← Threads Magazine Podcast: "Sewing With Threads"
Threads Magazine Podcast: "Sewing With Threads"
Sewing Quilted Jackets, with Rae Cumbie and Carrie Emerson | Episode 88
00:45:26
As the quilted garment trend grows, the founders of Fit for Art Patterns talk about sewing quilted jackets, the topic of their latest book.
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- [00:00]
Rena O
Join us on an exclusive trip to London in May 2025. Highlights of this tour are a glovemaking masterclass with luxury designer Rena O, an embroidery workshop at Hand and Lock, a visit to a renowned theatrical costume house, and a guided tour of Savile Row. We'll also visit specialty fabric shops and enjoy afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason. To find out more, go to threadsmagazine.com.
- [00:32]
Carol Fraser
Welcome to Sewing with Threads, the monthly podcast with the staff of Threads magazine. I'm your host, Carol Fraser, and my guests today are Rae Cumby and Kerri Emerson, creative sewists extraordinaire. Ray is the Creative Director of Fit for Art Patterns. She started her career in her home studio as a custom clothier and eventually earned the title of Baltimore's Best Tailor from Baltimore Magazine. She's a highly regarded teacher and designer and is the genius behind the endlessly versatile Tabula Rasa jacket pattern, which has long been a favorite of our readers and authors. She's also held leadership positions in the association of Sewing and Design Professionals. Carrie spent a decade as an assistant Attorney General in Maryland before making the transition to the arts. She's the managing director of Fit for Art Patterns, where she's been able to blend her longtime interest in quilting and patchwork with with her skill in crafting sophisticated garments. Her legal expertise is an essential part of the thriving pattern company. Kerri is also an active member of the association of Sewing and Design Professionals. You can find Ray and kerri online@fitforartpatterns.com welcome Ray and Carrie Hey.
- [01:43]
Rae Cumby
Hi.
- [01:43]
Kerri Emerson
It's nice to be here.
- [01:44]
Carol Fraser
It's nice to see you both. And the listeners should know that Carrie is coming to us from Baltimore and Ray is coming to us from her home in the south of France. Lucky me, where they're having eye wins and may may cut the power at any time. We'll talk quickly. I invited you both to join me because I wanted to talk to you about your new book, Sewing Quilted Patchwork Jackets, which came out last fall. From what I gather, this book was a labor of love and it's the culmination of years of collaborative work and even more years of friendship between the two of you. I'd love to know what inspired you to write the book.
- [02:25]
Rae Cumby
Well, we have been working on quilted jackets since the very beginning of the company, since really before the company. I had been asked to do some teaching. I could not, mostly for quilters and weavers, and I couldn't find a pattern that I could get on a Lot of people fast and like a two day class. And it turned out, you know, you were just fitting the whole time and never doing anything fun. And I had worked with some pants patterns that where you made mock ups and people could put them on and they had optional choices. And I thought, we need a pattern like this. And I had been playing around for myself with this kind of square armhole concept, which is very ancient design, but trying to get it a little sleeker and leaner and a little bit more modern. And I had come to a place where I was pretty pleased with it. So I got a grant from the Potomac Fiber Arts guild in Washington D.C. which I belong to, and studied with quilters and weavers how to make. I taught them how to make jackets. They taught me how to do the part of the process of creating the fabric for the jackets. And I just got really hooked. I just thought it was the quilting particularly. It was so user friendly to somebody who knew how to work a sewing machine. You could make just these really interesting garments with the square armhole design, which was what I had created for each of my collaborators in the grant. You can mix fabrics pretty cleanly. They aren't going odd places when they get under your arm or whatever. It's all pretty, pretty tidy. And I just really found it to be a lot of fun. And because we, with the pattern that we've developed, which then became that tabula rasa jacket and ultimately became a version of it, a little bigger, more overcoat size is the opus pattern in the book. It just became something we were doing every year, making one or two. There was always a couple in our repertoire when we did a show or a trunk show, and there were always people interested, but we really were struggling to get quilters connected to us. They didn't want to make garments and they didn't think they could, and they weren't interested. And they were worried about the fit. All those things legitimately sew. And so we have been trying to break down those barriers with the quilting community and the sewing community for a long time. When we met the people at Fox Chapel Press, they said, what would you like to write about? And I said, well, we think we have a pretty good track record with quilted jackets. And they said, wow, so hot in fashion right now. Such a fun concept. And, you know, we've been wishing we knew somebody who could write that book. And then we said, well, we think we can. So that's how it started. And I think that it was. I mean, Carrie can speak to this too. It was just amazing to try to put together 10 projects all at once. We had eight months to create the garments, put everything together, and so it was a lot of work. It was a lot of quilted jackets, it was a lot of quilting. But we still love it. I mean, I think it was really a fun experience and we're so pleased with the product. I think that the book is really. It's really fun and hopefully user friendly for anybody who might want to make their own quilted jacket.
