Red, white and blue patriotic garment sewing challenge with mixed fibers

I am co-leader of the local ASG neighborhood group Sew Chicago. My good friend Wendy, you know her from Couture Counsellor blog, and I take turns putting on the monthly programs.
May was my turn and it was about combing different prints, multiple fabrics and different fabric types into a single garment.

There are plenty of examples in my closet that I brought along to show. However, I wanted something new and summery and thought with the patriotic summer holidays it would be fun to challenge myself to make up something in USA colors that did not look like I was wrapped in a giant flag AND with different fabric types.

With my challenge parameters firmly in hand I raided the fabric closet and came up with a couple selections and then headed to JoAnn's during a big sale to add some additional selections.


I used patterns that I am familiar with and that I have more or less made before so that I could focus on the mixing of fabrics.

The skirt was first. I used my a-line skirt pattern, drew in a yoke and rotated the darts into it and made the yoke out of a heavier ponte-ish blue knit and the bottom out of a stretch denim print. I had to modify a little bit and take in the side seams after the first fitting. I could still snug it up a little bit. All in all a great start to the outfit.

...such an awkward photo to show off the knit yoke.

The second and more involved part of the project is the jacket.
This is made with the Blue ponte-ish knit for the sleeves and part of the body. The printed denim for another part of the body and the third fabric for the outer part of the body is this very weird cosplay fabric that is like a stretch rubber or maybe a stretch faux leather. this is the red part.

 To come up with the design I put an already made up jacket from the same pattern on the dress form and used design tape to design where I wanted the lines to be. I then transferred these to a copy of the pattern and made sure all the design lines matched across the seam lines.

Here you can really see how the rubbery fabric collapses and causes weird drag lines at the top of the piece. Prior to the lining it was much worse!

The original intent of this jacket was to be unlined bit I really needed a supporting layer for the red rubbery cosplay fabric. This was really meant to be used as a skin tight layer and not in the way I have used it. It sort of collapsed on itself.

I made 2 internal pockets. 1 a zippered cash/transit card pocket and the other a slip in style for my iPhone.

I took a remnant piece of white stretch denim that I have been holding on to forever and made a lining of the body only. Since I now had a lining I took advantage of this to add in some pockets to make it more usable. It is lined to the edge and then topstitched around the perimeter and also along each of the seams. This helped to control the rubbery fabric and keep the seams held down neatly. This fabric did take a cool iron setting but it really didn't do much for control.

The last garment in this outfit is the red knit top. This is a nice cotton/lycra jersey from my fabric collection. I made from a modified Jen Stern The Tee pattern. Unfortunately, I did not get the tee done in time for the program so in most of the pictures I am in one of my few RTW pieces in my closet, a white cotton knit button up shirt and winter tights because the day I was wearing it to the program it was like 50 degrees and windy out!

The final outfit with the red tee!

This outfit met my self challenge of red, white and blue plus the mixing of fibers! The jacket ended up being a little heavier than I expected due to having to add the denim lining. It will certainly work for cool evenings by the lake.

Have you set yourself any sewing challenges lately?

Happy Sewing!!

I'll leave you with a shot of the princess making pancakes for mothers day breakfast!