wonderful things in my ecrater store and on etsy. I do have to, though, there is just too much right now for me to use in the near future.

I have also cleared out a bunch of clothing that I was saving for reconstruction or refashioning. That was hard but necessary to move the workspace, I can get more later when I'm ready. I have saved all the jeans though! I have enough to keep me busy for quite a while.

I'm looking forward to having the workspace upstairs, I've been in the basement for 10 years and I'm tired of it. It is nice and cool in the summer, but I'm ready to make that sacrafice (besides there is air conditioning!) in order to have sunshine in my life!