This month our ambassadors were allowed to make whatever we wanted. Well, I was so excited for this, because in February I went to QuiltCon in Phoenix, Arizona. What's QuiltCon? Think ComicCon but for modern quilting! Its over the top with classes, lectures, vendors and lots of quilts that are judged and awarded. You are probably wondering what I am even talking about and what this even has to do with batiks. I know, I know, stick with me.
QuiltCon is a great place to see and wear all the handmade and quilted clothing and they even have a hashtag so others can follow along; #QuiltConCouture
This is what I was excited for, all the quilted garments, all the handmade clothing items, the bags, and all the lectures about garments. This was going to be what MY QuiltCon was all about! I just needed to decide on what clothing item/garment I wanted to make.
On my short list was pants, overalls/jumper, quilted jacket and or a vest. I also was thinking of a bag or backpack for my stickers and other items I wanted to make. So, I spent a few days doing some google searches and pinterest finds, to help me find a pattern, or a design I liked. However, nothing was jumping out at me. I just felt like what I wanted wasn't really out there. I tried to find something more... ME!
This meant I might need to do some designing of a pattern or two in order to make what I wanted. I then thought about all the garments and the only real one with the largest area to put a decent size block would be the quilted jacket. I decided to go with the quilted Tamarack jacket with the add-on hood (and accessories). This pattern is pretty easy, minus the pockets, which I did different as I needed mine to be slimmer and less fabric (don't worry I will go over what I am talking about later).
Alright, so the garment is chosen (check), the garment pattern is chosen (check) and now its time to design and then I can pick my fabric around those. This is where I get to have some fun and give the jacket some ME flair. I racked my brain and thought what the heck do I want to design and do I want a theme or a color scheme? I decided to go with sloth, coffee and quilting, duh!
Why a sloth? Well, I have been a huge sloth lover and would love to some day hold a sloth; however, a few summers back I did get to stand right under one who was climbing towards our way. This was at the London Zoo in England, where you can walk into the exhibit and the sloths kind of roam as they please. This was the best day ever and I really did tear up.
So a sloth was a must, but also coffee because I love coffee and sloths are slow, so naturally you need coffee to keep them moving right. Lastly, quilting and sewing because thats what we all do right? Thats probably why you are reading this blog post, but maybe you are just reading it because you too love sloths, who knows but if you want let me know in the comments below, please do.
Once I had the Tamarack pattern pieces printed and cut out to the size I wanted, I then was able to measure the pattern and design the blocks around those measurements. This is important if you want to do this as well. You will need to measure and work within those measurements so all your blocks fit into each piece of the pattern. I started with my largest piece which would be the back of the jacket. This is where I wanted my large sloth to go.
I then grabbed the Almond batik in our Foundations collection and decided this would be the perfect "background" fabric as the sloth would be dark. I also grabbed all the foundation layered cakes, 2.5 inch strips and any other quarters I had. That included the Breathtaking Browns, a few of the Tantalizing Teals, the Playful Purples, and a few from the precious pinks. I had almost every single foundation basics colored fabric pieces that I could find. I just wanted bright and bold to help accent the browns and blacks of the sloth.
I designed the sloth holding a coffee mug and then I added my logo to it. This was a challenge but I got it done (sort of).
I finally finished the back with the main sloth block.
When I laid it on top of the pattern piece for the back of the jacket I needed to add to the top the get the entire back panel covered. This is where I should add I did add about 3 inches to each pattern piece to make them longer as I have a long torso. I then decided to add a name/word above the sloth and thought well: Sloth, but then thought no Coffee, but then thought maybe PB or Pitcher's Boutique. Ugh no, too many letters. I then sat and did some brain storming; sloth, coffee, sloth- coffee, slothee, sloffee. THATS IT, SLOFFEE! I can imagine the sloth yawning and saying it, ssssllllooofffffeeeeeee, can't you? It was perfect. I then designed some letter FPP patterns and sewed those up in my logo colors and added it to the top of the jacket. You know, kind of like when we were kids and we use to put our nicknames at the top of our baseball or soccer shirt.
Alright, that was easy enough right. Now, I could just toss some fabric together for the sleeves and front and call it good, right?
Do you even know me?
You know I didn't do that, you know I had to make it way too complicated, right.
I measured the sleeves, and got to work. Mugs stacked up in a tall pile going up one side of my sleeve, brilliant.
Alright, one sleeve down, now what do I do for the other one. Well, you know that saying "eat, sleep, quilt, repeat" or something along that line. I decided to play with that and came up with Coffee, Quilt, Sloth. Repeat. That made me laugh.
This was starting to come together. All I needed now was the fronts and the hood. Okay. So, I still needed to add some sewing and quilting themed items so I had an idea to add a block being sewn together and some sewing tools sticking out of my pocket. This was fun to design because I had to make a split in the design where the back and front of the pocket would open.
