Speaking of Shirley

I've got jeans in the making. There's a bit of tweaking to do, as soon as I can get to it. I have a jeans coat, several years old, made from old jeans. I still love that coat. Every spring and fall I wear it a couple of times at least. It's heavy, so it's comfortable only on very cool days.

Shirley Adams did this coat on her television show a long time ago. Years passed, and one day I was looking through the books she published and this coat was in one of them. I decided that it was something I wanted to do. Mine is not a replica, but the technique is the same.

I collected old jeans and used the legs for fabric. Dark jeans, light jeans. They were cut into strips, 3" wide, and sliced into different lengths. Then, strip-pieced into fabric.

I made fabric larger than each piece of the pattern. The fabric was quilted in a cross-hatch design to a cotton tie-dyed fabric. Then, I cut the pattern and assembled the coat.

There's a Hong Kong finish on the seams, and the armholes are bound. I cut leaf-shape pieces from faux suede in turquoise, hot pink and purple along with a green vine, and appliqued them to the front and back.

I used dark denim yardage for pockets, cuffs and binding around the outside of the jacket. The pockets are two denim circles stitched RST, turned through an opening and folded partially to form a flap at the top. Finally, I used iron-on crystals, scattered around.

Hopefully, this weekend I'll finish up my jeans. I have another pair in the queue. If they don't work out, I can always cut off the legs and make another coat!