Sewing Bee Round 2 - The Denim Illusion

When the theme for round 2 of the sewing bee was announced I must admit my first thought was....again?.....I did the Refashioners contest back in 2016 which was a upcycle denim contest and even at that time I wasn't really excited by the idea, and the dress I made for that has barely been worn - don't get me wrong I love the dress I just don't wear it - and now I had to come up with another idea?  I wasn't overly enthusiastic to tell the truth - but it is what it is -  I figured I just had to give it my best shot.  

but first!

Source Materials -  The biggest issues was where the hell was I going to get the jeans from.  I've got a couple of me made jeans in my wardrobe but I'm not really ready to get rid of them yet, and I used up all the ones I bought for the 2016 make, my husband hasn't worn out any of his - and I really don't want to have to go to the thrift store at this point in time. Then I had the idea to put a call out on the neighbourhood "No Buy" Facebook page.  So at 9am on Sunday morning I put up my post....by midday I had over 20 pairs of jeans or cut up old jeans in the washing machine washing - it took me three loads just to wash it all!  I want to thank all those generous people who donated their old jeans to me and allowed me to create this beautiful garment. 

Design - Now I had to come up with an idea to use it all. I remembered that during the Refashioners contest I was absolutely stunned by the winning entry.  She had created a dress with a panel of cubes down the front.  The cubes were created using three different shades of denim to look three dimensional.  I loved this idea of creating an illusion and this reminded me of all these ads that keep popping up in my side bar showing shirts and jumpers with black and white illusions - I really loved those shirts so this led me to the idea of creating my own illusion out of my cut up denim.  I started browsing the internet looking for illusions.  My first ideas were based on quilt designs, spirals of colour that looked like they were swirling inward to a point. 

I sketched numerous designs but just wasn't really excited by any of them.  

So then I started looking at black and white illusions.  These were much more exciting.  I started trying to sketch something, the first one didn't work very well, 

but my second design based on a T-shirt design that I loved did - I was hooked - I wanted to try it.  

I figured it would work perfectly on the back of a coat.  But what to do on the front.  I wanted to keep it plain but wasn't sure how feasible that was with the small pieces of fabric I was working with so decided I needed to do a pieced design at least and wanted it to be complementary to the back so started working on a new design that was symmetrical down the center front line so that I could open the coat.  My original sketch was Ok,

But not as wow as the back, so I made a few more sketches and managed to modify it to something that was better (though still not as fantastic as the back).

Sewing Pattern - Since my illusion design was going to require quite a lot of piecing  - I wanted to keep the actual garment pattern as simple as possible. I wanted a thigh length, slightly oversized coat with set in sleeves and a simple zippered front opening.  No collar or any additional details to detract from my illusion.  Of course I did not have any suitable patterns in stash - the coat patterns that I did have were all raglan sleeve, but I wanted set in sleeves so that I had more room front and back for my design. And so I started from scratch again using my moulage. I created a pattern draft removing all darts, sewed it up using old twill curtain material  - and it was terrible!  How did I get this so wrong - oh that right - removing all the darts. So I put it on my dress form, added a side dart back into the front pattern piece, fixed up the side seams and length of the front, then borrowed the two piece sleeve from the Cashmerette Auburn Blazer.  To get the sleeve to fit my arm scythe, and to add extra width to the fairly fitted sleeve, I split each pattern piece down the center and added  ¾” to the outer piece and ¼” to the inner piece. OK that's better now.

Illusion - The next step was to use my kids washable markers to draw my illusion design onto my muslin to test it out for size and layout.  

The back was great, but the front not so much - I sort of looked like my boobs were being sucked in big black holes - now that wouldn't be such a bad thing really but I decided that I had to do some redesigning to get the front design to work - I decided that instead of going for circle swirls I would try out some square tunnel illusions.

This worked better and the upside to this redesign was that it allowed me to work in a colour change where the dart would go so I could hide the dart in a seam.  

I also tried to line up as many pieces as I could at the side and shoulder seams so that there was continuity from front to back. Once I was happy with my illusion design I sketched it onto my paper pattern and then traced off each separate piece to create patterns for each section of the design.  I did not add any seam allowances to the pattern pieces, but instead traced each piece directly onto my jeans, cut roughly around the shape, then serged each edge using my line at the ¼” mark so each piece ended up the size of the pattern piece, plus ¼” serged seam allowance.  Since I had so many little pieces this made my life much easier.

Fabric Cutting  - I originally sketched my designs based on a black and white colour scheme, then I had to figure out how to create my design using the colours in my denim jeans. I lined up all my jean's from lightest to darkest and then found a pair of jeans at each end of the spectrum. Light wash jeans for white and medium wash for black - I would have loved to used dark wash jeans but I only had one pair and knew that wasn't going to be enough so set them aside and went with the medium wash instead.

I laid out and traced all my pattern pieces before I started cutting - starting with the back illusion. The white pieces fit nicely onto one pair of jeans,

But there were two pieces (and a further third that I somehow missed tracing first time around) that didn't fit nicely. I tried splitting the pieces in two and sewing them back together but the change in colour and grain direction change just didn't work, so I grabbed a second pair of jeans to use for the last three pieces. For these back pattern pieces I was able to fit my pattern pieces on without having to do any seam ripping - I just cut the jeans up the inseam. 

