It has been awhile since I've made a garment for myself. I used to make all of my clothes. I made a few dresses for my daughters when they were growing up as well as lots of Halloween costumes. I think the last garment I made was an Elmo outfit for my granddaughter's Second Birthday. You can see that in this Blog Post.
I bought this pattern and fabric from Sew Batik almost a year ago. I am going to be helping them in their booth at Road to California later this week so I decided that it would be fun to wear this jacket at the show.
I chose this fabric because with all the colors it should go with just about anything. It is a rayon batik so it drapes well, making it the perfect fabric for a lightweight jacket.
The pattern only has three pieces so it wasn't too complicated to put together.
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Jacket Front
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Next it was time to choose the thread. When I piece my quilts I usually use a neutral thread but with garments it should be something that blends. I have quite a thread stash so there were lots of choices. I ended up choosing this variegated thread from Superior Threads. When I looked at the spool I thought it would be too dark. But when I pulled out the thread and put it on top of the fabric, it was perfect.
Then I started putting the jacket together. I liked how the instructions have you press the fold line in for the facing now. That made things much easier later. The shoulder seams were easy. I forgot how big a 5/8" seam allowance is. When you're used to 1/4" in quilting that is a HUGE seam. I remember when I started quilting how SMALL 1/4" seemed. Funny how our perspective changes.
Next was the sleeves. I discovered as I matched the dots and seams that there was too much fabric to ease into the opening for my taste. I thought it would be hard to get it even. I decided to run a 3/8" basting stitch on the sleeves. I was then able to slightly gather the sleeve to fit it into the opening. After I put it into the jacket and sewed the seams, it doesn't look gathered, just eased in which is what I wanted to accomplish. Here's the jacket with the sleeves.
The facing and hem came next. I turned all of that under 1/4". Then I turned under the hem. Now is when the pressed fold line for the facing comes into place. I just folded that and it was ready to topstitch. I used LOTS of pins to keep everything in place. The only problem that I ran into was that I didn't like the way the instructions said to topstitch everything. I followed the directions and wasn't happy with how it lined up with the turned under edges. It wasn't close enough to the turned under 1/4". I was afraid that over time it would ravel. So I ripped out the whole thing and did it from the wrong side. I know that the "sewing police" say not to do this because bobbin tension is looser, but I opted for this because I could see where the stitching should be. I break the "quilt police" rules often so why not this one too?
All that was left was the hem on the sleeves. That was super simple. Just turn under 1/4" and then another 1". Topstitch that too. I did the same thing here. I stitched if from the wrong side. Here's the finished product.
I think it will be cute with jeans but can also be dressy if I need it to be. Since it is a batik, if I want to roll up the sleeves a little bit it won't be that noticeable.
Happy Sewing,
Carol
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