Garment or Quilt?

Who’d a thunk it-I actually have a wee bit of time before Christmas to do some sewing!

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I am a garment sewer as well as a quilter, so I decided to whip up a jacket in this lovely fabric I purchased from Loes Hinse.
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At Pacific International Quilt Festival this year I had tried on a sample of the “Long and Short of It” jacket in Lorraine Torrence’s booth that fit me beautifully. What a coup-a jacket that fit without a muslin!Even though I knew the jacket should fit, I decided to make a muslin up just to be sure. Good thing because the muslin showed the need for some shoulder alterations:
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Agh-I didn’t have anyone around to fit me even though I pretty much knew what needed to be done.

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So I nixed the garment sewing and pulled out a beautiful hand-dyed silk charmeuse that I bought from JR Flamingo who-knows-when.

I can’t wait to get started on this. I have long wanted to do an untraditional whole cloth quilt and this fabric was going the direction I was wanting to go.

My play sample with this charmeuse was fun-working with the different threads and weights and colors, sparkle, etc. I am going to incorporate some of the motifs I used in the doodling I did for the Quilt Whisperer class (see Nov 23, 2010 entry). I’ve accumulated a luscious collection of thread possibilities and I think I will sprinkle in some hand stitching and beads.

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Can’t wait! I’ll keep you posted.