It appears that nothing resembling winter is ever going to arrive in Austin, which means I am going to have to shelf quite a few of my winter sewing ideas and get cracking on the summer ones. Aside from the fact that 73 in January bodes something hellish in June, I do love these kind of days here. The nights are even better. I love, love just sitting outside on our porch, listening to a neighbor practice his jazz sax through the window. There is a sweet quiet that falls over Austin running up to the madness that is March in Austin.

If I were to boil down all my autumn fashion inspirations to one fancy project by the spring, it’d be something in mixed materials, like a leather and fur combination. I’m a big Helmut Lang fan:

And there have been some bloggers who did some fun takes on leather looks, like Erika B’s suede-like top and Amanda’s leather-wool dress. I drool. Before leaving for the holidays, I traced out this coat from December’s Burda and started gathering supplies:

I doubt I’ll get much chance to wear by spring but I want the experience of sewing with new materials. The trim on Burda’s version is a hand-pleated grosgrain ribbon but D agreed with me that leather would be a much more interesting contrast. There are a few things I need to think through to make this work; at this point I have no idea how to cleanly sew a leather binding into a neckline. Thankfully this is a fairly uncomplicated pattern: no collars, simple raglan sleeves. I’ll write something later sharing my planned materials and process.

In other sewing news, I’ve decided to join up with Fix-it Fridays at pattern scissors cloth. I needed that one little blogosphere push to post about something weekly and especially get through this:

Yes, that’s my very unorganized pile of various UFOs/fixes/alterations (and there’s more in the back!) that beckon me longingly every time I walk into my sewing room. Hopefully, just setting aside special time to work through this and no other sewing projects will help get me past my abhorrence of hemming and learn a few things about alterations in the process.

My first stop on Fix-it Fridays (I know, it’s Sunday!) was to tackle my recent pajamas. They were originally entirely sewn on my regular machine while my serger was in the spa, but the curling seam allowances were driving me nuts. I’m very spoiled by the finish and speed of a serger! The jersey had also “grown” quite a bit after about twenty wearings, so the bottoms especially needed to be taken in and up.

The top didn’t go through many changes; I just cleaned up the chunky seams where the bindings are attached. On the bottoms, I had to remove part of the waistband to properly take them in. I’ll spare you more photos of me in my jammies, but I feel much better in them now!