Category: lined jacket

A couple more

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Once I make a pattern work, I’ll use is a few times more. In this case I made New Look 6351 a couple more times after the initial denim jacket.

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This jacket worked well.

This African wax print was my next jacket. I love the colours and the print is on a black background so it works with the denim pants I’d made last month.

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Then it was time to test out a french style white-ish version.

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Here’s the white jacket as a work in progress. It matches with my workhorse Janome sewing machine.

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Right now I’ve still got to photograph it worn. The deadstock fabric has very little weight so it needed to be lined. I think this will be a handy ‘topper’ for Summer nights.

Thanks for reading.

 

An evening teal

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Would you believe this jacket is part of my teal wardrobe capsule as part of Minerva Crafts Network bloggers?

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I had really grand ideas of making a French jacket with lots of trimmings and a zipper.

Uhm, I edited these ideas back for a couple of reasons.

Knit fabric:

Last month I learnt a lesson about using woven trims on a base fabric with stretch.

My idea about adding the velvet trim was quietly removed from this month’s plan too.

Velvet trim:

The best option I came up with was to add the velvet trim at the seam line on the inside of this jacket, where the facing meets the teal lining.

I love adding cute trims on the inside of jacket so once I finished this jacket I was full of joy seeing this trim inside the jacket. These work well together.

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Zipper:

The other idea that got put aside for another project was adding a zipper front closure.

When the fabric arrived I was in awe of the sparkles and boucle within this knit fabric. Years ago I made a gold dress using a lace fabric with sequins stitched into the fabric. While making the dress I found that if I pulled the invisible thread, the small sequins in the fabric would fall like snowflakes in Winter.

This boucle fabric also has small sequins threaded into the base fabric with an invisible thread. I learnt last time to work with the fabric and not against it.

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The reason to not use the zipper was not because sewing it in would have been difficult. I decided to not use the zipper because I didn’t want the zipper teeth to catch on the fabric and cause an amazing snowfall of silver mini sequins in my sewing room.

I do love a good jacket with zippers!

Fur hooks:

My alternative solution was to hand sew Prym hooks and eyes that are traditionally developed for hook closures on fur pieces. There’s no real need to wear fur where I live but I’ve been waiting for the right project to use these large hooks ‘one day’ in the future.

The metal wires used in these hooks are totally covered. This means they blend into the fabric really nicely.

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When I hand sewed these hooks onto the fabric, they were easy to hold and sew on. You can sew into the fabric covering of these hooks and make them more secure.

Pattern adjustments:

I’ve been working with Butterick 6062 since I made a couple of these for the Day and Night Dress Challenge that Elizabeth Farr ran earlier this year.

This bulkiness of this fabric made me rethink the sizing I should use. I decided to use size 16 at the hips but blend up through the waist to the bust to size 12.

The sleeves were fine in the earlier versions I made so I left them as is.

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Those instructions:

This time I followed the instructions. In the earlier 2 versions I did my own thing. Somehow I missed the pocket that was in the pattern so I made a much bigger pocket.

When I began to work on this version, low and behold, the pocket piece I thought went missing appeared. It must have been folded in one of the pattern pieces. I was so happy this pocket piece was there all along.

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I’ve lined the pockets with a dark silk organza. Pockets made to sit against the pockets need lots of reinforcement. I chose this organza as a way of keeping this pocket in shape, without needing to add iron-on interfacing.

I used the same silk organza to line the front facings as well. Organza is light and breathes well so it was a logical choice that has paid off.

Lastly, the instructions walk you through hand sewing the sleeve lining to the jacket lining. I had avoided doing this on the first 2 jackets but I hand stitched the sleeve linings this time around.

I’ll hand stitch the sleeve linings in again when I made more versions of this jacket. The shoulder line sits well and I only needed to sew the sleeves in once.

What I look forward to now is when it starts to get cold and I can grab this jacket to wear out in the evenings. The sequins will look great at night and I’ll feel cozy and snug in it without it looking casual.

