Hi, everyone! After a nice, long break, I think it’s time to get back to it! Having said that, this post isn’t actually about sewing, but it is about something that is alive and well in the making community: visible mending.
If you search “visible mending” on the internet, you’ll come up with a lot of different ways to take the idea of mending, which is often viewed as something boring or antiquated or a waste of time, and turn it on its head. What I love about visible mending is that it takes the idea of mending being drudgery and elevates it to something interesting and beautiful. Now, you don’t always want your mending to be visible–of course it depends on the garment and your vision for it, but if you decide to go the visible mending route, why not make it fun?
In that vein, I decided to think about a fun way to mend this little jacket that I found at the thrift store.
It was in good shape aside from a few light stains and some small holes.
My original idea was to zig zag stitch back and forth over the holes in bright, contrasting colors. Then a half-forgotten thought surfaced in my mind. Someone had mentioned some sort of tape you could use to fix jackets and backpacks. I started looking around on the internet and found this: Tenacious Tape.
This isn’t a sponsored post or anything; I wanted to talk about it because it provides a quick and easy way to fix down jackets and more. You can use it on your camping gear, your sleeping bag, neoprene, rubber, and vinyl, and you can machine wash garments that have this tape on them without it coming off. It comes in lots of colors as well as clear and reflective options, and even precut shapes.
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It is pretty expensive relative to the amount you get. I think I paid around $10 for a 20″ x 3″ rectangle, so following my multi-color idea in tape rather than stitching didn’t seem very economical, especially when I was trying to save money by thrifting. To be fair, this color was probably the most expensive option.
Next, I chose a simple shape–a heart–and printed it off from my computer to make a little template. I printed it in pink to get an idea of how it would look.
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On the back side of the tape, I traced the number of hearts I needed to cover all the holes and carefully cut them out. Before sticking them on, I had to clean each area I wanted to repair with isopropyl alcohol and trim any threads. After that, all that was left was to peel off the backing and carefully stick the little hearts over each of the holes.
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Done!
Now it’s in perfect shape for a little person who needs a warm fall/winter jacket!
Welcome to this issue of Experimental Sewing! Today’s project involves turning the remnants of a down jacket (from this past project) into a scarf.
After seeing the scarves Alabama Chanin and Patagonia made from worn out Patagonia jackets a few years ago, I reallllly wanted to try it for myself. I thought it was a cool idea, and I was intrigued by the thought of recycling a down jacket (plus, I couldn’t pay $90 for one of theirs just because I was curious). It was time to get sewing.
I decided at the outset that my goal wasn’t perfect, heirloom sewing. Undoubtedly the Alabama Chanin + Patagonia scarves are amazing in quality and workmanship, but I didn’t want to worry about that. I just wanted to know if I could do it and what the process would be like.
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After my first project with this down jacket, which was interesting, but somewhat unpleasant to sew, due to the reality of sewing down in your living room, my husband suggested that I try sewing the scarf outside. That was a game-changer. Sewing outside in October, when it was still somewhat warm but not hot, was heavenly. Any escaping down floated away on the breeze. I felt like I was in a sweet, sweet dream (the weather was really nice), sewing away on my Featherweight in the backyard. 😀
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Let’s talk process for a bit, and discovery. I looked at what I had left of the down jacket, and marked off pieces with my sewing marker that were as rectangular as possible. Then I sewed a straight stitch on either side of my cutting lines. After that, I cut my pieces up. And then I sewed them back together…as you do. 😉 This left me with something like a long rectangle, but also some exposed, slightly downy edges.
And that’s when I made my discovery. I went to an estate sale and came away with, among other things, fleece binding! I had no idea this was a thing you could buy! It was perfect for my project. Rather than buying more to match things, I just decided to use what I had to cover the seams joining the rectangular pieces and the edges. There was a little hand-sewing involved where the binding crossed from side to side, but not much.
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Before I finished, I also sewed a little rectangle to the inside of one end so that you could weave the other end through, helping to keep the scarf on.
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Some bonuses include the three pockets that are left in the scarf from the original jacket and, weirdly, the fact that the front zipper is still a part of the scarf and you can zip it up so it looks like you are wearing the front of a jacket. It’s weird and cool. (Really! It’s cool! I promise!)
Look out! This could be the next trend coming your way in 2018. You heard it here first! 😉
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I don’t think, after doing this, that I’m going to set up shop making a million things from down. It was fun, but not so much that it’s going to be my new favorite thing. What IS one of my favorite things in sewing is trying out different fabrics, and this definitely scratched that itch. I’m pushing the boundaries of my sewing knowledge a little more each time! That’s a win.
Recommendations
I just checked out the new cookbook from Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen, called Smitten Kitchen Every Day. I’m still reading through it, but after only making it through the Breakfast section, I want to make every recipe. Seriously. I might need this cookbook.
I feel I would be remiss if, after this project, I didn’t recommend Wrights fleece binding.
I can’t get the great fabric/color combination of this Kelly Anorak sewn by Lauren of Guthrie and Ghani out of my head.
Oh! And one more since we’re talking fabric. I LOVE this Neon Neppy fabric from Robert Kaufman, and I can’t decide which one I love best: Blue, Royal, or Charcoal? The internet really doesn’t do it justice–it has little slubs of neon color throughout, and since I’m clearly in a speckle as well as a neon phase, it’s right up my alley.
It was a grey and stormy day when I finally cut into a project I had long been contemplating. It was a refashion, but not just any refashion. This one involved sewing with a material I had never tried before: a down jacket. I had chosen the patterns that were going to help me achieve my goal and planned a little more than half of the project, but there were still questions in my mind about how I was going to finish the rest. Inspiration images had been pinned to my Pinterest board, but still I mulled it over…until the snow day. It was finally time.