- [06:18]
Carol Fraser
Well, who do you envision as your ideal reader? You were talking about trying to bring together the quilting community and the garment sewing community. Do you. What kind of, what kind of sewing experience would you need in order to be able to make good use of your book?
- [06:31]
Kerri Emerson
Well, we really hope that both quilters and sewers will find it useful. As Ray said, quilters have been scared of doing garments. And we're hoping that with the whole process that we present in the book, they'll have the confidence to make a mock up and then go on to use their quilting skills to make really beautiful jackets. And then there are lots of sewers who haven't done much quilting or. And we just hope that they'll be inspired to give it a try. They can start with the easiest projects in the book where you don't really. You just what we call whole cloth. You use a whole piece for each different section of the jacket. But you might play with fabrics, mix your colors, find coordinating things, and then move on to incorporating more complicated piecing and other quilting type techniques as you get experienced.
- [07:32]
Carol Fraser
I, I feel like when I was looking through the book, it, it starts, it's. There's quite a bit of great information in it, and almost a beginner, I think, could really work with this book pretty well. I. There. There might be things that you would need to know just as general sewing kinds of things, but you have fitting information and you have a lot of information about cutting and layout and all those different things that you. And each one of those is geared so that the projects will be manageable. So if you want to work through some of those projects, I think a beginner person could do it. It seems like the sort of thing that could be a lot of fun for say, like a sewing group to work together on.
- [08:13]
Rae Cumby
Right.
- [08:14]
Carol Fraser
Because the jacket pattern is relatively easy to fit and it's flattering for so many body types.
- [08:21]
Rae Cumby
Right. The other thing is we have this children's version also included in the book. And so if you don't Want to make one for yourself if you're afraid to sew one for yourself for fitting purposes or otherwise. The children's version is pretty easy and quick and you're quilting really small pieces, so I mean, it's fun too. And there's always a cute kit that you can make a coat for. So, you know, we, we would like for it to be a project for, you know, all levels of sewists, all ages of sewists, all, you know, really anybody who's interested in the creative process of helping themselves get dressed in an interesting way.
- [09:01]
Carol Fraser
Well, within the book, are the projects arranged in an order of easiest to most difficult or is it just whatever you choose?
- [09:11]
Kerri Emerson
Yeah, we definitely arrange them progressively, starting from the simplest, the whole cloth, as I was mentioning, and then progressing to a little bit of piecing with the Night sky coat, we call it. That's just. What do they call it? Like the jelly rolls that you put together. And then each project sort of builds on that with new skills, both in the patchwork and in adding more complex garment sewing techniques to challenge people as they get more experience. And so both within the six adult jackets and then the four kid jackets, they both progress from the easiest to the most complicated. But we also hope that people, once they've mastered the basic skills, will be able to go on and mix and match a lot of the techniques. Really, really can't wait to see what people do with all the tools that we're giving them in the book.
- [10:15]
Carol Fraser
Do you have a hashtag that people could use if they wanted to post their projects on Instagram or something? I think you have fit for our patterns, but do you have anything that would be.
- [10:25]
Rae Cumby
We have fit for our patterns. We have. So successful. I think we have a.
- [10:29]
Kerri Emerson
We have sewing quilted one.