Now the pattern calls for some extra layers to be sewn onto the front and then you sew, flip and then sew down in the back and it makes the pocket look great, but I needed to simplify the pocket because the FPP design was already pretty bulky. I decided to just sew the pocket insert to the two section of the pocket front top and bottom then turn them over the pocket so they were on the inside of the jacket, and top stitched them down. This was still bulky because I had all the seams from the FPP being folded on a 1/4 inch seam and then top stitch, but you know what helped? My big Oliso iron! Oliso gave us these irons last year and the minis this year but this project called for the big boy! Thank you Oliso, I don't know what I would do without these irons.
I then had the other pocket to sew up and thought what else would be perfect. Well nothing would be better than a baby sloth with glasses pulling itself out of the pocket. How cute would that be?
The only thing left was the hood! I had the best idea for this one. A sloth face from the nose up, but asleep. Now that is hilarious.
I live in England and it rains a lot here, but its also cold about 75% of the year, so I wanted to add a zipper closure front. This was not in the Tamarack pattern. This is something I reversed engineered using my own winter jacket. I bought a simple white open ended jacket zipper, and again measure your body to know how large you will need.
I really wanted to use up some of these bright scrap pieces that were cut off from the foundation basics I used. So, I started sewing them together to make a strip of them and then just repeated it over and over. Once I had enough to go on the outside of the zipper, I added it to the front panels.
This was about a weeks worth of designing, cutting, sewing, cutting, sewing, coffee, sleep, and sewing some more. Now, I needed to get these pieces all quilted. After all, it is a quilted jacket.
When I was in the states awhile back, I grabbed some of this Tranquility Rain Ripples Island Batik fabric and bought about 3 or 4 yards of it. I thought it would make a great backing to a quilt but also it was just beautiful and I could not pass it up. Well, here I am in need of a few yards to cut up for the inside of the jacket so I could get started quilting. This fabric was perfect!
Once I had all the pieces cut, which yes, I cut all of them a little bit bigger than the actual pattern pieces, to allow for any shrinkage that might happen when I quilt them.
I then grabbed the Hobbs heirloom cotton batting. I used this for a few of my last projects and had a lot of great cut off pieces, that were literally meant to be. As the extra leftover batting from all those projects fit perfectly to each pattern piece of the jacket, which is why I never toss my cut off bits of batting. I then sandwiched all of the pieces, and started quilting them all up.
I used the Aurifil white 50w thread and started free motion quilting in the Almond Foundation Basics areas. I spent about 2-3 days just quilting these pieces all up. This was probably the hardest part because I wanted to match threads and use colors that helped provide texture but didn't take away from the over all FPP blocks.
I then spent about half the day figuring out how to get the zipper on the jacket, and then assembling the entire jacket.
This jacket has some bias binding to cover the raw edges but I ended up making some in the Almond batik and some in the Rain Ripple fabric so I could bind the edges and all the inside edges as well. Bias binding is exhausting to make, but so satisfying to sew on.
Now, would this be a proper trip if I finished the binding before I stepped onto the airplane? Never!
I of course tossed that bias binding in the pocket with a few clips, scissors, a thimble, a needle and some Aurifil thread so that I could hand sew the binding in place while on my 10 and 3 hour flights.
I was finally in Phoenix, safely landed, had some dinner, checked into QuiltCon and headed to bed. The next day was FINALLY QuiltCon! I was so excited.
The next morning I was up at 6:30am. Not because I wanted to be, but because the excitement to see all the friends, quilts, listen to lectures, etc. Yay! I grabbed my sloffee jacket and was off.
I barely made it into the convention center when someone said they loved my jacket. Then we made it to the main hallway and I was told again how much someone liked my jacket. Then as we were walking to a lecture I was stopped and took some photos and chatted with another quilter from northern UK. This is where the excitement started because I was seeing so many amazing jackets, shirts, pants, skirts, dresses and even overalls and jumpers. I definitely felt like I might actually have a "cool" jacket this year.
Are you ready to see this jacket in all its glory??
When I made it to the vendor hall to see the quilts and vendors; my mother-in-law and I didn't make it more than about 10 feet into the room before someone stopped me and asked to take photos. Then another person, then a few more, then someone took a video. It was so overwhelming in the most exciting way. I did not think that my jacket would make this much of a splash. (I also swapped stickers with other quilters and took a lot of photos). I eventually was socially and physically exhausted.
I did want to end this blog by showing off a little video of me wearing the jacket. This video is thanks to my quilt bestie @Messyquilts (Lacie). If you do not follow her on instagram be sure to go give her a follow. She does some amazing quilting and tshirt quilts.
Here you go, enjoy:
Now the question is do I need matching pants? Maybe overalls with sloths hanging on each pocket? Im telling you, I have way too many ideas. But first, I need to grab some more Breathtaking Brown basics as I used up almost everything I have.
Thank you again to Oliso, Hobbs, Aurifil and of course Island Batik/ Lumin Fabrics.
Happy Sloffee Sewing!