Finished “Leather” Coat, What Is Next, and a Quilt for Sale

I am struck by how much my readership dwindled during this past month as I worked on the “leather” coat for my youngest son.  I think it is informative to me that most of my readers are most interested in quilting, which doesn’t surprise me.  Well, nevermind.  I have finished the “leather” coat and I am going to do some quilting next before I do anymore clothing.  I do want to make a couple of pairs of slacks for me before I go to Road to California in late January.  But I am going to quilt, make a few small Christmas momentos in my embroidery hoop, and maybe a new bag to calm my sewing nerves after this tough project before I resume my clothing efforts sometime early in January.  LOL

The coat.

Well, it was time consuming and tough.  Why was it tough?  Not really because of the “leather” but more because I was tailoring a man’s coat for which I did not have a commercial pattern that fit.

One of the welted flap pockets

I was rusty in my tailoring methodology.  And yes, the “leather” does take more care and time, but it is still relatively easy to sew on.

Detail of collar

My new Bernina 880 plus, Odette, and the feet designed for use with the leather were marvelous.  I had no problems at all with that.  All the problems were mine.  LOL  Did I enjoy this project?  Well, yes.  I felt very happy to re-aquire my tailoring skills and enjoyed the sewing, which was amazingly easier than my decades ago work with leather.  I was only frustrated with my mistakes that cost me time and “leather” and with the time it was taking me.

Lapel detail

Now I have to dig out my studio and put away the scraps and so forth.  Then I have a workshop coming up “Embellish This! that I am teaching at G Street Fabrics in Rockville, Maryland on Friday the 13th (!) at 11 am to 3 pm.  It is largely filled, but I think there is another one or two places if you want to come and have a lot of fun. But I am all prepared for that one, so it won’t cost me any more time.

Finally, I put one of my quilts on special sale because need some spending money for my trip to R2CA.  I have reduced the price of this fun quilt to $899 from $1250.  I love this quilt that is centered around an Alfred Shaheen Vintage panel and I quilted on my Bernina Q20 pulling from Bethanne Nemesh’s book Quilted Textures from A to Zen for the textured quilting patterns.  I can provide more detailed photos if you are interested.

Tropical Garden, June 2017 36″ x 51.5″. I hand painted the border.

So contact me at BettyJo@bjfabricartist.com to buy this quilt.  We can arrange payments through PayPal.

Sew happy everyone!  Have some fun in your studio this week!