- [10:31]
Rae Cumby
That's a name of the book. Yeah, there's a hashtag with the name of the book. So if you put it under sewing quilted patchwork jackets, which doesn't really roll off the tongue, but it definitely says what's in the book. And, and that was, that was our plan. We wanted it to be, you know, really logical. I think we also used some techniques, especially in the piecing. The piecing is mostly pretty simple in, in this book and it is, it uses a lot of things that a quilter would have on them shelves. You know, we wanted it to be something that you could say, oh yes, I have charm packs. I bought this big giant charm pack, which are these little 5 inch squares, pre cuts. They're so appealing when you go to the store you can buy and then you can turn it into the project number three or the cherry rolls, if you have one of those. Or jelly rolls. The first one we used was from cherry wood fabrics and it's was called a cherry roll and I'm always calling them that, but they're called jelly rolls in the stores. And you create a piece of fabric with stripes basically, and then you use that. So we, we've really worked hard to organize it in a way that it's super user friendly. The first few projects they have free hanging linings. So this gets us into the actual garment sewing part of it. That's the easiest way to do it. To quilt your pieces, assemble the jacket and then just drop a lining in covers all your, your threads and sins and mistakes and all those things. And then you move, you can move into the quilted linings, which are a little bit harder. And then the, the last. Well, the Project 5 and Project 10 are both reversible. That's the hardest, I think, in terms of the engineering and figuring out how it's going to go together. But if you've done a couple, you know, I would say don't start with those, but if you've done a couple others, you know, it's easy to transition into.
- [12:43]
Carol Fraser
Yeah, I, I loved the fact that you had the projects that are based on jelly rolls or on other pre cuts because I'm, I'm not a quilter at all. But when I go into a quilting shop, I just love those little pre cut packages and I look at them and think, I could buy it, I could buy it, but what will I do with that?
- [12:59]
Rae Cumby
Yeah, yeah.
- [13:00]
Carol Fraser
So now, now, you know, and they're all coordinated for you. You don't have to worry a lot about, you know, choosing all this.
- [13:06]
Rae Cumby
And there's even yardage you can get to, you know, make the sleeves, make the sides so that you don't have to be doing it all in the, in the pieced fabric. So that's the other thing. We move through the book from no piecing to more complicated piecing. I'd say that the project number nine and the project number.
- [13:31]
Kerri Emerson
So nine is the little kid's jacket. With a lot of patchwork.
- [13:37]
Rae Cumby
With a lot of patchwork, yes. It's the most complicated of the piecing projects for sure. The others are pretty straightforward.
- [13:46]
Carol Fraser
In each case, are you piecing a whole piece of fabric and then cutting the garment from it?
- [13:51]
Rae Cumby
The only one that we did like that was the Night sky, the, the number two, which they Call the jelly roll jacket, which. And, and it is. You can't really do that piece by piece. You just have to make the fabric and place it. Otherwise we're often, we're often creating sections that are the right size to cut for yourself. And, you know, once you've fitted a MOCA and you have the garment and we walk people through the process of creating a, what I would call, what we call a full pattern. So you have a right front, a left front, full back, these things that you need to have to visualize how it's all going to come together. Then you can start building each of those pieces and watch how they're going to join and connect. And that's really a nice part of the puzzle, I think. So. So most of them are created. Each piece is created. Often the sleeves are whole cloth, not all of them, but some of them. And the side panels are whole cloth. And then the rest of it, the fronts and backs are pieced. And again, that's a little more user friendly for somebody coming from the garment sewing world into the quilting, into the quilting world. At a couple places in the book, we ask them to put things like, you know, say if you're a quilter, a 5, 8 inch seam is going to look like, you know, a foot a yard. It's huge. And if you're a garment sewer, a quarter inch seam looks like a hair's breadth. I mean, you just. And these are the things that you have to get over, and we try to mention them in the book to say, you can do this. It's not that hard. It's just different than what you've been doing before. Way.
- [15:48]
Carol Fraser
Yes, absolutely. The quarter inch is. Feels like not very much to me unless I'm doing something like surging knits, so.
- [15:58]
Rae Cumby
Right, yeah.
- [15:59]
Carol Fraser
And, and I suppose it, it also matters because you want accuracy. If you want your corners to match up in some of the quilting, some of the piecing, you need to, you need to make sure that things are kind of going together properly.
- [16:12]
Rae Cumby
Right.
- [16:13]
Carol Fraser
All right. So if you are afraid to start a jacket, but you want to get into doing some quilting, could you, could you work with this a little bit to sort of start doing that? I mean, how would you, what would you recommend doing?
- [16:28]
Kerri Emerson
Well, again, I'd recommend starting with something like the patchwork jacket that is just squares put together where you don't have to get super concerned about the fit as much about, I mean, about all the pieces fitting together quite as much, or the jelly roll and then the Collage pieces that Ray has done don't have a lot of patchwork. It's all. It's a very different approach to getting.
- [16:57]
Rae Cumby
It's almost an applique.