For the front Illusions again I was able to get all the white pieces out of one pair of jeans thought I did have to rip out the inseam.

But for the dark pattern pieces I needed to actually rip out all the seams and pockets to give me the width and length I needed and use one new pair of jeans plus the other half of the extra pair I needed for the back (5 pairs of jeans used).

I wasn't sure if the contrast between the light and dark jeans was going to be enough to show off the illusion so I started by basting it together thinking that if it didn't work I would take it apart and then bleach the light pieces to white and dye dark pieces black. But once I had it about half together I decided I really liked the shades of blue so abandoned that idea.

Pockets -  Whilst putting together my front illusion, I realised that my design was perfect for hiding in seam pockets.  Of course I wanted to re use the jeans pocket bags, so I found the deepest pocket bags out of the jeans I had so far cut up, trimmed off the useful part of the bag below the pocket opening, then added strips of left over denim to the top of the bag as a facing. I traced and cut the curve of the seam that I wanted to add the pocket into onto the top of the pocket bag and then sewed the bag into the seams as I finished the fronts of the coat.  

Sleeves - I wanted to keep these as plain as possible so as not to detract from the illusions.  I tried each of my jeans on to see which colours went best.

Unfortunately I could not get both sleeves out of a single pair of the remaining jeans so I chose two different jeans and cut the outer sleeve out of one pair, this time I had to keep the side seams intact and put the pattern piece across the seam. The under sleeve I cut out of another pair.  (7 pairs of jeans used).  The sleeves were inserted into the coat, and then some scrap fleece was used to make simple sleeve heads.

Finishing - As each edge of each piece of fabric was serged before being sewn together I did not need to do much finishing.    I used blue and green thread in my serger which gives a nice pop of colour on the inside (plus using different colours makes it a lot easier to unpick if necessary).   My original plan was to top stitch each seam in place but I did not like the look of the top stitching  - it detracted from the illusion - so each seam is just sewn and pressed.

I made a front facing and back neck facing cut out of the leftovers from the 7 pairs of jeans previously used. To finish the edges neatly, I used a tip that I read recently to sew the interfacing onto the free edge of the facing right sides together before flipping it to the wrong side and ironing it on.  I really like this - it gives a beautiful finish.

I contemplated lining the jacket but wasn’t sure if that was allowed for this competition - It says that you can use other fabric for embellishments but is a lining and embellishment? Now that it’s complete however I actually like the way the inside looks, plus since the zipper needs to be done up to create the front illusion it’s unlikely I’ll ever wear the coat open. After everything is over I may go back and add a lining and interlining - just because light weight jackets don't get much use in my wardrobe - unlike good winter jackets.

Zipper - I did not have time during this competition to get to the fabric store so I was working with what I had on hand - and what I had on hand was not much.  The longest separating zipper I could find was a 20” white zip.  The length is short compared to my coat, but  I was happy with that  - I’ve found that when I put longer zippers into coats I struggle to reach the bottom to do them up.  I didn’t love the white colour though, so I did my best to hide it from the outside.  I sewed the zipper and facing onto the front edge as per usual, but set the zipper back from the centerline by about ¼” . I then folded the front edge of the coat over the teeth of the zipper so that the two front edges met right at the centerline over the zipper teeth.  I wanted to top stitch the fabric in place but I found that again, the top stitching detracted from the illusion effect I was going for, so I hand picked the fabric in place.  I’m really happy with how this turned out. I painted the zipper pull and bottom tab gold at the end just to make them stand out a little less.

Hems -  For the sleeves I  double turned and topstitched the hems, but for the bottom hem I didn’t want visible stitching so I turned the edge up ¼” and machine stitched, then turned the hem up about ¾” and hand blind hemmed the edge.

Once I had the coat all sewn up I was just about ready to go, but I'd used my kids washable markers to draw each pattern piece onto my fabric and I could still see little bits of the marker at a lot of the seam lines  - especially where I had used the pink marker, so I needed to get rid of that - I had actually checked that the marker came off before I started using it so I just grabbed a cloth and started trying to sponge it off but it didn't seem to be working great.  I did the best I could and left the coat to dry....and when I came back I no longer had small pink marks on my coat, but large smears of pink all over....oh crap...to put it mildly.  Now what do I do.  I went to the internet to ask how to get the marker out, and used a couple of scrap pieces of jeans to do some trials and I realised that I actually needed large amounts of water, preferably running water to get the markers out - oh great - basically I'm going to have to wash the whole coat - not what I needed at this point but nothing else I can do.  I filled up the sink and immersed the whole coat and scrubbed - It took 5 rinses before the water stopped running pink!  Then it was into the washer on a gentle spin cycle and the the dryer for a delicate dry all the time chanting please don't let any of the jeans dye run and ruin my illusion!

Thankfully I all came out Ok and after a really good press the coat came out looking fabulous and ready for pictures. 

