Outerwear

Well, I am finished with Spring Semester!  Amazingly, some time during the middle of the semester I had this epiphany:  I don't really care if I don't get a 4.0 this semester. 

Well I care, but not as much as usual. 

Anyway, now you are going to be subjected to my projects, beginning with Outerwear.

I signed up for Outerwear—which, by the way, is a 1000 (entry)  level class and has no prerequisites—expecting that I would go in there and make a coat. And I did make a coat.  But before we did any sewing we had to come up with an inspiration board, draw ten different designs, and make our own patterns.  Okay.  I can do that (although I didn't really want to) because I have already taken all the illustration and pattern-making classes. And so, fortunately, did all the other three students in my class. It was a little irritating, but I could roll with it.

We spent eighty percent of the class drafting our patterns.  Seriously.  I only spent two class periods actually sewing—mostly prep stuff—and finished the whole rest of the coat in only three days last week.  That was no fun. That made for a stressful last week of school.

But, from the beginning . . .

First of all there was the whole "mood/inspiration board" thing.  The teacher is basically telling us we have one week to get inspired, and to paste our inspiration to a black foam-core board, and to come back and tell the class our deep and profound, inspirations.  Hmm.  Well.  My inspiration was to make a coat and pass this class that's required for my degree.

I decided to make a coat for Jessica.  Really Bruce needs a coat more than she does, but with the appropriate fabric coming in at $25 per yard a coat for a 6' 5" man was a bit much to swallow.  But Jessica will need a new coat next winter, so that's all good. (As it turned out, I spent about $100 to make this little coat anyway.  And I didn't even buy the "technical" fabric that I would have gotten for Bruce.)

Inspiration . . .  Inspiration . . .

I decided to make a Jessica collage.  She likes soft things—stuffed animals, fuzzy blankets, etc., and she is soft and girlie, has soft coloring herself . . .  and she loves the color blue. So I took some pictures of her favorite things, a picture of her, mounted them on blue paper and then onto the black board.  And I was told that my "inspiration" was unprofessional, and that including a picture of my child was taboo, and the things she liked weren't cohesive.  Maybe, the teacher suggests, I could use the sky as an inspiration.  The sky makes her think of childhood; it has that soft look; it is blue. So, Okay.  I changed my inspiration to the sky.

I found this online and Photoshopped the color because it was really more green than blue.

Next we had to have ten drawings of coats that reflected our inspiration. How many different children's winter coat designs—in blue, with a cloud, sky and/or bubble theme—can you come up with?  I got my ten drawings, but the coats, as you can see, are all pretty similar.



the winning design

We, as a class, voted for the puffy clouds coat.

Then it was pattern-making, pattern-making, pattern-making.  Now the teacher is about half my age . . .
no, really—she is half my age. But I figure she knows what she's doing, and I can learn from anyone, so I ask lots of questions as I go about my work.  I got the pattern drafted, sewed a mock-up and got it fitted.  It was a very good fit—for a shell with no batting or lining in it, and for a person who is not going to possibly get bigger in the next nine months.  While my teacher was praising the fit, I was questioning it. I told her my concerns over and over again, but she said it would be fine; I could add 1/4-inch to the side seams if I was worried about it. I actually added 3/8-inch  to each seam.

Then there was (were?) the sleeves.  When you make a sleeve pattern, the sleeve head should be up to 1-inch bigger than the arm scye (sorry—arm hole). Then you gather the sleeve and it fits in beautifully.  My sleeve was the exact same size as the arm scye. It looked OK, but I asked about this too.  No, she said, it is just fine.

A lot of outerwear has zipper-pockets, but I didn't want zippers in my pockets.  I thought maybe I should put a flap—even a flap that snapped closed—over them, but she said no, it should be fine.  OK.

Finally the coat was finished, just in the nick of time—Friday morning, the day it was due.

with the hood down

with the hood up

I put it on Jessica and guess what . . .  It is too snug.  Too late now!  I had to go to the  . . . my brain keeps wanting to say "inquisition."  I had to go to the critique. (They are both Q words. ;-) )

Here I am, showing off how cute Jessica is, and telling the panel about how inspired I was ;-)

And guess what the judges said?

"Why didn't you put in a zipper or snap closure on the pockets?"
"It's a little tight."
"You should have had more ease in the sleeves."

Aaaaarghhhhh!

(Okay.  Before you ask . . . No. I did not tell them that I had asked the teacher about those things and had followed her advice. It would sound kind of petulant, don't you think?)

They mentioned a few other problems that I had seen for myself when I first put the finished coat on Jessica, and we discussed those. But, overall, the panel really liked my coat—colors, design, construction, detail in the clouds, etc. They used words like "adorable" and "very cute."  They thought it matched "my" inspiration very well, and said that it was well-made.

 Well, I got my A in Outerwear.  And, really, I learned a lot from this class.  Yes, I did. 

I learned that I really should trust my own judgment and instincts more. And now that I see where my mistakes were, I will probably make a slightly bigger—and better—coat for Jessica to wear next winter.