- [16:59]
Kerri Emerson
Yeah, yeah. To getting a different. A patchwork look or a very complex quilted look without doing a lot of quilted patchwork assembly.
- [17:08]
Carol Fraser
Okay, that sounds smart. So.
- [17:12]
Rae Cumby
And that's. That was started with a panel. Another thing that you go into the quilting store and you see these panels and you think, what am I going to do with that? And there's no part of the body that a whole panel can fit on, but you can cut the pieces out and then put them onto something else. So I think for. For general sewist garments, a garment maker or, you know, somebody who's just made, like, pillowcases and tote bags and things like that, which is the way people get started, Even a dirndl skirt or something like that, then using the whole cloth process, where you're doing the quilting and you get to see the magic of creating that textural piece of fabric from no texture at all. But you also are not, again, having to work around the piecing. You're not having to figure out how to quilt it with all these little pieces there or what is going on, because there's an infinite number of ways to do those things. And if you start looking it up online or even in other books, you'll be just, like, kind of blown away. So we have some easy quilting techniques that we introduce. Talk about. Everything is photographed, I think, pretty thoroughly and nicely to walk people along the process. And then we are doing a series of blog posts. On our weekly blog, once a month, we write about one of the books. We call it the Secrets of Jacket number because we weren't able to put everything in the book. So a little bit more in depth, look at how those little star appliques were made and put on or those sorts of things so that we can keep people interested and engaged and see that it's not that hard when you pull a little bit out and work on it.
- [19:07]
Carol Fraser
Is this all by machine? Do you have any hand stitching?
- [19:12]
Rae Cumby
These are all by machine, actually. I mean, we have done some hand things. I love doing hand things. And so, you know, maybe that's the next book. Complicated Quilted jackets. These are simpler. These are all done with the machine. But we do say you could do them by hand if you wanted to. I mean, you could certainly do the quilting by hand if you wanted to. You could. Each piece is quilted alone. And then the garment is assembled. So you're not having to quilt over curves, corners. You're working on flat pieces. They're small. It's pretty easy. It's like doing a little lap quilt or a doll quilt when you're working on each piece.
- [19:59]
Carol Fraser
Yeah, that was very appealing to me because people say, do you quilt? And I say, I just can't have that many pieces of fabric in my house big enough for a whole quilt, but for a garment, yeah, you could do that well and it would be very manageable.
- [20:10]
Kerri Emerson
Yeah, it's very hard to manage a big quilt, especially if you're using a standard sewing machine and by breaking it down and doing each piece separately. It's very easy to do at home on the machine that you are used to using. And a basic machine has all the stitches and everything that you need.
- [20:31]
Rae Cumby
Yeah.
- [20:33]
Carol Fraser
When you are doing, you need to baste the layers together to do the quilting on each piece. How do you recommend basting? Do you pin, baste, or use the glue, spray or. What is your preference?
- [20:49]
Kerri Emerson
We mostly do pins. You could hand baste if you wanted to, but. But we're kind of like to be efficient and quick and. And that's what we're after.
- [21:02]
Rae Cumby
So I would say, you know, if you're really trying to position something in a particular place or connect things in a particular way, you know, you could baste. You could put some basting in. It's really more in the assembling. You have to be worried about how it all fits in together. And when you're trimming off the pieces you've quilted, which you leave that extra in there. So if they shrink, you have a way to. To still get. Get the right size piece for the right size garment you're trying to make.
- [21:34]
Kerri Emerson
I do think, Ray, maybe you have used the hand basting a few times when you were doing a reversible garment, trying to line up both sides.
- [21:42]
Rae Cumby
Sometimes if you're lining up places where you want the it to work, you can do that. I'm not sure I did it on this jacket because the one side was completely whole cloth. That's the easiest way to start when you're, you know, each piece was one cloth, so and the. The quilting was based on the decorative part that has the Asian designs on it. So you have to pick one or the other. You know, I'd say quilt. You know, doing the reversible jackets is great fun challenge, but it's also. Sometimes you can get a little crazy.
- [22:23]
Carol Fraser
I know that when you're going to quilt a jacket, you need to leave yourself some extra wide seam allowances because after you quilt, you need to trim the pattern down to the correct size. Is that excess included in the pattern that you have?
