Project Run&Play – Signature Style

Signature style week and no machine knit fabric from me! I thought about it because making fabric is such a huge part of my style but there was nothing I wanted to make right then.  What I really wanted to do was use the blue-green felt I had made about a month earlier.  And you know what? That counts as fabric I created just as much as the machine knits!

My felt is quite light. For felt, that is.  It’s still thick with a lot of body.  Perfect for a jacket. really.  Only I didn’t have enough for a full jacket.  I took the Oliver + S Firefly jacket (view B), and made some color blocking changes on one side (it’s reversible).  Instead of having a seam at the center back, I cut just the pleat out on the fold in my felt.

And I added some felt to the sleeves.

The rest of that side is quilting cotton underlined with flannel to give it more body.  That way, the cotton’s weight and warmth matched the felt better.

I treated the other side more like a lining, making it out of cotton lawn.  I didn’t have enough to cut out both pattern pieces so one of them had to be pieced.  I highlighted the piecing with this beautiful rayon grosgrain ribbon I had.  The same ribbon was used at the cuffs and at the pleat on the other side of the jacket.

The jacket is still fully reversible but the cotton lawn side being so much lighter definitely makes it feel like a lining.

My original plan was to make a blouse and a skirt to go with the jacket but then, the Building Block Dress book came out. And I had to make an A-line dress.  It’s my favorite silhouette for E.  She’s 8 now and isn’t a huge fan of very froufrou clothes.  The A-line has a more streamlined look that really fits her current tastes.

I had this idea of having a lower skirt portion with in-seam pockets right at the front, right where you would usually have patch pockets. In fact, the pocket bag itself is just a square. The piping is there to highlight the seam.

I did some sketching to figure out the upper portion.  The cap sleeves were a no brainer.  I wanted to add some felt remnants and the color blocking just sort of fell into place at that moment.

I used the same blue cotton as the one from the jacket and underlined the felt with cotton lawn (E said it was a little itchy against her skin).  The other blue is a Cloud9 cirrus solid leftover and the orange and turquoise are also cotton remnants.

The dress has a 2″ hem that I’ll be able to let out if necessary.  The neckline is finished with bias tape, handstitched on the inside to avoid visible stitching.  (The bottom and sleeves have topstitching but the thread matches the fabric so well that it’s almost invisible.) The back closes with an invisible zipper.

And that’s it! I can’t wait to see if E will wear either piece a lot or not.  She loves both pieces and is a huge fan of the felt but loving the look of something and actually wearing it don’t always go hand in hand.

Now, I really need to get to work on E’s Halloween costume and then maybe, maybe! I can make myself something…