picture perfect parka

Hi there,
this is probably the only self sewn addition I'm going to make to my fall wardrobe. An awesome anorak (I love my alliterations).

Mostly to lack of time but also because I've stocked up on 2nd hand sweaters and cardigans in the US. Can I tell you how much I enjoyed thrifting there. I even infected my best friend. Actually we ended up tracking down every thrift store in Boston/ NY and incorporating them into our sight seeing tours. We loved Buffalo Exchange most because even though they had the most expensive prices, the stuff there was pretty great (awesome Diane von Fürstenberg viscose/silk blend blazer, best fitting one I own, had to come home with me, even for 45$). Second favorite was Salvation Army, more digging but great prices and good quality. Goodwill I found a bit underwelming. A lot of dated, dirty and torn stuff. Anyways, usually I would have seeked out to create a new wardrobe just for the trip and then photograph the pieces in pretty locations but due to time restrictions I cooked my ideas down to something I really wanted, a parka.

I saw the Burda pattern on the websites preview and fell in love immediately. I love the cinched waist, the swallow tail back, the big hood, the concealed button placket, the elasticated cuffs, the bellow pockets and the elbow patches... ergo everything, basically. So I got the magazine, got me some kaki cotton gabardine and used some cotton shirting from my stash for the lining. Pretty ugly fabric actually, but I try to stay away from polyester lining and the weight was just what I was looking for. For the hood I decided to use some leftover quilting weight cotton from the Anouk dress, that I tried to dye black but which ended with a more subtle dark grey pattern,

pattern #129, issue 09/2012

BTW, my dress version got featured on the Victory Patterns blog, exciting stuff.

The fit was nice from the beginning, I made a size 40 and because of the drawstrings in the waist, it isn't as important anyways. Still I found the sleeves to be way too blousy for a modern look, so I slimmed them down a lot. A lot.

The finish of the back slit was tricky and I couldn't quite make sense of the instructions but some hand sewing did the trick in the end.

And because I felt some brass hardware would compliment the kaki color, so I added some links I got from a purse to attach the waist drawstring to and some brass colored cord stoppers.

It's slouchy and causual and the first reaction I got when wearing it for the first time from my collegues was that I looked like one of the jedi knights from Starwars. Well, they aren't very fashionable people anyways and I love how it turned out.

Even though I have some other projects in the pipeline that I'm going to show you first, I'm really on an outerwear kick lately. I enjoy making jackets and coats so much, I've got my next (winter-ish) coat all planed out. I don't know what it is but for some reason, that's my favorite thing to sew. Winter-ish because even though I bought wool fabrics, I came to the realisation that this thing's not going to be warm enough for the whole season. More like an in-between-coat. I've got to find an appropriate jacked. I heard good things about Wellenstein...

How is your autumn/winter sewing coming along? Do you even plan your projects by season or just sew whatever idea pops up or whenever inspiration strikes?