- [22:35]
Rae Cumby
It's not. The pattern has a 5, 8 inch seam allowance built in. Because of course, that's how the garment sewer mind works. We'd ask people to add another half an inch as they're cutting out. That way they don't even really have to be cutting precisely until they are ready to trim it after they have quilted it. And then for some people, the pieces that they've cut will shrink because of the amount of quilting they put in or the process of quilting that they have used. You just want to make sure they have enough. That's why we add that extra. Then they just lay their pattern back down on it when it's finished and pressed and cut it to the right size.
- [23:23]
Carol Fraser
Okay, that, and that makes sense to me because obviously then your pattern is the size you want to cut for your. For your actual jacket.
- [23:30]
Rae Cumby
Exactly.
- [23:31]
Carol Fraser
Okay, let's do a little bit of a semi lightning round of your favorites. And I'd love to hear from both of you on these. So I'd like to know, what is your favorite fabric to use when you're making a quilted jacket?
- [23:43]
Kerri Emerson
Well, I think, speaking for myself, I've done cotton. I've never tried something else for a quilted jacket. It's probably time to experiment, maybe as Ray said, the next round. But for now it's been cotton.
- [23:58]
Carol Fraser
And is it. Why do you like cotton so much?
- [24:01]
Kerri Emerson
There's a huge variety of colors. It's been pretty available even now with quilting shops and things and just really pretty prints and patterns and it's easy to work with.
- [24:14]
Carol Fraser
What about you, Ray?
- [24:15]
Rae Cumby
So stable. You know, I love working with cotton too, and it's freeing because you don't work with a lot of cotton when you're a garment maker. So you get to use all those fabrics that you haven't always used. I think it's very consistent with the way people dress nowadays. It's casual, has a sense of light heartedness, easy to throw in the laundry, you know, those sorts of things. So cotton is great. I have used linen, I have used silks. I have basically quilted some shears together. So I, you know, I think that the quilting process adapts itself to almost any fabric you have. But when you're starting learning, trying to create, the cotton is so available and so exceptional these days. If you buy nice quality.
- [25:14]
Carol Fraser
Yeah. And. And as Carrie says it is, it's beautiful colors. The prints are usually quite lovely and if you are not into that kind of thing, there are some gorgeous looking ones that kind of skew very neutral and you can get beautiful, you know, like ecot type prints, things like that, that have, that have a less brightly colored feel to them, which is nice. Right. What about batting? What do you recommend for batting? I know there are options, but do you have a favorite?
- [25:44]
Rae Cumby
Well, I love the Hobbs silk. That's what's in the one that's made with the panel, from the panel, the Asian jacket. It's very lightweight, but it has a very sort of spongy loft, which I think is very nice. But I love some cottons too. And then the Quilter's Dream has a batting called Orient. No, it used to be called Orient, it's called Bamboo now. And it's a beautiful blend. It has silk and bamboo, rayon cotton. It's very drapey. So if you're doing something sort of long or you want it to be soft, sometimes I put it only in the sleeves. So the sleeves a little drapier, but the rest of the body is crisper. Depending on what I'm using.
- [26:36]
Kerri Emerson
Yeah. I'd say the Quilter's Dream Bamboo. Bamboo is my favorite. But it also depends on what you're going to be wearing the coat for and whether if it's. If you want it really warm, you may want a warmer kind of batting. So that's also a factor.
- [26:52]
Rae Cumby
Yeah. We did a really cute coat for Carrie after the book came out. That's a canvas, cotton canvas with thinsulate batting. She'd been wearing it all winter.
- [27:04]
Kerri Emerson
I mean, it's very warm.
- [27:05]
Carol Fraser
Yeah, Yeah, I bet. And I know that if you're going into a season that's a little bit warmer, you could use something as thick fine as a sheet of muslin or an old bed sheet or something like that too. You won't get so much loft, but you'll have something that gives you a little bit of structure.
- [27:20]
Rae Cumby
Yeah. But if you choose something sort of textural, like seersucker or something to put inside, you do get a little bit more loft.
- [27:27]
Carol Fraser
Oh, I had never thought of that. That's a great idea. And it probably gives you a little bit of sort of thermal insulation either. Yeah, that's kind of neat.
- [27:36]
Rae Cumby
Just fun.
- [27:38]
Carol Fraser
That's a great idea.
- [27:38]
Rae Cumby
Yeah.
- [27:39]
Carol Fraser
Yeah. How about. What kind of piecing style do you like? I know that, Ray. You do quite a bit of applique and collage kind of applique, but there's also, you know, regular, just stitched together. Patrick, do you, do you have a favorite? Carrie, what about you? Do you have a favorite?
