Staying Warm

Since much of the U.S. is in the midst of a deep freeze right now, I thought I’d re-visit some more of the winter coats I’ve made through the years.  I wrote about my yellow double-cloth coat a few weeks ago.  Here are some more…

This coat is an example of how classic never goes out of style!  I made it over 25 years ago, and it’s just as wearable today as it was then!  It was a Vogue pattern, made from a winter white wool melton, lined with flannel-backed satin.

I put a lot of work into this coat.  Bound buttonholes…

Hand-felled undercollar…

Hand-stitched patch pockets…

Carefully set sleeves with sleeve heads and shoulder pads…

Next up is a much more casual coat.  This came about because of the camel’s hair fabric I found at a discount store!  This was made about 15 years ago, and I don’t remember the pattern, but it was easy.  Flannel-backed satin lining, jacquard ribbon trim, and purchased toggles made for quick stitching.

Finally, another coat I made just last winter.

This is a Vogue Issey Miyake pattern (which is still available, and I highly recommend it!)  The fabric was a wool roll end from EmmaOneSock, and the lining, again, is flannel-backed satin.

The construction was interesting (in a good way!), and not difficult.

The stand-up collar is rolled and tacked into place.

And I love the pockets!  In-seam pockets are often shallow, but these are deep and roomy, and the lining doesn’t show at the seam.

Stay warm! 🙂

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Photo Transfer Quilts

During the past week, I participated in the 5-day artist challenge that has been making its way around Facebook.  It involved posting three projects for five days, and nominating one person each day to continue the challenge.  Well, thinking of projects for that challenge, plus the ideas I have for this blog, have brought home to me the large and varied body of work I have created.  It’s kind of fun to look back at all – well, at least some – of the things I have made with fabric and thread!

In the challenge, I posted photos of Shark’s Teeth garments, elaborate Christening gowns, some of my favorite quilts, and a prom dress!  So here’s yet another type of work I’ve done.  This is a group of small wall quilts I made in 2010.  I like to take close-up photos of the flowers in my back yard.  I don’t have a fancy camera, or any particular knowledge of photography.  Some of these photos were printed on photo transfer fabric, and I incorporated them into little quilts.

This photo transfer was framed with a pinkish fabric to pick up the pink of the lily, and a green batik to blend with the leaves.  This was appliqued onto a subtle light ivory/cream/pink fabric, which was machine embroidered with OESD swirls that again picked up the colors in the flower.  The yellow and gold FSL flowers are from Zundt.

This is a photo of a phlox with a big, fat bee!  Again, a narrow inner border picks up the colors in the flowers, and tiny FSL Zundt flowers were added after the quilting was done.

In a previous post, I wrote about the silver-centered FSL daisy pins my daughter made me for Mother’s Day.  I placed these pins in a patch of black-eyed Susans and took one of my favorite back-yard photos.  So I took another photo without the pins, transferred the photo to fabric, quilted it, and added a similar pin!  As in the quilts above, I used borders to pick up the colors in the photographs.

I love this tiny (8.25″ x 9.25″) quilt!  Look closely, there’s a honeybee tasting some nectar!  I had some scraps of ombre fabric; I spliced the picture and border with 1/4″ strips of fabric.

There was a beautiful pinky-peach rose quilt, as well, but I don’t know where it is, and I don’t have a photo of it.

I don’t remember what brand of photo transfer fabric I used.  My first quilt made with photo transfers was my parents’ 50th anniversary quilt, which I will post about in the future.  I had printed those images on my home printer.  But for these little quilts, I e-mailed the images to my local print shop, then took in the freezer paper-backed transfer fabric, and had them print it.  For the cost of a few color copies, I had images that were brighter and more crisp than I was able to print at home.  Then I heat-set the ink, trimmed the photos to the size I wanted, added borders, and quilted.  Try it!  It was fun!