I recently up-cycled some T-Shirts into a very special jacket for myself. My hubby and I joined with approximately 30,000 other patriotic Americans of all nationalities in Birmingham, AL at the Restoring Unity event August 27-29, 2015. While there, we (of course) purchased some T-Shirts that express our strong feelings that
ALL LIVES MATTER
and that – NOW is the time. Remember when the world finally discovered the horrific events of the Nazi extermination during WW2? Well, we said then…. ‘Never Again’, right? Well – with the movement of ISIS daily persecuting fellow Christians and any others that don’t agree with them (become Muslim), and the ‘Planned Parenthood’ videos that have exposed this for what it is… KILLING, NOW certainly is THE TIME! Never Again is NOW! To speak my soul and faith, I’ve created this jacket to wear at appropriate functions, and whenever I want to cause comment, get people to ask questions, etc. Starting with the special ‘event’ T’s and another old ‘promo’ T that belonged to my late brother… My hubby actually bought a T and a great hat, but I decided it was best to keep my creative paws OFF his stuff!
3 Event T’s + a Base T to start…..
Honestly, I didn’t know where I was ‘going’ regarding design, so I just ‘dove in’ as I say… Since Orange isn’t my best (nor most of ours) best color, I decided to place the boldest orange on the BACK. Hence, the cut you see below… I used my Londa’s Terrific ‘T Knit Top pattern for the neckline, shoulder, length, etc….. Forgive the glare – God’s sunshine coming into my basement window, a welcome thing!
Brightest Orange for the back…
Orange centered over ‘base’ grey T piece for the Back.
The ‘left justified’ placement of the lettering was a challenge from the ‘get-go’. It looked very off-center. That led to narrowing down the right hand side of this orange piece, and shortening it to about 2″ below the black section – which helped. Then I ‘quilted’ it to the base grey ‘T’ using monofilament thread in the needle so that the stitching wouldn’t show up much. I found the ‘paint’ of the black created quite a ‘drag’ on my presser foot. A teflon foot would have come in handy, but none around. If I’d had to sew on that area much, I’d have gone and retrieved some talcum powder to spread over it – and the issue would have been solved. That being ALL the way on the 2nd floor, I ‘made do’. Perhaps I should have taken the break to run the steps anyway. Here is a close-up shot of the finished back. You can see that I ‘trimmed’ along each side of this with a single layer strip of cross-grain cut grey T, about 1″ wide. This single knit curls to the right side – exposing the wrong side. Centered on each strip (which I pulled slightly as I stitched to encourage the ‘curl’), I couched some black and grey yarn.
1″ cross-grain strips of base T shirt as ‘trim.
At this point, the back was approximately 15″ deep from the center of the back neck down. I was envisioning more of a Jacket than just a knit top, so that led me to a STASH DIVE. I came up with this narrow ‘ruffle’ fabric. The selvage is a great ‘finished’ edge, so my mind went to my ‘Twin Set Tweaks’ Talking Pattern – the ‘Cascade Hemline. Since this crosswise ‘stripe’ knit fabric was a darker color, that quickly lent itself to the ‘bottom’ of the jacket so that the ‘stripes’ would go vertically. (A gal has to keep figure flattery in mind at ALL times, right?)
Horizontal ‘ruffle fabric’ with a great selvage for ‘finish’.
Twin Set Tweaks Talking Pattern – neat stuff to do/change on any basic knit top pattern.
I took the back of my ‘Volunteer’ T and embellished it for the left lower front as you can see in the photo below. It is laid on top of the base grey ‘T, and stitched, couched, etc. In this photo, you can also see the center front/neckline ‘trim’ I created by centering a 3/4″ cross grain strip of the orange T scraps (from the shirt I used to decorate the Back) on top of the grey strip. I pulled these slightly as I stitched them together. Then, steamed to encourage the ‘roll’, then applied to the jacket later withOUT stretching. Then, I came back and centered the grey yarn on the orange strip and couched (zigzag with monofilament thread in my needle).
Close-Up of Jacket lower left Front.
At the very top of the Left Front, I added the Mercury One logo. Go check out this amazing Charity! www.mercuryone.org this logo was at the back of my Volunteer T’shirt. I just cut a circle shape around it, laid it on top of the base T, zigzagged to attach, then couched yarn. So that it didn’t ‘bubble’, I also stitched along some of the interior circles as well. I am not a fan of fusing, as I feel that doing so makes things stiff – UGH!
Mercuryone.org logo from the back of a T shirt
Through the Nazarene Project there, Mercury One is raising $10 million (almost at 7 million already!) to bring 400 Christian families to safety. Ex CIA agents are already on the ground in Syria ‘vetting’ appropriate families of 5. They are seeking 400 churches, each to host a family IF we can get them into the USA legally. Call your congressmen!
Right Front of jacket.
Here on the right Front, the ‘All Lives Matter’ came from another T-shirt, and is laid on top of the base T. The ‘Volunteer’ is from my Volunteer T-shhirt as well, and is also just laid on top of the base T. If you look closely, you can see that – again with monofilament, I’ve stitched through each of these pieces to ‘attach’/quilt them to the base T. You can also see how I ‘caught’ a tube of the orange knit loop for the closure beneath the curled trim that goes up the center front edge. Couched yarn is like the ‘icing on the cake’ as I tell my creative sewing students! Such fun…….. A quick note about the lower back of the jacket. It is (obviously)_ also the ruffle fabric. – being one LONG piece from one center front to the other center front per the pattern. I have found that if the fabric being used doesn’t have substantial body that it needs to have some fullness built in or it will hug/cup the derriere in an unattractive manner. Therefore, I cut it PLENTY long, and played with the excess. After finishing the front, I could see how much tighter I would need to take the side seams of the upper part of the jacket so that it ‘hugged’ or fit well at the midriff. I ended up doing a tuck at each side of the centered orange NEVERY AGAIN IS NOW block on the back, and an inverted pleat at each side seam as you can see below.
Tuck at sides for fullness of lowermost section.
Sleeves underwent some changes…..
My Sleeves underwent some revisions. With the dark ruffled fabric at the bottom, I just felt it needed to be elsewhere on the jacket as well, so I cut off the lowermost grey T section I’d just sewn on, and replaced it using an 8″ x 25″ strip of the ruffle fabric using the selvage along the long 25″ side for the lowermost ‘finish’. You can also see that I kept the orange and white crossgrain filled strips centered with couched yarn to carry those colors onto the sleeves for a unified look.
Right Front of jacket… ALL Lives Matter!
Jacket left front
Jacket back…. Never Again is NOW
If my sewing experience and believes have ‘offended’ – too bad, I’m NOT sorry. Simply don’t read my Blog, or unsubscribe. Our time is short. If you don’t want to face what is happening in our world – that is your choice. For me, I’m going to be BOLD and do everything I can. I’m THROUGH with political correctness and all this ‘offensive’ stuff. My days are numbered, and I WILL speak out. I encourage you to join me.
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