I am so happy with the way this turned out - especially the back.  The back is perfect!  The front isn't quite as good - I think I stretched out some of the pieces a bit as they were sewed together (as was abundantly clear when I went to put the facing on and found it 2" shorter than the coat front...)  I got it mostly steamed back into shape but it still doesn't sit quite as nicely as the front does....still I'm nit picking here It's pretty bloody fantastic!

I will say here and now that this process was probably the most intense process I've been through in quite some time.  The project was announced Sunday morning 8am.  I spent the entire day sourcing the material and trying to come up with a design, then making a muslin and trying to get it to fit.  Monday as soon as the kids were as school I was in the sewing room (Otherwise known as the dining room) working on making the back design - I worked right through lunch, got J to make dinner.  Sat down to eat to for 1/2 hour or so then was back at it.  I managed to get the all the back pieces cut out and sewn together.  I fell into bed around 11pm.  Tuesday morning I had an appointment to get my covid vaccine - I spent almost the entire time writing my review to get ahead on that, then came home and started work on the front.  Again worked through lunch - L made dinner tonight, worked again after dinner and fell into bed at around 11pm with the front piecing complete.  Wednesday I was able to take things a little easier - I had to take a break to do meals on wheels but got the coat sewn together, sleeves in, facings made, zipper inserted (this took forever).  Thankfully by Wednesday night I pretty much had the coat put together and could take a break.  I took the evening off.  Thursday I spent making my accessory  - the rules stated we needed one garment and one accessory made out of the denim - and dealing with the marker issue and Friday I spent doing photos and the review so I was able to turn my entry in on Saturday morning after a final read through.  I could probably have taken it a little easier on those first couple of days but I wasn't sure just how long everything would take and I figure a little stress up front could eliminate a lot of stress at the end. But wow it was hard work!

Accessory - For my accessory I chose to make a wallet I've needed a new wallet for ages - the last one I made in 2015 is starting to look a little worse for wear and I figured denim would be a good fabric for a wallet. In making my coat I had chosen to avoid using the hardware that really make jeans jeans so I thought that for my accessory I would try and celebrate all those little details. I went through the jeans that I had used and found my favourite back pocket embroidery

Strangely enough it wasn’t the brightest most gaudy pocket but rather a subtle grey swirl that mimics the swirl on the back of my coat.  I unpicked the pockets from the jeans ( I am now a wizz at unpicking bar tacks after this project)

and then sewed them together to create the outside of my wallet.  I turned the pockets on their sides so that the points at the bottom of the pocket are now the closure of my wallet.  

I used a scrap of my favourite fabric for the lining of the wallet.  I was hoping to use the existing pocket linings to make the card slots inside the wallet , but I needed a much longer length than I was able to get out of the pocket bags, and the last thing I wanted was more seams if I pieced them together.  Instead I used my accent fabric with the front slot and backing made from a denim scrap.  I pleated two sets of card slots interfacing my fabric at each top fold for sturdiness. 

I then created a backing that would hold my card slots and act as the slot for cash.  This is just two layers of my accent fabric - 1 of which was interfaced.  The points of pockets were heavily interfaced to accommodate the button and buttonhole and the wallet was sewn together and turned inside out.  

The final step was a closure.  Of course I needed a jeans button.  I tried to remove an existing button to reuse, but it wasn’t happening - luckily I had an exact match to one of the jeans buttons in my stash so used that instead. 

As per usual I struggled to put in the buttonhole  I’m not sure if it’s me or the machine but buttonholes and I are not friends. I finally just said good enough.  I then had the idea to use some of  the waistband to make a wristlet.  I find that, especially during summer when my clothes have less usable pockets - I’m often left carrying my wallet and phone in my hands since I don’t love carrying handbags.  I decided to use the existing buttonhole in a waistband to create a wrist strap which I can add to or remove from the button on my wallet when necessary. 

I love this design feature!  Just to make it even more usable I created a small rouleau loop with a piece of left over denim and hand stitched it onto the back of the wallet over the back of the jeans button, holding in place a little swivel snap hook that I can clip my keys onto.

And not necessarily for competition but I decided I needed something similar for my phone so found another two pockets I liked, unpicked them from their jeans and sewed them together to make a little bag.  I again used a piece of a waistband to create a wrist strap which also goes over the top of the opening and closes with a snap to keep the phone from falling out.  

Of course as I sat there Saturday night I realised that I may have used too much "accent" fabric in my wallet - is the inside of a wallet considered embellishment? Oh crap I really hope I didn't disqualify myself with the accessory that would be horrible. But all I can do now is wait and see.

I feel like I really pushed my skills in this round not only on the design of the illusions but also the piecing work required very precise sewing which is not one my fortes.  My very first seam was the center of the tunnel in the back and it took my at least 3 attempts to get it to work.  I was worried at that point that I’d bitten off more than I could chew - but I stuck with it, and after cutting out a new piece of denim managed to get the seam sewn. The question now is - if I do get to round 3 - what the hell can I do to top this!

And just for the fun of it - A picture of what was left of the seven pairs of jeans I used.  Now what do I do with all the left overs?  luckily reading through all the other reviews for the competition has given me some good ideas.