Let’s call this a win-win fabric and jacket combo.

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Bits n pieces top

~ velosews ~ 7 Comments

This top is the closest I’ll ever get to quilting. I sew clothing and am keen to get the fit right and I have no eye for matching fabric for a quilt as I plainly discovered making up this top.


The basics:

I’ve used the Jalie scarf-collar 2921 body without the scarf-collar as the basis of this top because it has a v-neckline. I plan to make the jalie scarf-collar top another time.
The neckline is finished with fold over elastic.



The basic piecing method below was developed by Dilliander.
The smaller pattern shapes were drawn onto a full front bodice and the design and grainlines added. Individual pattern pieces were numbered, then traced with 6mm seam allowance added where each piece joins another.

While cutting out the fabric pieces I forgot to add the seam allowance but this wasn’t a problem as I used a 2mm seam for each piece.


After I sewed the front pieces together I was disappointed with the lightest coloured fabric so I cut out a different darker piece and without unpicking the original piece, I sewed the 2 new pieces over the original piece using 1 row of normal sewing to hide the seaming and the rest of the piece was sewing using the Cover pro and some very close cutting.


I did experiment with coverpro stitching on the front pieces but I found this was making the fabric pieces look less defined. It just wasn’t my style.



What I’ve learnt:
– Slow down when I get excited about a new style. That’s why I forgot to add seam allowance to the front pieces.
– Use the multi-pieces closer to the neckline and keep the hip area plain.
– Sleep on the idea. In the morning, the design/sewing solution came to mind and it was much easier to tackle the sewing issue after breakfast.


This is my first Made-Me-May 2012 outfit.
The top was finished this morning. I just had to get this top made and off my books so that I can get on with other clothes that I had previously planned to make.
The jacket Butterick 5087 was made last winter.

Jacket #3 – M4596

~ velosews ~ 2 Comments
Trying to be photogenic
With DH away most of last week, I had time to play with this jacket. The days started to warm up last week so I freaked out and decided to finish this jacket asap.
Today it’s cold again so it was great to wear the jacket, after finishing the hand stitched hems after breakfast.
Yes I need a life.

The fabric is a soft thick woollen so the sleeves were easy to manipulate into the jacket body.
I’ve used sunsilky lining – my favourite – because it performs really well.
I’ve made this jacket in linen but on seeing the basic jacket basted together, before adding the sleeves, it was big and bulky.
side view
The body was 5cm too long at the front so I snipped away until it sat just above the crotch line.
Back view with additional darts
I’ve added in two additional darts in the back and the back sits really well. 
If I taper the front darts, the side pockets will sit open and not close properly.
You can see the pocket lining from the back in this picture.
The fabric is interfaced throughout with armoweft to help keep its shape.
The collar has pad stitching so that it sits up at the back neck.
I’ve resewed in the sleeves because they just wrong – too far down my arms.
I did use shoulder pads.
Now the sewn-in ribbon thread was the only way I could make the front opening sit properly. I initially used the ribbon on the collar and I realised this was the only method I could use to sew through a four bulky layers and avoid break more sewing machine needles.
I didn’t break any sewing machine needles this time. My fingers however are killing me.

The fabric is a remnant from a coat I made at least four years ago and I still can’t recall where I bought the fabric from.

If I attempt this jacket again, and I will, I’ll use zippers on the side pocket to make the jacket more figure hugging. I did a jacket stash count and there are four more jackets in the pipeline, but once the weather hots up again, they’re going into the “freezer.”
front view

Chanel No 2. Phew.

~ velosews ~ 3 Comments
McCalls 5007 wasn’t too hard to make up. The fabric was a Pitt Trading remnant and this is a toile, so it’s kind of an orphan at this stage.
I like the retro styling and the fabric has it’s own interest so I’ve used a plain black zipper as the enclosure. The lining is dark blue and there are no shoulder pads. The sleeves are 3/4 length. Angie added long darts on the back of the jacket for a more fitted look. I’ll taper in the front seams once I have something to team this with.