The Savvy Sewer Salon at Sawyer Brook

Anne,
Congrats on your weight loss! I hope this will end up being a helpful resource and inspiration when you do get started.

Well, I'm hoping to get my trench fabric in the mail tomorrow or Wednesday, so I'll be able to get started on that. Anyone make some progress over the weekend?

I'm hoping to stop by SB this week to pick up some Sage trench fabric - is there any left? I believe it was only 45" wide, so I would need approx. 5 yards..

Any expert tips on interfacing that might not be included in the average pattern instructions? I'd like to make sure I have everything before I start.

SB ladies - any thoughts on lining color for the sage trench? Or buttons? I can't quite remember what was paired up online, other that that it was good, but I might be interested in alternative suggestions. Thanks!

I will be doing some variation on view D, and will need approx 12 1" buttons.


Is anyone planning on waterproofing their fabrics? I know some were water repellantish already (the stone color, for one) - but I do not believe the sage color is.

I just got a chance to work with the buttons on this Misty Blue Sage which I think is the one you are talking about. In addition to Starscape, which is a good color match, you could consider Hearts 'n' Flowers, Quasar ( a high contrast, but interesting look) or Flow.

We have a color match in both Ambiance and Hang Loose or you could consider a contrast or neutral lining to coordinate with your button choice and tie it all together with contrast top stitching.

Hope this helps.

How do you wateproof the fabric?

Yippee! My fabric is here! I can't wait to cut into it. Have to prewash first, though...

Mamapicklejuice, I'm not doing anything special to my fabric to waterproof it (and am not using waterproof fabric). Personally, I'm just going for the trench style, not to really be functional in the rain. At high hip length and with no hood, it wouldn't be that protective anyway, I figure. Helpful in a light sprinkle, I suppose.

I did a Google search for waterproofing fabrics and really just came up with instructions on treating outdoor canvas. I'm not trying to put turpentine on my SB fabric, though! Anyone else know of fabric waterproofing methods? Check out here: http://www.essortment.com/home/waterproofcanva_sdfg.htm

My biggest challenge when approaching any project is to stomp on my natural tendency to over-complicate things! Forget I mentioned waterproofing - I thought I remembered some talk of it on Patternreview.com - when I went back to look, the thread dealt with how to sew on fabric that was already water repellent (special needles - microtex, I think?) and how to waterproof the seams (using a special tape?).

Like you, I'm just going for a more "fashion" friendly trench - so I'm not going to go in circles trying to waterproof my fabric (and as you discovered, I don't think you can actually do that with fashion fabric anyhow).

I just got back from SB and picked up the sage fabric, matching sage hang-loose lining and these awesome buttons:



They are "seersucker" from SB (natch) and I got the aqua color. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the topstitching yet - perhaps I'll keep with the mostly monochrome color scheme and try to find a matching color in a home dec weight.

I also picked up some muslin so I can whip up a...well, muslin...of the trench, hopefully this weekend.

So my fabric and lining are in the wash. Yay. Baby steps, right?

I showed my husband the fabric and matching lining (both sage/aqua colored) and his response - I like it - you'll look like Fleur Delacour from Harry Potter!



HA! He's right!

Haha! That's too funny. I went to prewash and cut out my fabric yesterday and decided I'm just not quite ready to delve into another jacket yet. I'm still a bit hungover from my pink one. I think I'm going to work on a dress with the dress sew-along first. If I'm not totally excited to get started on my trench yet, I know it will just languish on my sewing table, resented, for a long time. I'm thinking baby steps, too... prewash today, cut out tomorrow, then we'll see...

Here's a shot of my trench fabric (white), lining (yellow), and buttons. Oooooh aaaaaah... Gotta pop them in the wash now!

My fabric's all pre-shrunk and begging to be cut out. I'm working on my dress tonight (dress sew-along), so I'm hoping my son will take a nice, long nap tomorrow so I can cut out my trench then.

Hi everyone! Just popping in to say hello, and apologize for being MIA. Life has gotten in the way and I'm dying to get back to sewing - the plan is to do so over the long weekend. I have to say all your Trench projects have been very inspiring!!! Love all the ideas, color, buttons, etc. Thanks for all the ideas.

Lois

Hi there, My name is Belinda and for some reason we couldn't get my name to work as a userid so we wound up with Stargazer. <grin> Barb was a huge help with that. I'm new to the group & love whats going on with Trench Coats. I've just caught up reading all of your posts. I wish I could have joined this forum a little sooner because I just finished a trench coat a couple of weeks ago. I hope you don't mind my posting a couple of pictures of my Trench Coat even though I didn't purchase my fabrics from Sawyer Brook. I have reason to think mine might be a little more unique because I've never seen an embroidered trench. There were several things I've never done before like lined patch pockets. Also it didn't have the rain flaps (I guess thats what they are called) so I drafted them and added them to the pattern so I could have an area to embroider. <grin> Jenny, I just love your pink Trench!

I intend to join one of the other sewalongs with a rayon batik I purchased a little while back.

Belinda

Belinda, What a gorgeous coat! It looks so professional, I guess you must have an embroidery machine. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with your batik purchase. I get a lot of inspiration seeing what others are doing. Brenda

I second Brenda's comments!
Speaking of batik...Anybody interested in a sew along dedicated to using rayon batik? Garments could be anything from blouses to dresses to jammies! If anyone wants to coordinate this let me know and I'll set up a forum for it.