Therapy

Sewing is very therapeutic for me. It may not seem like it to my husband at times (I get aggravated when I have to frog stitch) but it really allows me to get my creative juices flowing as well as sooth my soul. Only someone who sews really knows what I'm talking about.

This morning I woke up with the sewing mojo going. I have some lovely faux leather in red that I want to make a jacket from. I am on a kick with jackets right now, despite the fact that it's still very close to being 100 here (99 is our predicted high). I've already cheated and bought a knee length denim coat (but I got it for $12 on sale, how do you turn that down?!) but just like having coordinating shoes and purses, I like my coats to coordinate as well. And having a fun, non practical jacket (aka, red) is nice too. So despite the fact that I have more kid sewing to do, I'm going to take a break today, and sew for me.

So I've pulled out this lovely red fabric, and what do I find with it? The perfect coat sized buttons that will match beautifully. Clearly, I've already thought through this fabric on some level that I bought buttons. I wonder if I had a pattern in mind? Yes, that must sound odd, but like most fabric stashers, I buy fabric because it speaks to me, not necessarily with a specific pattern in mind. (A thought my poor husband finds quite horrifying!)

In my mind, I can "see" this coat finished, even without a pattern:

• I want a hip length jacket


• I do not want to line this jacket


• I want clean lines, not a lot of added details

So I'm thinking my pattern of choice is going to be OOP B6900, view A (white coat in the photo). It's a little longer than I want, so I may shorten it by about 3 inches. I've NEVER had to shorten a pattern before!! But there are no princess lines or other design features to make this tricky, so I'm not worried. And while I think the look of the welt pockets is nice, I actually hate pockets on the front of my coats, so it's a feature I'll be eliminating.

I'm going to go hunt through my sewing books on guidelines for ease on jackets to determine proper fit and then I'm just going to go for it!