Plaid Trousers and Meeting Peter

As you may have heard, superstar sewing blogger Peter graciously agreed to take time out from signing autographed 8 X 10’s of himself to send to his many fans, to meet me on short notice when I was in the city the other day. I just love meeting sewing people, and Peter does not disappoint. His knowledge of vintage sewing machines is truly impressive. When I was complaining about my treadle, saying that the stitch length is a little long for my taste, he immediately told me how to change it. Then sent me an email to make sure I understood. He was also sufficiently impressed with my clothes, and admired all the right details. I met him at B&J fabrics. I love that store, because they have really great stuff and I can’t be bothered to comparison shop. When I told him that what I really want is a heavy, sort of scratchy tweed, he took me to another store with more of that kind of thing. The shop he pointed out had thousands of examples of just the fabric I had in mind. I will have to go back there and buy something when I decide exactly what I want to make with said tweed. He even indulged my bizarre desire to spend as much time as possible outside in all weather, by lunching al fresco in a frigid Times Square. After shopping, we dropped in to the museum at FIT to see their new exhibit, which was very interesting. It’s a bit of a mish-mosh of their collection, presented in alphabetical order. They had a Vivian Westwood suit where the jacket had the, to me, holy grail combination of dropped shoulder and narrow sleeve. I’ve tried this a couple of times, and fallen far short of the effect I wanted. I will try again.

But on to my latest project, plaid wool trousers made from a pattern in Burdastyle 3/2010. The pattern is very plain, with a flat front and on-seam pockets. The fabric came from a pile of fabrics that my neighbor gave me from her mother’s fabric stash when her mother died. It is almost certainly a wool blend. I lined it to the knee in silk.

The effect I was going for with these trousers was a sort of 1970’s-dad-on-the-golf-course look. I fear that I achieved the pajama-bottoms look. But maybe I like them anyway.

On the day I met Peter, I stopped in at Saks to look at their Christmas window display. Really, that’s what I was there for. But I decided to also check out what’s on sale. They had a really amazing Junya Watanabe black leather jacket at 40% off! As soon as I saw it on my body, I was helpless to resist. It is increasingly rare that I see an article of clothing that I would not be able to make, but this is one. The leather is amazing quality, and the pattern is devilishly difficult. The sleeve alone has 7 pattern pieces. I bought it for myself for DH to give me for Christmas. It is pictured in the above photo with my new trousers. It feels a bit like body armor when I’m wearing it. It forms my arms and torso into position, and it’s not easy to move. Together with a black turtleneck and my new trousers, it makes a pretty kickass Christmas outfit. Would it be weird to wear this same outfit every day until Christmas? It’s less that 2 weeks away, after all.

The facings and pockets are cotton sateen; the lining is printed silk.

The front is very plain, with on-seam pockets. I did not want a lot of detail, what with the busy-ness of the plaid.

Enamel button

back view -- the jacket is very curvy

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