- [27:55]
Kerri Emerson
Well, I really enjoyed doing that again, that little kids jacket, because I hadn't done a real piece of patchwork like that in a long time with our focus on garment sewing with all the other fit for art patterns. So that, that's what I've done a lot of and I've done long ago. And you can find these in our photo gallery. We've made jackets using much more traditional quilting, square quilting patterns, like a square and a square and some other things. So those are fun for me too.
- [28:33]
Rae Cumby
I made the little charm pack ones, the little 5 inch square ones, and I did. I didn't buy charm packs. I had enough fabric in my basement to cut all those little squares myself. But I, I enjoyed that more than I thought I would. You know what I mean? I was like, okay, we have to do this, I'll do this. But. And I left it in the States when I came to France. And I can't wait to get home and wear it this spring because it fits me. I think maybe right now the things I like the best that I've pieced are the ones that fit me and I get to enjoy them.
- [29:07]
Carol Fraser
Okay, well, that's, that's very legitimate, I would say, I think that when we do pattern review garments, we always have the pattern review garments sewn up in for threads. And the ones that fit me are, are few and far between. Let me just put it that way, because I'm not a model, but when they do fit me, I'm like, this is a great, great garment. So that fit is always good. Yeah. And we, we talked a little bit about quilting and you know, how you baste or, or, or spray or pin before, and that most of that, all these projects are quilted by machine. Is there a particular quilting method or design that is best for these?
- [29:49]
Kerri Emerson
No, you can really use whatever suits you and the fabric. I mean, we think a lot about what will suit the fabric. And if it's a pieced fabric, you need to think about how it will blend with the piecing. So we've done both just straight quilting with a straight stitch, and we've both done some free motion quilting. We have very different preferences about that. Ray loves the bsr. I have never been able to make myself love it. And I like to just use like a darning foot with the feed dogs down. And I feel like I have better control for the free motion with that.
- [30:33]
Carol Fraser
Oh. So Ray, you want to tell us just quickly what the BSR is?
- [30:37]
Rae Cumby
It's the Bernina stitch regulator which I encountered. I actually went out and bought a machine with it because I was so struggling with free motion when I first started doing some quilting. And I thought this will help me. And it did help me a lot because it doesn't feel like sewing. I don't have to press the, I don't have to engage the machine the way I engage it when I'm sewing a regular seam or a finish. So for me, that works. Everyone finds, and we've talked about this in the book, find the way that works for you. You know, you don't have to do it necessarily even our way, but, but find it. I, you know, I. One of the fun puzzles for me is figuring out how I'm going to quilt it. And I'm a consummate sample maker and so I love to just spend time putting different threads on and quilting in different ways and figuring out which way I like for it to look and what I think really suits the fabric and that sort of thing. And we just made a cute little set of samples for, to just show this. And I made four or five this funny fabric with like mid century modern furniture on it. And I had a very fun time doing different quilting techniques and using different threads and stuff to figure out which. We haven't ever made the jacket. We've just made all these great samples right now.
- [32:09]
Carol Fraser
Well, I would recommend for anybody who is thinking about this, but they're not sure where to start to just play around with some samples. You know, even if you can get swatches of batting and that kind of thing and see what layers you like, I mean, you're going to want to do that anyway before you choose to do anything. You'll want to figure that sort of stuff out. But the, the way the stitch length and the, the thread thickness, all those things make such a difference in the appearance of your quilting. So it's, it is very fun to test that at the on the show notes. That'll be@threadsmagazine.com we'll do some links to some of Ray's past articles. She's written about the Bernina stitch regulator, which is a function that allows you to free motion stitch that is without the feed dogs pushing the fabric around and keeping the stitch even the whole time. So you can go in any direction and you'll still have very even stitching. Normally when you do free motion embroidery, for anybody who doesn't know, you drop the feed dogs and you steer the fabric yourself and you just set the machine for a straight stitch and you just kind of drive your fabric around. And the difficult part of that for most people is to keep an even stitch length throughout your stitching. And I think if you are really, really a super perfectionist, it might make you crazy, but if you're willing to accept some, some irregularities, it's fine. I am not good at it myself. I haven't done it very much and I found it really fun, but also challenging.
- [33:38]
Kerri Emerson
So it's, it's a very different style. Yeah. Before we leave that, I would just like to say neither Ray nor I are super sophisticated quilters. And I can't wait to see somebody who, who has done award winning quilts make a quilted jacket and, and what they can do with it. So please, bring it on, girls.
