I'm preparing for a social hibernation this fall which largely has to do with 2 estate sales I visited last weekend. The first I planned. I'm a frequent visitor to estatesales.net, always searching for a sale with sewing related paraphernalia. Like these 2 incredible ones last year... As much as I love my new job, it is a bummer to work Friday afternoons, which used to be my estate sale time. Now I worry that by the time I get there on Saturday morning, most of the good stuff is gone. Like at the first sale, I got a bunch of great stuff, but how much more great stuff was there on Thursday when they opened?
Anyway, the main score at the first estate sale was the piece of teal wool on the left side of the picture. You see, I've been dreaming of making a teal Lady Grey coat for at least a year but every time I think about buying the wool for it I stop myself. I've never seen it for below $15 a yard and I just can't bring myself to pull the trigger, especially since the pattern requires over 4 yards. I think this piece is around 4 1/4 and I got it for $1.50. AMAZING!!!! I also picked up a few lining fabrics and light cottons from this sale, one of which is a raspberry color that I think I'll use to line this coat. I'm planning on following Gertie's Lady Grey sew-a-long, complete with pad stitching and all!
The second estate sale I happened upon while driving home from the first. There I found several large pieces of a light grayish/blueish suede leather above. I've been wanting to make a motorcycle style jacket for awhile, like the one below but much more fitted and shorter, and I think this will be great material for it. I already have
Simplicity 2056 and it will work pretty well for my purposes, unless I can find something better in the meantime.
I'm really excited to work on these projects, because up until now, the
Minoru is the only outerwear piece I've made. Plus I'll really have an opportunity to learn some new techniques, traditional hand tailoring and working with leather, in the process. I'm hoping to start the Lady Grey in late September, so it will be ready when it gets cold in late November and the leather jacket in December because I think it will make a nice transitional piece in spring. Basically this means I won't be getting out much this fall/winter. I can't imagine that these jackets will be anything less than a TON of work, but it will be totally worth it...
Last but not least, I forgot to show you the gorgeous fabric I bought when I was out of town for the wedding last weekend! Such pretty colors right? Keep your eyes peeled, I'm cutting these up this weekend so hopefully they'll become dresses soon!
