Thursday, July 28, 2011

Lazy summer days and too much ETSY

I fear my blog is seriously derailed.  I'm supposed to be working myself through the remaining 2 designs in the Japanese coat book (a pea coat and a trench), but I found myself totally sucked into ETSY the other day.  Here are the damages! 

This pattern was a ridiculous $3, and the size Medium is already cut out.  It's from 1978.  I really need to find some nice white shirting for this one.  I'm sure it will be quite voluminous, so I'll need to make a muslin and figure out how to pare it down.  I'll break out my My Fair Lady vinyl and pretend that I'm Henry Higgins.  

Of course the pipe totally sucked me into this one!   I really needed a pajama pattern and this was one of the more unique ones that I found.  I'm intrigued by the collar / placket in version A.  But, truth be told, I probably won't ever make it because I prefer to sleep in a t-shirt.  I'll definitely make the bottoms and a coordinating robe in flannel for the winter.   Hey, what about the trench coat?

Oh boy, this was billed as a Member's Only jacket.  That sure grabbed my attention.  Actually, as you can see, it's by J G Hook and dates from 1985.  I'm not sure if  J G Hook still exists.  My assumption is that they've been eclipsed / swallowed up by the likes of Polo and Hilfiger.  I guess I'm old enough that this kind of fashion is very appealing to me.  I'm just not 100% sold on the epaulettes. 

I have about 5 yards of this wool glen plaid.  I used this as the contrasting collar on last year's purple fall coat.  I think it will be perfect for this jacket.   The next time I'm in NYC I'll be shopping for 15 buttons and a yummy lining for this.  Hey, what happened to the pea coat? 

Lastly, is this faux Hudson Bay blanket from LL Bean.  I'm toying with the idea of adapting the bathrobe pattern from my last project into an overcoat.  I picture it fastened closed with a couple of huge bone toggles through big bound buttonholes.  OMG I'm so off track here.  Maybe I need a new title for my blog.  

5 comments:

  1. I'm happy to read wherever your interest takes you ;). Also, I'm terribly jealous of that faux-HBC blanket. I've been wanting to make an HBC blanket coat since I wore out my mom's old genuine one. Someday when I'm very, very wealthy...

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  2. WOW - in this post there were sooo many words and terms i totally did not get - probably american culture-thingies...

    What is a Hudson Bay blanket? in the picture it just looks like at piece of flannel to me...

    And J G Hook? Please enlighten me, so that I can join you in the drooling :-)

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  3. lene, I'm away from home and just have my phone. When I get back home I'll fill you in on these things.

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  4. I like the look of the Victorian shirt-'Enry 'iggins indeed! The PJ's (do you call them that over there) look pretty dapper- especially with the pipe.

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  5. Lene, a Hudson Bay blanket is a very heavy wool blanket made in England and sold in Canada. The weave is very heavy, almost felted, and they always feature contrasting stripes at the top and bottom. On the genuine article there are several shorter stripes woven along the selvedge. These stripes indicate how many beaver pelts were required in trade for the blanket. Today these blankets cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. What I have is a cheap knock off, so I feel comfortable chopping it up.

    J G Hook was a maker of traditional clothing in what I would consider "prep" or "preppy" style. The "Members Only" brand was the complete opposite. It was a contemporary zip front jacket with a stand up collar. I never owned one, but I recall they had lots of tabs, snaps and epaulettes. Very 80's.

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