Finished: Vintage-Style Faux Leopard Jacket

I was going for a "Mad Men" look here with my faux fur jacket. Here I am channeling Joan Holloway. Or maybe the former Mrs. Roger Sterling.

As promised, dear readers, here's a photo of me in my jacket. All I did to get a version I liked was to fold the lapels back and move the buttons to the lower front of the jacket. I modeled it for the girls at Carolyn's sewing blogger klatch on Sunday and they agreed it looks much better this way.

I'm officially sick of writing about this jacket, and you probably are of reading about it, but here are the sewing details:

• Faux leopard fur from Fabric.com's RL collection (sold out). Many, many thanks to Carolyn for telling me to buy it. (You little enabler you.) It has such a low pile that I was able to treat it like a velvet and not worry so much about fur everywhere. Black flannel-back satin lining from Haberman's, to add a little warmth to it.
  

• Butterick 5259. The shoulders run narrow; adjust as necessary if you make this pattern.

• This fur has vertical "stripes" of dark and light fur. I printed out the pattern line drawing and then used colored pencils to determine where I wanted the light and dark parts to fall.

• I actually bagged this lining, which is unusual for me because I like attaching linings by hand. I followed Butterick's adequate directions and ended up machine-stitching virtually all of this jacket.

Bottom line: I'm happy with the results. It's a fun jacket to wear and it was easy to make. Having lots of outerwear choices helps make the cold weather a little more bearable, right?

Detail shot of the lower front. The three buttons cost as much as the fabric did.

Yippee! I had enough left over to make a muffler. I'll definitely try sewing with faux fur again if I ever come across nice stuff like this in the future.

Of Matters Fashion, Trust a Daughter to Speak the Truth

Here's the beta version of my fur jacket, made from this Butterick pattern. REJECT!

Daughter Annie was right: This version of my faux fur jacket (above) was just not working on me. I looked like a big ol' block of fur sat on my chest; it needed more definition in the front. Fortunately an easy fix appeared and now I have a fur jacket that's just what I was going for. And Annie says this new style looks much better on me. I'll take a round of photos and will definitely post the finished jacket next week.

I love having an in-house fashion consultant who tells it like it is. In fact, I became my mother's fashion consultant around the age of 12, so relying now on Annie feels like a generational tradition we're carrying on. And I advise Annie too: Just yesterday I told her I did not think leggings went with her Tory Burch riding boots (purchased on sale at a Neiman Marcus outlet). "Maybe you're right," said Annie, "but I'm still wearing them." Okay, so the advising is a little one-sided right now….

Who do you rely on to help you avoid unflattering fashion mistakes? Your daughter? BFF? Husband or boyfriend? Take the poll at right and let us know!

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What I'm working on now: Two things, actually. A new coat made out of royal blue double-face melton wool and this BWOF pattern (left, #101 from 10/08), and a "saucy sailor" Halloween costume for Annie to wear to school. For this we're using a vintage Simplicity sailor minidress pattern from the seventies. At Annie's high school the girls want to wear costumes that are flirty (but still meet the dress code) and the boys like to go for attempts-at-humor costumes that usually don't involve their mothers' sewing efforts.

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Which celebrity would I cast to play me? Gee, I have no clue. I asked my husband who he'd pick to star in the Lindsay T story. "Sigourney Weaver," Bob said after pondering it. I'll take that. We had just watched the Seinfeld reunion on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and I thought he'd say Susie Essman!

Have a great weekend everyone!

My Faux Fur Jacket: Mixed Responses on the Home Front

My almost-finished faux fur jacket kinda resembles this Alice + Olivia jacket…

and this Adrienne Landau jacket…

and this Milly jacket. (All images from Saks.com)

My new, almost done jacket is getting mixed responses at home. Daughter Annie looked at me modeling it and said, with a slightly haughty tone, "Well, it isn't something I'd ever pick out for you." Hmmph. Could this remark be retaliation for my yelling at her only minutes earlier? She was filling out the Common Application online for the colleges she's applying to while simultaneously Facebooking and texting on her cell. "Have I not warned you about the dangers of multitasking?!" I asked her in that uh-oh, mom's about to lose it voice. Don't get me started on the fractured attention spans of our youth, Exhibit A my own darling daughter. (Fear not, she won't be hitting the submit button without me proofreading every line beforehand.)

But then I modeled the jacket for my husband Bob, and told him Annie gave it a negative review. "She did? I think it's really cute on you," he pronounced. Whoa there big fella. My attorney husband never notices what I have on; observations of wifely wear is just not in his DNA. So to get a "really cute" means this jacket actually might not be hideous.

At any rate, let me get the buttons sewn on and the other hand-finishing done and I'll post about it here with a photo or two. Until then!

Diving Head First Into Faux Fur

Loving it! Leopard print faux fur jacket from Bloomingdales. I hope my attempt at a fur jacket turns out this well.

This summer I saw a photo of actress Ellen Barkin wearing a vintage fur coat and she just looked so fabulous that I convinced myself I too needed a vintage-style fur coat or jacket. I told my friend Carolyn about my desire, and being the online fabric shopping enabler that she is, she quickly found some Ralph Lauren faux fur on sale at Fabric.com and told me to order it. I bought two yards and when it arrived a few days later I opened the package and squealed like I was five years old and unwrapping my first Barbie. Pardon the alliteration, but this faux fur is frickin' fabulous! It's soft and lightweight like velvet, not all acrylicky and clunky like so many faux furs out there.

To get that vintage fur jacket look, I chose Butterick 5259. Two muslins later to tweak the fit and increase the sleeve length slightly, I'm ready to cut. But ack!, this is my first time sewing faux fur and I'm a little nervous. I've researched fur sewing tips online, and the pile on my fur is very low and should be more manageable than a lot of faux furs, but do leave me a comment with any advice you think might be helpful. Thanks!

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Brace yourselves, dear readers: I actually bought a jacket in a store. If you've been a reader of this blog you know how much I like to make my own jackets. But I was shopping this weekend with daughter Annie and I found a black wool military jacket at H&M that fit me perfectly, was exceptionally well made, and, best of all, was only $59.95. I mean, materials alone (wool, lining, buttons, pattern, etc.) would probably cost me at least this much. And then you have to factor in my limited time to sew. So it's hanging in my closet now and I can't wait to wear it, which may be soon because it's getting chilly here in the NYC area (wah!).

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Thanks for all your excellent comments on my post about bad marriages of fabric and pattern. That jacket is going to my town thrift shop just as soon as I can take my Lindsay T label off of it. And many thanks to those fellow bloggers who bestowed the Kreativ Blogger on me--I'm honored! Have a great weekend everyone!