The Pink Housecoat Reimagining

     That could totally be the title of some weird indie movie starring James Franco as a mentally unstable crossdresser. You're welcome, Hollywood.

     But no, that's not what I came here to talk about. I wanted to give you a quick update on the progress of what was originally supposed to be the pink jacket. You remember, the thing that looked like Sleeping Beauty's dress before they fixed it with magic?  

Basically.

     Well, after staring at it on the dress form for a good hour or so, I decided there was no way it was going to turn into a cute jacket. Not without magic anyway. It just wasn't going to happen. T'was not in the cards. Le sigh. 

     But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I'm not about to waste fabric. So I started planning how I could salvage it, and ended up deciding to go for a sort of 60's mod sleeveless dress. But figuring out a plan was the easy part. Actually turning that mess of a thing into something a human being might wear is turning out to be even more of a challenge than I thought. So far I've cut out a good foot of fabric from various ludicrously oversized areas, as well as added darts in the front for some shape--the new front, that is. I flipped it around so that the back of the jacket is going to be the front of the dress, so that the front won't have a seam all the way down the middle. 

This is on the dress form, so no one has to feel weird about this being a picture of boobs.

 
     And it worked out nicely because I wanted to put a zipper in the back anyway. I picked white, rather than a matching pink, and chose to leave it visible because I plan to add other white details later that I think will all tie together nicely.

In other good news, I actually took the time to color-correct these pictures, so they're at least somewhat close to their true colors! Wheee!

     Still to come: more shaping, facings, a collar, and hemming. It's slow-going work, trying to troubleshoot the approximately 8 million things wrong with the fit of this thing, but it's a good learning experience for me. And hopefully for other people, who will read the tale of how this went so horribly wrong and learn from my mistake (that mistake being: TRUST NO PATTERN SIZING). 

Jacket progress

     So there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is, look at these pockets.

Again with the "showing up a totally different color in photographs than in real life" thing. Pink is such a pain in the butt sometimes.

     "Daaamn, those are some fine-ass pockets," you're probably thinking. And you're right, they are. Curved edges are one of those things that stress me out when I'm sewing, for some reason. The developed, logical part of my brain says "it's just a matter of gathering a bit to get the curve to sit right," but the unevolved, idiot part of my brain goes "you can't sew a CURVED line, you'd need black magic for that!" I can't explain it. But after the disproportionate stress of sewing it, I always appreciate a nicely turned out curved edge.

     Right, now the bad news. The bad news is that once I got the two front pieces connected to the back piece, I realized that the sizing on this particular pattern is just plain wrong. Now, I know pattern sizing is always a bit dodgy, but usually I can at least figure out a good starting point, then adjust to fit later. But this jacket is so comically huge that it looks like Rubeus Hagrid's art smock. Or possibly the uniform of a cult of mentally unstable Avon ladies. It's bad, y'all. I'm not even mad or frustrated about it, because it's really quite comical. Are you ready to see it? Ok, here we go.

     (Please insert that downward-sloping "hooooo boy" whistle of dismay here for maximum effect.)

     It is the world's most cheerfully hued potato sack! Run for the hills, pink Staypuft Marshmallow Man is coming for you! Liberace called, and he wants his hair-cutting cape back! And other such "Oh my God, this thing is a mess" jokes.

     It's a long way from what it's supposed to look like, is what I'm saying.

The finished product I'm aiming for: classic shape, funky color, fun details (like the non-standard buttons, and the possibility of some white piping being thrown into the mix to make this whole thing look even more bubblegum-ridiculous).

     Yeah, so that's a bit of a bump in the road on the way to the cute spring jacket of my dreams. But fear not, I have faith that it can be fixed! It may take a bit of re-sizing, a bit of re-shaping, and some general finagling, but it can -- and will -- be done!

A Spring Sewing Project

     I've finally gotten around to starting a new sewing project! I figured that since spring is here (allegedly. As I write this it's snowing, which makes me somewhat skeptical), it's about time to start on the pink jacket I mentioned approximately one billion years ago. It'll be useful for those April showers...assuming Mother Nature gets her act together and remembers that the showers this time of year are supposed to be made of liquid raindrops, not giant puffballs of snow or sleet.

     This isn't even sort of an accurate portrayal of the color, because I was in a hurry when I took the picture and I'm too much of a disappointment to bother with color correcting and all that noise. Also, I just noticed that the pattern envelope says $18.95 on it, so let's all just take a collective moment to have a hearty guffaw at that. Har har har! As if. Ninety-nine cent pattern sale, son!

     Here's what I can tell you about this jacket so far: It's pink, it will have a Peter Pan collar, and it will have those cute buttons on it. Here's what I can't tell you: how long it will be, whether or not I'll be putting pockets on it. I've got all the pieces cut out and ready, but I never know what or how much I'll be changing until it's come together a bit more.

     I'll be working on it throughout the coming week, so stay tuned for updates! (Do you ever think "Oh man, I bet the kids today don't even know why we say that. They've never had to tune a thing in their life!" Because it's not like they've ever had to slowly turn a dial like they're trying to break open a safe to find a radio station between the static, they just hit numbered buttons and magic happens. And now that I've brought it up, are you wondering why I would use that idiom in reference to the internet? GEEZ, don't you remember the old days, when we had to tune our internets by hand to change the website? Kids today, I tell you what...)