Here lately, I’ve been drooling over some of the BurdaStyle online designs. Actually, I’ve always loved some of them but never downloaded any patterns until now.
Their fur collection featured some beautiful designs. The one that did it for me was the leather tunic with the fur turtleneck.
Leather Tunic 10/2012 #132 – Sewing Patterns | BurdaStyle.com.
Description: leather tunic of lamb nappa leather, lined with sweatshirt fabric. It features a cozy turtleneck collar and sleeves in faux mink. It is so generously cut that you can wear it over another jacket!
All other projects in the que became irrelevant. I am in love! In my head, this is a simple enough project except that it’s in leather. I’ve never sewn with leather before. Then there’s all the top stitching with this so called easy project. More angst! But of course, my confidence lies in the fact that my mother has 40+ years of sewing experience! With her help, I know WE can pull it off!
Step one: Make my best pitch to my mother who will probably have to put her project on hold (once again) to help me. Part of my pitch included substituting the faux fur for real fur which she’s worked with many times. More about this acquisition in another post!
With step one accomplished, step two was finding the leather at a decent price. This project calls for nappa leather which ain’t cheap! After researching types of leather online and sewing techniques, I set out to find local factories/shops to make my purchase.
As in everything in life, it definitely pays to do your homework. Do I get a better deal by buying the whole hide and attempt to cut it into skins or just buy the individual skins and hope I calculated the amount needed correctly? This is truly starting to sound like an I Love Lucy moment (aka disaster)! Fortunately, I didn’t have to make that decision because the wholesale shop I found in the city only sold the skins. And based on some of the online prices I found, the price at $5.00 per square foot was decent. The total price paid for 6 skins was $236.00. An early Christmas gift from my hubby! No turning back now!
Perfect like chocolate and peanut butter!
I just finished the muslin and I’m excited to move forward but nervous at the same time. This is the most expensive project I’ve ever attempted and I certainly don’t want it to look like a home ec project (oh the horror!). Well, I just have to put on my big girl pant–s and just do it! (I hope!). Wish me luck! I’ll keep you posted of my progress for sure.
noriecreates 