Quilted Clothing

If you’ve been here for any length of time, you know that I have been slightly obsessed with quilted coat patterns for over a year. I am noticing a shift from coats to other kinds of quilted clothing, such as the Quilted Hoodie by Wellspring Designs:

Also from Wellspring Designs comes the Quilted Wrap Skirt, one of the patterns I bought at Pacific Fabrics last week:

This has the potential to be a great pattern for the winter months if done in one of the longer lengths.

And if that isn’t enough quilting for you, there is the Cozy Quilted Dress by Paula McKinlay for Riley Blake:

I purchased this pattern at Pacific Fabrics as well. This is by the same designer who did a quilted coat for Riley Blake a few years ago—the “one size fits all” pattern that had quite a few issues associated with it. I haven’t cracked open this pattern to look at it yet, but I am hoping that this one comes with a better size range and better pattern drafting.

These are all on the pile for next fall. I need to get cracking on some summer tops. I am going to make a pile of my summer fabrics and start working my way through it.

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Sammy sent me the Bernina University brochure over the weekend and I sat down yesterday to make my list of desired classes. Classes fill quickly, so I made a list of the classes I want to take and a list of alternatives if I can’t get into my first choice. It says a lot about their offerings that I would be quite happy with any of the classes, first choice or otherwise. I am hoping to get into the draping class with Joe Vechiarelli. Tera and I took a drafting class with him at Sew Expo in 2023 and this would be a fantastic opportunity to learn about draping on a dress form.

My class choices run the gamut from fashion sewing to serging to thread to patternmaking. It will be four intensive days of learning, but that’s why I am going.

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I have been keeping a close eye on the housing market recently; that’s something that the husband and I do anyway because our business is construction, but I dialed it in a bit further when the kids started looking for property last fall. DD#2 decided to rent for another year, which I think was a wise decision. Seattle’s housing market needs a big shakeout and nobody wants to try to catch a falling knife. Washington state, in general, has a lot of problems that have the potential to keep getting worse. On my ferry trip from Bainbridge Island to downtown last week, the very helpful cashier at the terminal warned me that the fare is jumping from $19 to $27 as of May 1. And yes, that is ONE WAY for one person. The price goes up for additional passengers.

The husband said he wasn’t going to be doing any big foundation jobs this year, which is fine with me. Typically, he hits the ground running in April and works 60 hours a week and I don’t see him again until the fall. I hope he’ll be able to keep a more normal schedule this year that will allow him to work around the property. He is going to till the west half of the garden this week and work all of the rotted hemp and animal manure into the ground. We are supposed to hit 75F today and then crash back to reality for the rest of the week. It is still to early to plant, but everything in the greenhouse is looking good.

In any case, I wouldn’t be averse to seeing some of the growth here slow down, and slow down considerably. I suspect that they’ve already overshot the mark and built more than is needed.