Tag: jacket

A quiet month

1970s dress

Oh dear, I do seem to have got out of the habit of blogging again lately. I’ve just been feeling a bit… quiet. Which anybody who knows me will be aware, isn’t very much like me at all. I’m somewhat lacking in creative inspiration, and I’m feeling a bit fed up about it, and not really sure quite what to do with myself.

Still, the odd bit of making is happening. This is the result of Butterick 4736, the 1970s dress pattern I mentioned last time. I’ve been wearing it quite a lot, and it’s really comfortable. One person did ask me whether it was vintage or reproduction (both, I guess?), thanks to the enormous collars, but I have to admit I rather like them.

1970s Butterick 4376

I made the shorter length which, being a not-very-tall person, is pretty much spot on. I keep half wondering whether I could cut it off at hip level to make a blouse, but I’m not quite sure that would work. I need to dig out a piece of fabric that’s not quite long enough to make a whole dress, and see how it comes out.

1960s Sew Knit N Stretch 228

I have also made this bra slip, and against all odds it fitted perfectly! Straight out of the packet! While I was rummaging around in the sewing room I found a forgotten bra-making kit, which had just enough fabric and elastic to make the top half. A quick dash to the fabric shop later (the princely sum of £2.14 having exchanged hands) and I had a metre and a half each of polyester habutae and nylon lace to make the bottom half. It’s the perfect length to go underneath the 1970s dress, and now that I’ve established the fit I can make more in some nicer fabrics. I’m thinking stretch silk, and maybe some soft jersey versions to wear as vests.

fleece jacket

Oh, and then there’s this. Inspired by a knitting pattern I saw on Etsy, where the collar folds back to make pockets, I put together this fleecy jacket. It looks a bit too much like a dressing gown in this spotty fleece, but once I’ve ironed out some technical hitches (I made a mistake on one of the lining pieces, so it doesn’t fit together quite right) I can feel quite a few versions of this one coming on too. It has wide kimono sleeves, which means that the sleeves of my dresses will actually fit down it – currently a problem, as all of my existing cardigans were bought or made to go over t-shirts!

Sew-Knit-N-Stretch 206, 1969

And then, to add to my increasingly glamorous collection of old-fashioned underthings, there’s this. Currently on its way to me from the US, it’s a 1969 pattern for a long-leg panty girdle “with crotch piece”. This is important, as the opposite of “with crotch piece” is not “crotchless”, it is in fact “with a godawful seam in a terrible place”. Which is why I don’t wear ordinary cycling shorts underneath my dresses. So uncomfortable! These shorts can be made from a variety of materials, depending on how restrictive you want them to be. I’m aiming more for comfort than shapewear, so I’m thinking about cotton jersey, and maybe just the faintest whiff of lycra for the front panel. I’m quite interested to see the instructions for these, as the directions for the bra slip were quite minimal. I’m hoping this one’s a bit more thorough.

I think I’m finally starting to get somewhere with my new-old wardrobe though. I’m still very tempted by beautiful 1950s dresses, but it’s looking very much as though the 1970s are actually much more me!

ORANGE wool jacket

Orange Wool Jacket

Words simply cannot do justice to how INCREDIBLY BRIGHT this fabric is. Ridiculously orange, with teal, magenta and a little bit of yellow thrown in for good measure. In case you hadn’t guessed, this fabric is LOUD.

I think I bought it in Chepstow last year, in a fabric shop that was absolutely piled to the ceiling with goodies. This was everything that was left on the roll – 160 cm long, 150 wide.

Orange Wool Jacket

The pattern is one of my own, that I tested in cotton jersey earlier in the year. Irritatingly, I was so busy with the Emporium that I didn’t take any photos, but it’s very comfortable and I’ve been wearing it a lot. This style is perfect for wearing to work, where it can be quite chilly on the front desk, but it looks daft to be sitting there with your coat on.

It’s a double herringbone wool tartan, with a little bit of boucle running through it, for those who care about such things. The lower sleeves are cut on the bias, with a little bias cuff. This allows them to stretch a little bit, but not too much. There are no fastenings at the moment, although I’m contemplating covered buttons and little loops of selvedge to pop them through. I’ll wear it a few times first though, and see how it goes.

Orange Wool Jacket

I made absolutely no attempt to match the stripes at any of the seams. I didn’t have anything like enough fabric to try, and I don’t think it really matters. The only thing I want to change next time though is to eliminate the top seam on the lower sleeve. It doesn’t really need to be there, it looks a bit distracting, and it creates a dodgy junction of four pieces of fabric coming together in the same place. In a thick fabric that can be difficult to keep tidy, so it seems best to just get rid of the extra seam altogether.

I’m not sure it’s quite chilly enough to start wearing this to work just yet, but I’m definitely looking forward to wearing it!

Butterick 4731

Butterick 4731, View A

I know I’ve already made one little jacket in this fabric, but when I looked at the whole outfit together on the dressform I wasn’t sure. S, I had a little browse on the internet, dashed down to the fabric shop, bought another pattern and made another jacket. As you do.

This one’s Butterick 4731. It goes with a very smart evening dress, and there’s also a pattern for another little bolero. The body of the jacket’s lined, but I didn’t line the sleeves as I wanted it to be very light. It was really simple to make, just five pieces, and no darts or anything. If I make this again I might actually add a couple of darts into the lower back to make it a little more fitted, but I want to wear this one first and see how easy it is to move in. It only uses just over a metre of fabric, so I think it would be fun to make lots of these in different colours of silk, and use them to liven up a plain outfit.

The unusual shape of the front of this jacket is really flattering, and I think it will show off the shape of the corset much better than the other one. It was a very quick and easy thing to make, and I’m really pleased with it!

Matching Jacket

Skull print bolero jacket

This is Simplicity 2478, view C. I made it exactly as per the pattern (for once!) and then embellished it with the very last tiny pieces of my broderie anglais trim and a pretty red frog fastener.

What can I say? It went together really easily! It helps if you have prior experience of sewing together convex and concave curves, otherwise attaching the band can be a little tricky, but there are no separate sleeves to set in, and it was a very fast piece to sew.

Obviously it’s intended to go with the little skirt I made the other day, but I think it would also smarten up plain black jeans and a t-shirt very nicely indeed.

Twenty-eight buttons

Military jacket

This is a lovely jacket that belongs to a friend of mine. It came with black buttons, and we’d been chatting about how nice they were, and how difficult it would be to find a replacement if one was lost. A couple of hours later… you’ve guessed it! One missing button.

There were no spare buttons with the jacket, so the only option was to replace the whole lot. All twenty-eight of them. (There are two more on the sleeves that you can’t see in the picture.)  They’re ever so slightly larger than the original buttons, but thankfully they still fit through the buttonholes.

I bought practically every button in this style, and I’ve tucked a couple of spares into one of the pockets. That way, if another button goes missing, I don’t have to replace them all again. My fingers are really sore, from sewing them all on in one evening!