She had another idea 2 weeks ago. Its my own fault, I introduced her to charity stores and now she can't purchase new clothing anymore. Its as though all those ideas that have been bubbling inside of her for years are coming out now, and she has where, and how, to channel them.
She purchased a lined button down classic men's jacket. Removed the sleeves and decided to make 4 pockets using fabric from them. She found a cotton ribbon strip with a red thread running through, so she decided to use red thread to complement that.
She wanted the ribbon to sit on the top edge of the pocket. She has very specific ideas. I advise technically, and then watch her doing it. She measured a seam allowance from the top down and then attached the cotton strip.
After that she sewed the top section of the pocket to the lining very carefully so as not to catch the decorative strip in the seam. I always make pockets with linings. The finish is neater and one doesn't have to use a template or fiddle with a lot of pins to get clean straight edges.
Nice and neat.
Many pins to hold the pocket and lining together
Leaving a "window" for flipping at the bottom.
After turning inside out, 4 pockets with a decorative strip on top. They still have to be ironed before being attached to the jacket.
Positioning the 4 pockets
After stitching them down this is what the jacket looked like. Now for the sleeves.
I always share upcycled fabrics from the week with students, and at the beginning of the lesson she had chosen 2 legs from a pair of cargo pants which I had suggested that she use to create a tote bag.
I keep doing that, envisioning the end product for her and she keeps surprising me. She took out the legs and said, no bag this time, they are going to become the sleeves.
We had to maneuver the pieces around a bit in order to be able to draft 2 sleeves from them, sized according to the armholes of the jacket, but we managed.
Pinning the sleeve in place to get a comfortable positioning of the pockets
And then I found a t shirt from the remnants pile which she could use to make cuffs. She wanted something comfortable and did not want to make the sleeves any narrower or do the fiddly work of constructing a buttoned shirt cuff, so a piece of t shirt fabric ws the perfect solution.
Her finished, avant garde one of a kind original jacket.
I wonder what she will come up with next week.