My Show Jacket is in a Contest!

Remember that show jacket I mentioned?  Well, it's finished, and it's a finalist in the 2012 Hobby Horse Elements Designer Contest!!!

You can visit Hobby Horse's Facebook page to view the other 5 finalists and to vote for us by "like"ing our photo!  The winners are selected by Facebook votes and by Hobby Horse employees.  Details on their page.

I'm very honored just to be a finalist, but it would be so cool if I were to win!  CLICK HERE to vote before October 31st!  

The jacket will soon be in the hands of Becca from R Lil Bit of Cash!  Becca wanted a new showmanship jacket, and I wanted an excuse to enter Hobby Horse's Elements Designer Contest, so after a bit of collaboration on color and style and several versions of the design emailed back and forth, I created this jacket for her. 

The Hobby Horse Elements we used were the Chocolate Pants Fabricand the Silver Shimmer Sheets.  The entries needed to include but were not limited to the Elements.  The fushia is ultrasuede and we used a few hundred genuine Swarovski crystals in 5 different colors and 3 sizes.  Becca will be able to get the Chocolate pants from Hobby Horse and they will match perfectly.  They're also having a sale right now on all of their Basics if you want your own! :)

I communicated the design ideas with Becca with (several) photoshop drawings.

The appliques were double-layered and each had to be ironed on and then stitched on.

I stitched the body seams together, then attached the appliques and most of the crystals.  The final crystals didn't go on until the final seams were stitched, the zipper was in place, and the hems finished. It's much easier to maneuver the applique stitching and the crystal application when the garment is in pieces, but some of the crystals are placed too close to seams so they needed to be placed after the seams were finished.

Did you know that EACH crystal needs to be heated for 20-35 seconds?

I cannot wait to see photos from Becca and Lilly's first show in this jacket!!!