new garment challenge

Some of you may remember that last year I participated in a clothing challenge. We had to upcycle a thrift shop find and turn it into something we could wear. Last year I had to work with a peach colored silk jacket. I made a new jacket that had lots of reds, oranges and browns.

Anyway, there's another challenge this year. I received a long, solid black wool skirt, and my idea was to make another jacket with it. It's been a big challenge. For one thing, the jacket pattern is much harder. Mistakes have been made. Oh, for the good old days when a pattern came in one size, not everything from tiny to large? Arrgh. Another problem is that I didn't have enough fabric from the skirt to do a jacket. But I found an old pair of black wool pants in my closet - what was it doing there, because I will never be a size 4 again!?! It's not exactly the same black wool, but close enough.

Here's the heap of the skirt and old pants I ravaged to make the jacket.

I made bias tape with the black and white fabric. I'm keeping it nice before I use it, by wrapping it around a handy water bottle.

I'm making fabric covered buttons - another frustrating task! - from old ties.

The jacket isn't presentable enough yet to display, but here it is in sort of a heap, with the pattern. I'm trying to channel Mila from last season's Project Runway, but alas she has much more talent and know-how than I do in creating fashion. Anyway, it's a good learning experience.