I had already been scheming about refashioning a down jacket into a scarf after seeing these ones, which was the product of a collaboration between Patagonia and Alabama Chanin, but my down-sewing plans expanded when we visited Colorado last winter and I saw a woman wearing a down skirt. It was such a brilliant idea.
Google revealed that down skirts are actually a thing, even though the Colorado one was the only one I had seen in real life. So, after a ton of thought, I chose New Look 6843 for the skirt portion, and the waistband from the leggings in McCall’s 7261 for my stretchy waistband. Since I wanted this to be a pull-on skirt, a waistband and some gores/gussets/godets in the side of the skirt were in order (after seeing the skirt, you can tell me which term is the right one for what I did 😉 ).
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I managed to turn the back skirt into a single piece and eliminate the zipper. All of that fit onto the back of the coat, allowing me to use the bottom of the coat as my hem. It got tricky when I came to the front because that was supposed to be one piece, too. I really wanted to incorporate the coat zipper in a decorative way (although I planned to sew it shut), and I also wanted the pockets both for decorative and functional purposes, but in the end, it was too much of a struggle. I realized that by opening my sleeves and sewing them together, I would have enough for my front piece. I still had plenty of the stretchy fleece left from my Toaster Sweaters for my waistband and gores/gussets/godets. Then it was all construction.
This is probably the point when you are asking how in the world I cut and sewed that crazy stuff. That is a very important question. Here is what I did: I marked my cutting lines with a water-soluble pen and sewed with a straight stitch on either side of my cut line in the hopes that it would hold all the down in.
Do you think it worked?
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Well, it sort of did. Not ALL of the down came out. But some did. Here’s how I had to sew.
You can’t see it in this picture, but I also had pink-eye (conjunctivitis) at the time. Nice, huh? (Luckily no down got in my eye. That would have been…um…gross.)
I had the BRILLIANT idea of vacuuming off the edges after I cut them. I do not recommend this. Maybe you thought of the problem with this. It actually dislodged things, so it was sort of like it was snowing outside and snowing inside. That was the point at which I realized I really needed to get this finished that same day. We had some sickness in our house that week, and I wasn’t feeling my best, but I decided to power through in the hopes that it was all in my head. (It wasn’t all in my head, but I powered through anyway!)
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I also realized that I needed to cover every seam on the inside if I didn’t want to perpetually shed feathers. This was the point where things got a little…”Becky-home-ecky” (sorry if your name is Becky). The finishing, while functional and necessary, didn’t meet the vision I had in my head, but I was sort of racing against the down and my nausea. The good news is, when I’m wearing it, I think it looks like something I could have bought at an outdoor store. (If you disagree, you don’t have to tell me.) It’s only if you get up close or look inside that you see the craziness, and since people don’t do that when I’m wearing it (thank goodness!), I think I’m safe. Want to see it? Check it out!
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This skirt has the added benefit of a little puffy booty enhancement up top. It’s too high for people to think you pooped in your pants, so I like to think of it as booty enhancement. Maybe it’s because I sewed all the darts in the skirt, even though I basically negated them with those side triangles. I needed the triangles, though because if you’re going to eliminate the zipper, you need some way to get your skirt on!
Skirt front (above)
Skirt back (above)
Side view (above). I folded the front of the skirt down at the top a bit because it was originally higher in the front and lower in the back, but that feels weird to me. I want it the other way around.
Inside front (above). I covered my seams with fleece, but didn’t sew with a wide enough seam allowance, so I ended up sewing extra lines and hand-tacking things just to get all those feathery seams covered. I also covered my top seams with wide fold-over-elastic (although I didn’t fold it), and used a zig-zag stitch to hold it down and allow for a little stretch at the waist. That doesn’t look great, either, but again, you don’t really notice it that much when I’m wearing it, so whatever!
Inside back (above)
Inside side view (above). Here’s where it started to get ugly, but I just wanted to finish at this point. It was helpful to have the coat lining as a lining for my skirt because I could hand tack the fleece to it.
Despite any deficiencies in the finishing, I LOVE THIS SKIRT!!!! When I wear it, I feel ready to take on winter! The fit is great and it is so cozy that I wore it for two days straight after making it (and vacuuming my work room a.k.a. our living room…twice). In January I made these fleece leggings and the Toaster Sweater that I’m wearing in this picture, and this outfit is pretty much winter perfection. I love it so much.
After I finished, I contemplated making a scarf from the remnant of the jackets, but I decided to just put it away for now. I DID NOT like sewing with all that down. However…my husband had the brilliant idea to make a scarf from it in the summer…while sewing outside. He’s so smart!
Recommendations
On Wednesday I made the Blueberry Poppyseed Snacking Cake from the Seven Spoons cookbook, and now I just want to eat that all the time. I know this would be unwise, so I gave the last piece away before I could eat it.
I have some old gaiters from L.L. Bean that I just love. They don’t sell the exact style I have anymore, so this is the closest I could find, but they are great if it’s snowy out and I don’t feel like putting snow pants on. I can walk through several inches of snow without it getting in my shoes or on my pants. I used them for a walk on Thursday, and it just reminded me of how much I love them.
Is orange the new black? Are doughnuts the new croissants? Do you like to say that _____ is the new ______ ? Then check out this fun and funny website, where each time you click, you get a new ‘this is the new that’.
This week I found out that everything is better with doodles. 😉
Pattern and Branch 