- [34:00]
Carol Fraser
I agree. I think that there is so much potential with all of these techniques and tracing your fabric motifs with stitching, all those things that you see in some of those, you know, incredible award winning quilts. I think it'll be very fun to see what people do with this. So I wanted to ask what your favorite project from the book is. Are you allowed to say or do the other projects get their feelings hurt?
- [34:25]
Rae Cumby
Yeah, they might. Well, it's hard not to love the children's ones. I have to say, you know, they're so cute and adorable and I feel really fondly towards both of the jackets that were made with those orphan blocks, which is a very funny name to me. But it's quilt blocks that actually our editor had made a long time ago and never used. And she sent them to us and said, what can you do, girls? And it was a challenge because they were old enough that all of the current fabric in the stores wasn't exactly the right color. So we searched and we bought some things. She sent some of the leftovers she had to us, and then we went to our favorite antique fabric vendor here in France and found a couple things. And that's what kind of made it all come together. They're both very different, but I just think they're really, really fun. And I love taking those old things or discarded things and turning them into something new. And I didn't make both of those. I just made the little one. Carrie made the one for the adult. I think that, you know, it's like birthing babies, having, you know, making a quilted jacket is a lot of work and you feel strongly towards all of them. And I think we were really pleased with how they all turned out. So hard to pick.
- [35:57]
Kerri Emerson
I will say I. As a finished jacket, I'm really favoring the one that was made from a finished quilt a lot because I think it was such a great quilt for the purpose. It just made such a really bold and striking looking coat. But I would also say that if you want to get started, that is almost the easiest way to start, because you're not actually doing any patchwork or quilting. You're just cutting it up and resewing it. So for a garment sewer, that might be a great place to start.
- [36:30]
Carol Fraser
That's a great idea. Yeah.
- [36:32]
Rae Cumby
We also often recommend people who are trying to get started make a vest. You know, you don't have to have all that big sleeve. You don't have to fit the sleeve. Fitting sleeve is complicated. It's easy to pop on and off in seasonal weather. It's a really terrific extra layer. So I think that, you know, we do have one vest in the book, and that technique can be used for any, you know, any of the. Any of the other things. It's all. We have an index at the back, so you can pick and choose each of the details that you want and sort of build your own jacket if you don't want to do one, you know, straight off the book, straight out of the chapter in the book.
- [37:20]
Carol Fraser
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I feel like I've been around in the sewing world long enough that I've seen quilted jackets be a thing and then stop being a thing, and they're a thing again now. There was that whole period of time in the sort of 2000 teens, especially when everybody was wearing those little short, fitted, fitted jackets, and nobody wanted anything that was boxy or didn't, you know, show their waistline or something. So. And now, as you say, people are more casual. They're maybe more interested in something that. That reflects a sense of artistry. They have fabrics that they've collected around the world, and they don't know what to do with those, and they want to do something interesting. And so a patchwork piece is a really great way to bring those into your. Into your wardrobe and to. And to be able to wear them. I did mean to ask you, how do you take care of these? I know some can be washed. Do you wash all of them? I would imagine the ones with the silk batting, maybe you don't.
- [38:21]
Rae Cumby
You can watch. You can wash the silk Batting, although because of the collage on that, I might initially not wash it. But all the, you know, the fabrics were washed ahead of time. That's important. If you want to wash it, wash them ahead of time. But if you throw them in the washer, they come out actually more textural than when they went in. And so you can easily do that, and then, you know, press them a little bit if you want to soften some of that texture or leave them, you know, fluffy, if that is what you want, or if that's what the batting that you put in it effect that it gave it. So. So you have a lot of. So many interesting pieces that come together to create each unique piece.
- [39:14]
Carol Fraser
Yes. That's a metaphor for the whole thing, though, too, because every project in the book has got a lot of wonderful features. Even if it's a whole cloth, it has maybe a contrast neck band or binding around the edges, and there's a different lining, and there's just so much in each one that's really fun and interesting. And given how the instructions are written out very clear, very detailed, it's not hard to make it happen. You know, you just need to go step by step through it, and it seems like it could be very fun. And I've always loved your aesthetic from the Fit for Art. A few people, the listeners, should go to the Fit for Art and look at the gallery. There's. It's not all quilted jackets, but there's a lot of stuff with many pieces where the. There. There's color blocking and print blocking and. And all kinds of ways of using lovely fabrics together so that they all enhance each other. And to me, that's a. A wonderful way to bring some joy into your sewing and to start feeling like my basic garment doesn't have to be a gray blazer. I could actually make something that goes with everything, and it could also have its own sort of personality. So I think that the quilted jackets are where it's at for that kind of thing. Yeah, I really. I really. Well, I'm not getting any sewing done these days, but when I do, that's what I want to get to.
