J Crew Knock-off and a great find

After two weeks of dedication I finally finished my J Crew knock off and it came out exactly as I saw it in my minds eye. In fact it came out even better than I imagined. The color looks really bright in the picture but it's more of a fruit punch color. I tried to get the color as true as possible using Photoshop Express on the web, which I also really liked.

I made a few really easy modifications to the pattern. One thing I did was eliminate the upper collar and collar stand since the ruffles would now be my collar. Next I eliminated the buttons and made it a robe style. I also added a neck band facing to stabilize the collar.

I had just enough fabric to do the body so I created the ruffles by sewing leftover scraps together. You can see the seams in some places but it doesn't take away from the overall fabulousness of the jacket.

Here is a picture of the lining. I just love the contrast. Even though the color of the jacket is pretty bright i feel the lining enhances the "pow" factor.

I also used the lining for the pockets. I get giggly just looking at it.

And for the final touch I embroidered my initial on the back neck facing. Even though I have had my embroidery machine for about a year and a half I'm still learning how to work with it. I wanted to get the initial a little smaller. Maybe I will play around with that feature this weekend.

I can't wait til the weather warms up enough for me to wear it. On J. Crew this jacket retails for $200. My jacket, just $25. Can't beat that with a stick. lol

For now I'm just showing the pieces for my collection on my dress form. I want to get a few more pieces done so that I can show everything as a complete look. If I'm going to do a mini collection I might as well do a mini fashion spread also. And speaking of my "Ode to Carolina Herrera" mini collection look what I found while walking through the garment district earlier this week.

This Carolina Herrera cotton canvas at Mood for $14/yd. Whoo hoo!!!!!! This will become a more traditional trench coat using the same pattern I used for my J. Crew knock-off. Not bad, huh. My trench will cost me about $75 to make compared to hers which goes for about $2500. She actually used this fabric on the runway as a bathing suit cover-up but I'm sure even her bathing suit cover-ups are pretty expensive.

Next up a geometric print cotton pencil skirt using a simple skirt pattern from 12/07 Burda and a pair of cream cotton twill slack using View C from M5515 .