Waffle Patterns Arare jacket

 I am on a binge!!  

Well actually I started to feel very embarrassed that I had some patterns printed last year (the ones that had some incorrectly scaled pages in fact!) and had not used them yet.  It made me realise I should only buy and print patterns at the moment I want to make them.  It's really important in sewing to follow the crest of your enthusiasm - which was an easy thing initially and then for years I have gotten trapped in lists of things that had once peaked my enthusiasm but which no longer do.  

Anyway I got newly excited as I realised this jacket would be amazing in this polyester I recently bought.  Poly is not my thing, but flocked velvet spots on a burnt cinnamon background are my thing, so I had to compromise.  I did that by underlining the entire jacket with high quality rainwear nylon - it was one half of a nylon-jersey two face fabric but the two faces came apart in my prewash.  The underlining added a few minor complications. 

This, similar to the Azuki pants, was one day cutting and two days sewing, though there were also days in between dithering.  Jackets have an additional fear factor: the gizmos!  The drawstrings, the things that hold the drawstrings, the grommets, the zips...these are the things that, when done well, elevate the quality of the result, and when done in a make do fashion make the results seem very hand made.  

I chose size 38 and I am so grateful. The size chart might have convinced me to size down and it would have been a terrible mistake.  The 38 is very small.  I think because this is quite a narrow cut for a pullover jacket, and I somehow need heaps of room to pull things over my head in general - I absolutely get claustrophobic trying to put on narrow dresses.  So this fits but it's a tight pull on.  I would consider this a spring weather item - it's not warm, and it's not windproof but it probably provides some weather protection.

 

 The instructions are very good. I chose the welt pockets because I thought they looked nicer and they have a nicer finish, on the kangaroo pocket you end up with a kind of naked zipper under a flap that I dislike.  Of course the best ever option would be a kangaroo pocket with a handwarmer behind it...because you really need both a place to put things, and a place to warm your hands, in a pullover jacket.  

Construction with the zipper protector was very cool, but in a lightweight fabric I recommend interfacing the flap behind the zip because in my lightweight nylon it gets trapped in the zip rather than lying flat behind it.  I was able to source big grommets locally and they were easy to install.  The hood lace is a shoelace.  The wrist attachments are velcro.  And the hem lace is two pieces of elastic that are harvested from a mystery garment and saved, they just happened to barely be long enough.  I only had 2 toggles and one of them is very small but I managed to thread the two elastics through.

I was disappointed in the welt pocket instructions. I've made a few lately in a row and I have experienced really good instructions and expected these to be very good - in line with other instructions in Waffle patterns.  I haven't done enough to be able to do them without instructions, and I still need details. These instructions are horribly misleading as they don't clearly indicate the sew lines/the box of the welt pocket itself, etc.  Sometimes I think indie pattern companies try to reinvent the wheel by making New Clever ways of explaining things and the old way was totally sufficient and the new way sucks.  True here. So google other welt pocket instructions before settling into these.  

 

When putting together large pieces a few times my underlining and my outer fabric wrinkled separately, but really once you have done the pockets and the zip, everything else is just the usual putting together of big pieces.  It's such a beautiful finished garment with my underlining!!  The hood is spacious and I love the wrist adjustments.  The pockets are not super deep as they are limited by the hem of the jacket, but they are ok for handwarming.  Overall this does lack utility for me a little as there's no place to Put Stuff but I'm ok with that...I think I'll make a Landgate now.

Summary: size up a lot.  Be wary of the welts.  Enjoy!