Three's a Charm Jacket - Come Sew along with me!

We love sew-alongs here at Stonemountain. We take a pattern that we know everyone will love: one that is easy, has a great style and is versatile.  It's pretty easy to pick the sew-along garment as by the time we start the project, many of our customers and our own staff have already tried the pattern and they already love it!

Our current sew-along is a huge success - so many of you are still joining in making the Given a Chance dress by Decades Everyday.  What a variety of colors, textures, combinations and fabric choices we see - each dress totally unique with the sewist's own fashion flair.

 

Our new favorite indie pattern for April is again from Decades Everyday. Our sew-along features the Three's a Charm Jacket. This unlined crop jacket is the perfect companion to short-sleeved and sleeves dresses, tunic and tees. The sleeves are three-quarter length and the front closure is a single button.  It fast and simple, and yet the styling does allow for some customization in the stitching, sleeve length, and or adding trims, etc. Read about our sewalong here!

Laurel and I each chose fabric to make this jacket: I choose a lightweight eyelet with a washed denim look, as well as a woven cotton with tiny polka dots. Laurel chose a burnt orange denim... almost the same color as one of her favorite spices, turmeric.

 Click over to the Stonemountain blog for more inspiration!

For our first "Charm" jacket, Laurel made the Eyelet jacket following the suggestions on the easy to follow instructions. The eyelet jacket is but a whisper, like wearing a very lightweight sweater.  I love it because it's perfect for work - not too bulky or heavy to make me too warm, but just enough weight to keep the chill off on these cool days.

For an in-depth look at the process, check out our cutting and marking blog.

For our second Charm jacket ( for me again - yay!!) Laurel was in the mood to add some special finishes to inside of the jacket. Many sewists love to take the time to finish off the seams with a professional binding. This jacket could easily be lined, but we're not going that far - let's keep it simple.

Laurel choose some leftover fabric from Cotton and Steel to make bias strips that she would use to bind the edges of the facings... just for the fun of it.

She bound all the edges of the facing and hems. Using this technique does take more time and of course is not necessary, but we like to show you the whole range of possibilities. We know many of you who follow Fabric Lady are advanced sewists!

Read more about sewing up the facings and darts here!

The jacket was then constructed in the same way as the Eyelet jacket. But check out the inside of the finished jacket - it's almost as pretty as the outside!!

Well, not quite...

I'm wondering how many Three's a Charm Jackets can a girl own??

With May on our doorstep and the sew-along happening, Laurel got started on her "spicy" denim jacket.  With denim, it's always a good idea to pre-wash the fabric - not just for shrinkage, but the process can make the fabric softer and that was the effect Laurel was after.

We joke about the difference in our forms - I'm rockin' it around the hips and Laurel has the "Girls" going on up top.  My jacket was a perfect size 36 with no adjustments needed.  But if Laurel used the bust measurement that would seemingly fit, the shoulders would fall down to her elbows.  That's why we learn to do FBA's or full bust adjustments.

The making of Laurel's jacket was just the same as my two jackets.  Because she chose a denim fabric, she decided to spend the time doing some classic top-stitching as well as adding flat-felled seams. Things can go haywire while sewing and for us it's not different - Laurel's serger was in a rebellious mood, so the inside finishes are not a pretty as she would like.  It's okay that it's not perfect... the outside looks pretty good!

She also added a bound buttonhole.  I guess she will be shopping for a button from our awesome Button wall when she comes down in a few weeks.

Read the Stonemountain blog post on attaching the facings and topstitching.

And she finished off the facing edges, just for fun. Read about how more finishing options on the Stonemountain blog!

Miss Colette, Laurel's mini-me, rocking the Southwest look in her new Three's a Charm Jacket...

Wouldn't this jacket be awesome in a faux leather... Or elegantly made in a Duponi Silk?  That's what sewalongs are all about - getting ideas as we see each others creations - each one unique to it's creator.

Check out the end results and more jackets made by Stonemountain staff on the blog!

How can it get any better than this? Please join us and make one of these amazing jackets for your next project - you won't regret it!

Thanks for playing and sewing along with me!
Suzan
Fabriclady, LuckyLady
fabriclady3@gmail.com
Love to hear from you and to see photos of your projects!

Be Still my Hippie Heart! Love this Lela Tunic!

Our second indie pattern for 2016 is Green Bee's Lela Tunic. This is another of those that we've had in our stash for a bit and just decided to finally sew it up. The Lela Tunic features dolman sleeves with neckline and sleeve edges that are are finished with bias.

Laurel and Suzan! Laurel is wearing her new Three's a Charm Jacket.

We chose to make the longer tunic style in a beautiful soft double gauze by Nani Iro.  We have a Nani Iro Cabin in the works, and several of our Stonemountain staffers have made garments with this double gauze.  It's easy to sew, especially when the pattern is simple, such as the Lela.

The "Poppy Trip" pattern has a cute border along the selvages, so we decided to incorporate that edging into our design.  Remember, it's all about making a garment "yours" by adding design details that reflect your personality.

The Lela tunic has slits up each side—that's a great place to add detail. Laurel applied the border print to the slits by sewing it on top of the fabric, almost like you would apply a decorative zipper to the back seam of a dress.

She also added the edging to the sleeve, which is pieced.

And a little detail to the back yoke - why not!

The Lela will be so easy to wear, and I can't help but notice that our rendition has a little hippie vibe going for it. I can see me wearing this with some soft white linen pants this summer.

Cheers to spring sewing!

Suzan