Balmain inspired cropped tuxedo jacket

Inspiration came from Olivier Rousteing, and this cropped tuxedo jacket appears almost in every season's collection in a different iteration.

Balmain menwear, FW-2016

I chose a navy-black synthetic blend fabric from fabricville. The weight was quite heavy, but it was not horrible to work with. The satin for the lapels came from the same place. Lining fabric came from sultansfinefabrics.com.

I drafted the pattern using Rundschau system (Мюллер, журнал Ателье). It went well, but I see some adjustments required, especially in the back. The sleeve was huge - I took out 6cm in circumference, and still find it wide.

I did not fuse the fronts. I used hair canvass down to the waist, as well as horsehair and French collar canvas for the shoulder area. I made the shoulder pads myself.

The pockets are jetted, however they kept opening up, so I sewed them shut.

There are 3 decorative metal shank buttons on the sleeves. I was relieved to not make buttonholes.

James is happy.

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Balmain style orange jeans, Halloween 2016

It all started with the Lego Movie's Emmet costume.

My colleague donated a blue hard-hat = which was spray painted red.

A few sheets of foam core cardboard, orange and yellow cardboard (from Dollarama), colour craft paper, acrylic paint, silver duct-tape, spray and hot glue and markers made the top.

The time came to figure out the bottoms. I itched to sew, and...

Went shopping for fabric. Had to be cheap - alas, orange upholstery fabric at a whopping $6. Yes, I left Fabricville with just 1m. of fabric!

Drafted a pattern following instruction for Rundschau (Мюллер) method. Introduced biker styling. Made a mental note - do not stack horizontal seams in vertical seams... spread them, space them - will be easier to sew.

I wanted to break the orange with some denim panels, and make those illusive ribbed panels Balmain is famous for. Balmain uses a double needle with an elastic thread at the bottom. The space between two rows is 8mm... My machine can do 4mm max. So... after a lengthy deliberation on a sewing forum, I opted to use a synthetic jersey as a backing.

I stitched two layers of fabric (denim and jersey) with one row of stitches. Then, using the width of my presser foot as a guide, stretched the bottom jersey layer to the max, and run a parallel row of stitches. The denim did not form itself into a nice rib. I persevered. After an hour of stitching this small piece of fabric, I was about to fit my pattern piece on it. I tried massaging the stitched piece, and some form of ribbing started to appear. I decided to spray it with water. And... magic happened. May be water softened denim and allowed the jersey to pull everything together. Just a few rows of ribbing needed persuading. Relieved, I let everything dry before proceeding.

There is nothing special about putting these pants together. Just too many pattern pieces. I hoped for a quick project, but it took me almost 2 full days!

My son was excited about the pants. And my spouse is asking for a pair as well, but may be not orange. Yes or no?

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