BurdaStyle velvet jacket and progress on Gossips and major shopping spree

Well I haven't posted for a couple of weeks because I have been very busy creating a velvet jacket.

So you don't need to scroll down, here it is.

  I bought the blue velvet a while ago as I absolutely loved it.  I then had to hunt for a suitable pattern.  I settled on BurdaStyle 08/2015 # 106A.   Once I had decided on this pattern I had to go back for some red velvet as it has contrast pockets, yoke and sleeve plackets.  I also got some lovely bright blue lining as it is fully lined.

As velvet is a very tricky fabric to work with I read lots of articles on how to sew with velvet.  It is very important it is cut on the nap and it can be tricky to stop fabric slipping when sewing, so I used my walking foot for this.   Once I had done my studying it was time to cut out the fabric.  I did this, then double checked the pattern.  This is rated 3 1/2 stars, which equates to difficulty level of Advanced level sewing with special features.  Uh-oh, that sounded way out of my league. I classify myself as an Advanced Beginner.  However it was too late to change my mind, the fabric was cut.  So I decided to just try my best, if it turned out to be disastrous it would just have to be a learning curve.  However  I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  Maybe its' time to upgrade my Sewing skills level on Pattern Review.

The only real problem I had was sewing the lining to the pockets.  The lining fabric slipped terribly from the velvet and I had to handtack around twice before machine sewing.  When attaching it to the velvet facing I was very, very careful to ensure it didn't slip, again doing a lot of hand tacking first.
There is also a heap of hand sewing in this.  The bottom hem of the jacket is all sewn by hand, though I used the machine to blind hem the sleeves.  Then the lining is handsewn to the bottom seam of the jacket and also to the hem of the sleeves.  It was very time consuming, taking around 38 hours.

 However I love it and feel very proud of my achievement so it is time well spent.  Here are more photos.

I've also completed page 3 of Gossips, so here is an update

the blue lines are a frixion pen I use for marking grids of 10 x 10.  They will come out when ironed.  The top of the church is now visible.  I'm hoping the next few pages will go reasonably quickly as it is nearly all sky and not much confetti, yay.

Today I went on a major shopping spree.

I went to SmartDress fabrics in Mt Albert and bought 8 pieces of fabric, and then went to Spotlight and bought some denim and ponte.  I've added them to my fabric stash page along with pictures of what I want to make.  These should keep me going a while, however I still want to buy some fleece to make track pants and sweatshirts.

These are the fabric I bought, unfortunately the colours haven't come out very well at all.  That bright blue at the top right is actually a deep purple, and the purple on the bottom photo at top right is actually red and one of the greys is a indigo denim, and the other is a forest green.