Jackets

I've been mostly sewing with wool in the last few months. Its such a lovely, tactile, and malleable fabric to work with that it has been a joy.

Having signed up for some sewing lessons at the beginning of November I decided that my first project would be a jacket. It seemed a good place to start - incorporating linings, sleeves, lapels, button holes it ticked off a lot of the things I wanted help with. I chose a Vogue pattern, some beautiful heather-y green wool and was good to go.

This was the pattern I chose to make, Vogue V8543:

But then I got over-ambitious and spotted this pattern, which I thought my Mum would love (Vogue V1146):

So I decided to make that for her for Christmas. My word, it needs A LOT of fabric. And that makes it very awkward to work in the last few steps (of which there are nearly 100), as it gets very heavy. Never say I'm not up for a challenge!

So there I was, the wool was purchased, the tasks were set. Would I mess up, sew something on upside down, cut my expensive fabric incorrectly? Well, yes is the short answer. There was some unpicking and resewing, but fortunately no cutting errors, which would have been more serious.

I battled through acres of fabric to make the coat. I kept waiting for the bit that would take it from 'medium difficulty' to 'advanced' as stated on the pattern envelope, but fortunately it never came. Maybe the difficulty grading was just because of the sheer weight of material making it difficult to work at times. I completed the coat in time for Christmas and my Mum was thrilled with it. (I'll get a better photo some time soon.)

By Christmas my jacket had stalled. It was close to completion, but I couldn't find the perfect buttons to finish it, but then last week I finally found the perect ones. Hurrah!

I admit, I was scared to make the button holes. Cutting into the fabric at the final stages felt terrifying in case I ended up ruining all the hard work I had put in. But with a sigh of relief I completed them without major mishaps, and here's the final jacket:

So, onwards - what should the next sewing project be?