- [40:37]
Rae Cumby
Right, right. We're all busy. I do think that the quilted jacket just adds another layer of sort of fun sewing option for any sewist who's been sewing a long time. Sends you to a new direction. And if you're new, it just is like magic. It's just all these different pieces coming together and creating. Once you start layering, it certainly got under my skin. And I'm busy doing it almost all the time. And I think that it just really is a fun way to sew and to sew interestingly, which has just always been something I've cared about. And unique.
- [41:25]
Carol Fraser
Yes. And for readers, when they get the book in their hands, they'll notice that there's some great information at the beginning with some design principles for choosing colors and creating balance within the composition that you're making in the garment. All things that are worth thinking about. None of these. There's a feeling like patchwork is random, but it is not necessarily random. You really do have to think about each step, and it's not hard to do it. It's just something that you can enjoy sitting and thinking about and deciding what you like and what works. And it's a extremely good exercise for your creativity. So it's something to enjoy and have fun with. And that will bring you to even greater success when you're making your jacket.
- [42:07]
Kerri Emerson
Yeah. And I think a lot of quilters and sewers are very architectural mind in terms of putting things together. And it's a great challenge if, if that's your orientation.
- [42:20]
Carol Fraser
Yes, yes, I think so. I think there's that, and I think there's also the sense of letting go. Like eight. Like, for example, symmetry isn't mandatory. You might find a really great way to make something that doesn't look out of balance but also isn't perfectly symmetrical. And that can bring an unusual interest and something unique to what you're making. Really fun to play with that kind of thing. Ray and Carrie, it has been so fun to talk to you. Thank you so much for joining me today. And we will have to keep our eyes out for your hashtag and see what people are, are posting what they've been making from your book and what they're doing on their own. And I, I, I look forward to what, what was it? More complicated quilting? Quilted jackets next time, if you get to that.
- [43:03]
Rae Cumby
Right. That's right. That's right. Well, we appreciate the opportunity to be here. Don't forget that the pattern is in the book. I mean, this book is an incredible bargain. If you're looking for a sewing bargain, it has the full tile pattern and a connection to take you to the pattern that is. And this is a great pattern for a quilted jacket. It's got enough room, but not too much. It's easy to sew. Square armhole. Carrie masterfully mapped it out. It's a wonderful draft for both the kids and the adults.
- [43:43]
Kerri Emerson
One thing we really haven't gotten into. Maybe we're out of time, but is it has two different styles, too. So you can start with the very basic kimono band and work up to adding the collar, which involves also having quilted the lining into the other two layers.
- [44:00]
Carol Fraser
Okay. Yes, that's right. I did see those in there, and I didn't mention them, but this is that. That can give you the extra challenge if you need it, or make it very simple if you want to. Yeah, it's. It's there. So. And I think that after you've mastered those things, if you want to make changes, you can also do that because it is a fairly, fairly straightforward work to change the neckline if you want to a little bit. But I'm, I'm a big fan of the square armhole. And the fact that you have a side panel gives you a good place to put. You know, just if you don't have enough fabric, you can fill in with a coordinating fabric under there and put all the rest of your fabric in the front and the back where it's going to make more of a difference. So there's lots of good ways to make use of this pattern. Thank you so much, Carrie and Ray, for joining me today to talk about your book, sewing Quilted Patchwork Jackets.
- [44:46]
Kerri Emerson
Well, thank you. It's been great to talk to you, and we appreciate you having us on.
- [44:50]
Rae Cumby
Yes. Thank you, Thread. Thank you, Carol.
- [44:53]
Carol Fraser
The book is available wherever books are sold and@fitforartpatterns.com and you can get a signed copy there.
- [45:01]
Rena O
Thank you to our guests for joining us and thanks to all of you for listening. Please remember to send your comments, questions, and suggestions to thhreadsmagazine.com and please like, comment and subscribe wherever you are listening. Until next time, keep on sewing with threads.