Sew Frosting, Tamarack Jacket

In October this year, Kelli from True Bias and Heather Lou from Closet Case Patterns hosted a sewing challenge that ended in December. They encouraged participants to sew their own frosting by venturing outside your comfort zone to try a new technique, pattern, or fabric. Take on a project that you tackle for fun, not for practicality.
I had finished my Tamarack Jacket muslin shortly before I learned of this challenge and I thought it would be fun use this pattern for some frosting. I also had some slippery black fabric with silver stars that would make for make a fantastic party jacket. The fabric came from Joann's and had been in my stash for about a year.

Back side of fabric is silver and very slippery

I cut a size 14 in the fashion fabric and then cut the lining from a combination of scraps. The back panel is corduroy and the front and sleeves are some stretchy black fabric of unknown origin. I didn't have a piece of corduroy large enough, so there is a seam about 6 inches up from the bottom.

Pieced to add length to jacket

Beautiful floral pattern gets turned to the inside of the lining and won't be visible

This time, the quilting was done on my Bernina 1230. Mom had tracked down a walking foot for each of her daughters' machines, and this was the trial run for mine. It worked smoothly and didn't snag any of the star fabric. I did have to pick out a seam one time after the fabric got folded under by mistake. The stitching came out easily though and did not leave a mark.

Fabric got folded over when I was quilting, had to take this out

I designed a starburst pattern for the back between the shoulders and then the lower back, sleeves, and front panels were rows spaced 3.5" apart.

Dividing the back into two sections

Creating starburst pattern between shoulders

I used green tape to mark the lines and it was easily repositionable on the fabric. After all the pieces were quilted, front and back panels were sewn together at the shoulder seams.

Attached at shoulder seams

The inside seams are finished with fabric scraps--corduroy, black stretch, and some fashion fabric. All of the bias binding is from the stars fashion fabric. The bias binding has iron on interfacing to help stabilize and minimize fraying. The silver threads in the stars did snag easily.

Iron-on interfacing for all of bias binding

Attaching bias binding

Inside of coat with bias binding

Here is the jacket with all bias binding complete. I love the sparkle!

The fabric is too delicate to withstand a purse or bag strap over my shoulder, and I knew the fabric would fray uncontrollably if I were to attempt adding pockets. I was even hesitant to add snaps to the front and eventually found buttons that could be attached away from the edge of the coat. The dark, seemingly mirrored, buttons came from Vogue fabrics. Buttonholes would have frayed the fabric in short order, so I opted for thread loops. When sewing the buttons on, I put another button behind each one to help keep the fabric from tearing or the button from pulling through. For the thread loops, I used the technique my friend Jane showed me at a Loose Ends meeting. The loops were made with regular sewing thread, but I may go back and reinforce with a thicker thread.

Buttons spaced 5 inches apart

Botton on back adds support to delicate fabric

Black and shiny fits well with the fabric

Stewie supervises sewing on buttons

Thread loops and buttons 

Finished coat all buttoned up

This jacket is definitely frosting. It is a lot of fun to wear, but too delicate for everyday use. For its first outing I was trying to figure out what to wear with it. The quilt batting makes it warmer than a sweater, but it's full on winter here now and the jacket is not warm enough for that. I tried pairing it with a long sleeve shirt, but was soon overheated. I ended up wearing it to work one day, unbuttoned over a short-sleeve t-shirt with jeans. The jacket definitely garnered compliments and I was comfortable in it all day. Photos were difficult to take with this shiny fabric. Often, there were spots on the fabric that looked blurry or like a solid spot of silver when the stars blended together.

Buttoning my jacket

Better fit, but still a bit too much fabric around the middle

Good length in the back

For now, I don't put the jacket in the closet because it don't want it to get snagged on a zipper, button, or another coat. It's showcased on the dress form in my sewing room and I can be inspired by it every time I walk past.