So yesterday I showed you some of the photos from photoshoot, but now I’m going to talk about the actual construction. There are three garment pieces to this look — the shirt, the vest and the skirt — as well as the accessories. The shirt was made just for the fashion shoot so I’ll do a separate post on that. And I’ll break the accessories which are mostly 3d printing into a separate post as well.
For the vest I used the Greenstyle Pacific Pullover as the base pattern but with significant differences (most notably the front zipper). It took me a while to find the right pattern because there were several things I was looking for and I almost got to the point where I was going to draft my own, but then I stumbled across this one. Since I was making 2 of these (one for me and one for my friend Coco), I didn’t really want to draft my own because I don’t have a lot of experience drafting for others. Here’s what I was looking for:
- Hood with a high neck so that we could get the “snoot” of the Snowths by tightening the drawstring
- There were lots of patterns with hoods, but most just ended right at the neck opening.
- Zipper into the hood
- Many of the patterns with high necks were full on pullovers but this one had a quarter zip and actually a tutorial to turn it into a full zip!
- Princess seams
- I really wanted princess seam pockets so that the pockets would be hidden amongst the fur.
- Simple seams
- Most of the patterns had very interesting seams, but since I was going to be working with fur, I wanted to keep it simple. You wouldn’t see any of the interesting seams anyways, so why bother? Also, I had to make 2 of these so I was trying to keep it simpler.
- Standard, non-raglan sleeves
- Since I was just doing the vest, I would have to alter Ragland sleeves. So many patterns were raglan sleeve style. Again, I could re-draft it, but I’d have to do it twice and I really wanted to save on time.
- Drawstring around the hood
- This wasn’t a dealbreaker because I could always add one. But it was nice that the Pacific Pullover had one.
I did make a muslin. It’ll eventually be it’s own post because it’s quite cute. I got it done enough that I knew my size would fit, but haven’t quite finished it yet (hem, hood facing, etc). But I will. Once I knew how my size would fit, I was able to make a good estimate on which size would fit Coco best since we’re different sizes.
For mine, I made size D based on both my body measurements and the finished measurements and knowing that my fabric had some give (both the fur and lining were a bit stretchy). The only adjustment I made was to shorten the waist by 1 inch which is standard for me. This was perfect. After making the muslin, here are the changes I made to the pattern overall:
- I dropped the armscye down by 1 inch.
- It was fine with sleeves where you want it higher for movement, but since it would be sleeveless and fur under the arms, I didn’t want the fur to get too matted (it did get a little matted, but it was fixable).
- I added a strip of lining to the front zipper edge on each side so that the fur would be less likely to get caught in the zipper.
- This definitely helped. I wanted to put a flap to separate the fur and zipper, but I also wanted it to be “seamless” for the fur so I forwent that. Maybe next time.
- I self lined the hood rather than using a facing.
- This was both easier and more in line with the look I wanted.
- I self lined the entire bodice.
- The basic pattern isn’t lined, but given the fur, I definitely wanted it lined. Plus, moisture wicking fabric! I just used the same pattern pieces.
- I added inside pockets to the vest.
- Since it was fully lined, these were just one of the outer pocket options, but on the lining version.
- I added the puffy tube around the edge for the drawstring.
For the vest, the construction was pretty straightforward. I did the lining method where you leave the armholes unseen so you can pull through the sides at the shoulders. Then you sew up the sides, pulling one of them through the other. And eventually you just have one little gap to slip stitch as I’m doing above. And yes, that is in the hotel room after the first race. ?
The one (major) snafu I had with this whole outfit was that I accidentally sewed Coco’s lining to my outer. Since these were 2 different sizes, this was a problem. And it was the day before I had to leave. I genuinely didn’t think I would get these done. But I did. I had to rip out ALL those stitches. I almost cried. But at least sewing the correct lining to the correct outer was way easier and I already knew what I was doing. However, as a result, I had to skip the princess seam pockets. I’ll talk more about those in a bit.
Cutting the fur was a new experience for me. Can you believe I’ve never work with long pile faux fur before? Yup, me neither. I ended up tracing the pattern onto the back of the fur and then very carefully cutting just the backing fabric, or at least tried to. This kept the fur fluff around the room to a minimum and I actually did a pretty good job. There was still plenty of fluff around, but much better than it could have been.
Sewing fur is actually not too bad. A lot of sites/videos tell you too trim down at the seam allowance, but I didn’t really find that was necessary. I just used my serger and then pulled the extra fur out of the seam afterwards.
The skirts were self drafted. I used the waistband of the Hey June Sloan Leggings lined with power mesh. I think it’s just a great fitting waistband so I’ve used it many times and almost always line with power mesh since I prefer that to stretch interfacing which tends to stretch funny.
I kept the card pocket in it since we were going to use them for running. And then I drafted the skirt.
I wanted something of an a-line but not a full circle. So I measured the bottom of the waist band and used that for the top with a slight curve to it, cut on the fold. Simple, but effective. I just use the same piece for the front and back although technically I should have made the back a little longer to account for the booties.
The hood tube was my own invention. I wanted the edge puffy like the snouts of the Snowths. I looked up tutorials for how the little skirt puffs on Sailor Moon skirts are done. Once I had the idea, I figured out what I needed to do. I had some leftover 1-sided fusible Pellon foam. I fused the yellow to it, leaving enough to fold the ends over and stitch them down.
I folded the whole long piece (measured to be the length of the hood edge) in half lengthwise and basted it. Then it was just a matter of sandwiching between the two hood pieces. The whole hood is sandwiched between the lining and the outer at the neckline so that it wouldn’t slide around.
And now finally the pockets. I couldn’t make an outfit I was going to use for running without pockets. I just couldn’t. The inside pockets were easy. That’s actually one of the options for the original pattern so I just coverstitched the edge and added them to the lining like it was the outside.
The outer princess seam pockets were a different story. Due to my lining snafu, I didn’t have time to do the pockets before the race although I had everything cut out. Fortunately we had enough pockets between the inside pocket, the waistband pocket and our pants pockets during the race. When I got home, I was getting everything ready for the fashion shoot and every time I would put the vest on, all I wanted to do was put my hands in pockets. I knew it would annoy me terribly if it didn’t have pockets. I was worried it would ruin the line of the princess seam on the outside since I had already trimmed the fur by serging that seam, but I dove in (and as you can see above on the right, it totally didn’t ruin it!).
These pockets were special. I didn’t want to just stick a zipper on the seam. Fur would definitely have gotten caught in it. So I devised a pocket that had 4 rather than 2 pieces in order to put a zipper on it, but inside. I had to have a zipper because if you’re running, you don’t want stuff to fall out. Here’s how it works for the most part:
In the last photo, the 2 layers on the far left get sewn to the side front panel while the layer that has been folded to the right gets sewn to the center front panel. That layer that is sewn to the center front is what protects the zipper from the fur. And the pocket is created as normal with the two large pieces. It looks like they don’t match but that’s because things aren’t pressed and topstitched down. Figuring out these pockets was a fun puzzle and one of the reasons I love sewing. Practical puzzles! And I’m so pleased with how they turned out. I’ll definitely do this again next time I need a stealth pocket.
Oh, the fabrics. The faux fur and the yellow spandex was from Joann’s. It was so soft and the perfect look for the Snowths. The lining was from Califabrics and was some designer deadstock moisture wicking athletic fabric. And I just want to say that the Califabrics customer service was A+ for something that came up with my cuts.
The best part about this fur? It goes in the washer and dryer just beautifully. Comes out looking refreshed and fluffed. A must if you’re gonna be sweating for 13.1 miles in it 🙂
