I posted on Thursday about my idea of using the Cherrywood challenge as a memorial honoring my Dad.
To start with, I needed replicas of his ribbons and awards. I did some searching and found a great store called the “Armed Forces Super Store”. There I was able to find ALL of his ribbons, awards and insignia……
….along with buttons that would fit the time period.
Next I needed to find a “pattern” to use to create the jacket. So, I started scouring photos of WWII army uniforms and finally found one that I thought would work…..
I then pulled this photo into “Canva” and started adding parts of other photos, ending up with this idea……
I made a line drawing of this photo and enlarged it to the size that I wanted (or so I thought)….
But when I laid the ribbons and buttons on top of this pattern, I realized that the scale was off and the uniform needed to be smaller.
I finally realized the the problem was because I had “zoomed in” too much on the uniform and that I needed to back away and use more of the uniform to fill in the space. More along these lines….
This is what I took to the retreat to work on!!
Now there were two problems….
Firstly, Dad’s uniform would have been a browny/olive green color and that particular colors was not in the fabrics that I could use. After a lot of thought, I decided to use the dark grey (almost black) fabric instead……
The second problem….. I only had a Fat Quarter to work with!!
My plan was to make the uniform 3-D, with the lapels, pockets and epaulets being loose on the top. BUT, that was going to take a lot of fabric!!
So, before I started cutting fabric, I decided to test my pattern on muslin, and IT WORKED…..
The next morning I decided to throw caution to the wind and start using the challenge fabrics, starting with the first lapel…..
It worked well, although, in an effort to save fabric, I I did use the light grey on the back of the lapel!!
I added one pocket and side of the jacket…..
….and then the other lapel and jacket side….
At this point, I realized that I would struggle to have enough fabric, so hopped online and ordered another 1/2-yard of the fabric.
I think that this is a good decision because I really need the jacket sides to be a bit wider and then also need fabric for the sleeves.
The only other thing that I have done to date is make the necktie. It was fun to stuff the “tie” portion with batting to make it 3-D…..
I don’t have a great color to use for the shirt so I am planning to add some color to one of the other pieces of fabric to change the color slightly. Apparently that is allowable in the challenge!!
So now I sit waiting for the fabric to arrive!!
After that, I need to finish the uniform and then decide on the rest of the quilt!!
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