Buffalo Plaid in the Snow

So, it snowed. But that’s totally ok! Because all is well now that I have the excitement of moving forward another week! Straight into the one I was dreading! Now, remember, this is not the post where you actually vote so be sure that you follow this link to go vote. Or go ahead and read through, enjoy the pics and I’ll put the link down at the bottom of this as well.

I’ll admit, my heart sank when I saw this was one of the themes. I did not own any buffalo plaid besides a little bit of scrap knit. Nothing that I could base a whole look off of. I started panicking just slightly about it and my mind went spinning trying to come up with some way to still be inspired by it without actually having it on hand. You might be saying, “Chill, Sherri! Just go to the store and get some!” Well, I live hours from fabric stores. I couldn’t do that drive just for one fabric. Ship it, you say? It’s still a gamble. I didn’t have a lot of time and can’t guarantee that it won’t get held at the border. Let’s not even get into those rising shipping costs!!! Yikes!

Clearly, I found some! With perfect timing, my daughter needed to go south for a medical! No worries! It was actually a very good appointment with good news for us! But I also was able to go to the fabric stores! In fact, that little trooper went wandering into the fabric stores with me 5 times in 2 days. And if it wasn’t for her keen eye, I don’t know if I would’ve found this fabric. She found both plaids for this week!! Her eye was so trained to find plaid she was spotting it everywhere we went the whole weekend!

Let’s start with what I call the main look for this week. A coat with no name, a raglan shirt and moto pants. I’m not entirely sure which piece I love the most, but I can say that this look is one I am so excited for. Why? Because besides the pants I actually designed and drafted it all by my lonesome! And that left me with a huge feeling of accomplishment.

This coat. With no name. I had a two plans that were all hinging on whether or not I was going to be able to find any plaid when I got to the stores. My back up was some way to create a plaid, but I really didn’t want to do that because I had this jacket forming in my mind. I took one full day making and remaking and tweaking this idea that I had in my head. I’m very thankful for the old sheets I was given to use for just such occasions.

I knew I wanted a diagonal front (I love diagonals) and I knew I wanted 3/4 length sleeves. I decided to give it a swing look and then I decided to do a mix of the plaid fabric with some amazing leather I found at Treadle Yarn Goods in St. Paul, MN.

I didn’t intend to find a sweater knit, but man, do I ever love this! AND it was in the clearance section at Fabricland! Bonus! The leather strip piping I had to sew on by hand. It took 3 PVRed episodes of Survivor to attach and my fingers were sore the next day, but I prefer having some sort of detail to separate different fabrics.

The sleeves really turned out so well! I had a different pleating in mind, but the fabric was too bulky so I ended up creating just one pleat all the way down and then tacking it in the middle. I’m a huge fan of the silhouette it gives and it kept the sleeves from getting too wide and crazy.

The closures I just had to use. A button would have been just fine, but would it have been as fun? I don’t think so. I inserted some lovely welt pockets that turned out better than I expected. I just prefer the sleek look of welt pockets as opposed to flap pockets. And the lining? It’s all that lovely soft fur that you see in the cowl neck. My daughter has insisted that this really is a warm coat. Even with shorter sleeves.

Speaking of sleeves, let’s move on to the raglan top. This was supposed to be a simple, long sleeved, black top. But since I tend to get carried away with ideas once in awhile, this became a bit more.

It turned out that I had JUST enough of that buffalo plaid knit from Girl Charlee to use for the body of the shirt and some black knit lying around. I’m a huge fan of raglan sleeves, even though I had to ask someone twice in one day what the name of these sleeves is. The cuffs on these are nice and high and it serves an actual purpose. With the jacket being shorter sleeves, those forearms need a bit of help staying warm. The doubled layer helps with that and gives a nice touch to the shirt overall.

And then we have that moose on there! There’s a story behind this girl and a moose she encountered in Newfoundland this summer. It’s one of those stories where you’re half sorry for the little munchkin and yet just want to laugh hysterically at the whole event! (Read here, if you like. It’s down at the end of that post.) So I offered up the choice between the moose or a maple leaf. She chose the moose! I whipped out my brand new roll of heat transfer in black glitter and my Silhouette Cameo and created my very first heat transfer project! It was so exciting!

Ok, have you noticed those pants properly? Do you love them and want a pair like I do? MAN!!! From the moment I was asked to be a part of this competition I KNEW I simply had to make some moto pants. They bounced around between the different ideas in the different themes a few times and landed very nicely into this week’s theme. And here is the only pattern I used for this whole week. The Jalie Eleonore pant that, very conveniently, covers sizes all the way up to women’s!! That means I can make these for me too!

You’ll notice that leather from the coat made it’s way into these pants both on the front and again in the back yoke and pockets. The front piecing of these pants turned out exactly like I wanted. I split the leg vertically and then took the outer side and created some diagonal cuts where I could add the leather, a pleated section and a zipper! I had to take in the sides of the pants from the knee down quite a bit to make them more slim fit. Otherwise they flare too much for the style. I already have orders for a few in ladies sizes in my town!

The hat was something I crocheted to keep that noggin warm. She’s been wearing it all day, every day since I made it. Even inside. And her sister wants one too.

I did end up making a second look. Wasn’t planned though. I really just wanted to make the Jalie pants to test out the pattern before making the motos. But then I really liked them and decided to create a second look.

Unfortunately, it is near impossible to see the detailing on these pants. But look close and you can sort of see. I used a technique I saw on a RTW outfit. It’s sewing a grid pattern (that I thought mimicked the buffalo plaid nicely) on the reverse of your fabric using the chainstitch on your serger. This puts the raised chain of the stitch on the right side of the fabric giving it texture. I wanted a tone on tone for this and not a vibrant pattern on the pants. I can promise you it looks quite good in person! It goes up till just above the knee and then tapers off.

The sweater (another fabric find by my daughter when walking through the clearance section at Fabricland) is another attempt at my own pattern making. The cowl neck was based on a Burda pattern that I’ve made for myself and love. The sleeves are a play on the longer cuff of the raglan shirt. The fooler hem (is that what they call it??) was just something that came about as I was cutting.

You probably know by now that I love leather accent! I don’t have it planned for every week, but it’s in full force for this one! Again from the fabric store in St Paul I purchased this leather mesh while on holidays this summer. I knew I would find a place for it. I layered it over some black knit for both the cuff and the under layer. When it came to hemming I was pretty sure the mesh would be irritating if I just turned it under so instead I added a binding.

The headband was made from the lining of the coat and stretch black fabric of the moto pants!

And there you have it!! Why is it that I love my kids clothes so much more than my own? I seem to always want it in my own size after I make them something.

I hope you like this! I’m still pushing for another week cuz I’m competitive like that! I have more things planned and I’m still excited for what I can push myself to make. I’ll leave you with a couple more pics. Be sure to head over to the voting page!! Don’t stop here!