How do you like our six inches of snow?
We get ridiculously excited about every winter storm warning in the South, wipe out the grocery stores and cancel events in anticipation of snow. This ‘winter storm’ I hit the sewing machine with a color hot enough to melt the ice off the patio.
When the skies turned gray my eye turned to this bright pink boucle on the Mood Fabrics website. It is soft, it is happy and it is well-behaved 
My pattern is Vogue 9022 sewn last month in a color block style with Mood’s black and white wool crepe. This time I sewed the pattern straight up; a much easier undertaking. I took extra precaution to prevent raveling and stretching by rushing to the sewing machine after cutting each piece to stay-stitch curved edges, followed by finishing all of the edges on every pattern piece on the serger.
I discovered the enjoyment of creating boucle fringe (blogged here) and couldn’t resist embellishing the pockets and cuffs with self fringe. It’s a breeze to make by cutting strips on the cross grain, stay- stitching 1/2 inch from the edge and raveling to the stay stitch.
I made a double fringe trim for the pockets which I applied with a topstitch before sewing the side seams together. The sleeves are trimmed with a single fringe which was sewn right side down to the sleeve then flipped over and top stitched.
Speaking of topstitching, I find boucle is one of the easiest fabrics to topstitch! In addition to the fringe I topstitched the two front center seams and around the neckline.
The jeweled pocket buttons are recycled from an old Talbots’ sweater.
The boucle has a lovely drape, and is quickly rising on my list of favorite fabrics! With the exception of being prone to raveling, the fabric is perfect.
So here’s to boucle (not just for French Jackets), embellishing easy patterns and fast melting snow!
Stay warm :)