Jalie 2679 jacket with some variations

 I made this jacket in some very lightweight softshell a few years ago.  Size R, up to S at the hips. There wasn't any reason I didn't like it, but it wasn't something I ever found a use for so it was dispatched off to a friend.  Thank god for friends!  I mean, I know I can offload unwanted makes to the secondhand shop but it's really a joy to pass things on to people who actually love to receive them.  

So anyway I had this fabric lying around.  It's been lying around for too long.  I love it so much and didn't want to mess it up, could obviously have made some snug legging style pants - it's something between a ponte and a scuba and I think I got it from Emma One Sock - just one m. 

I had a vision not too terribly long ago that actually this jacket pattern would be a good match for it, a win, because I wear my lightweight hoodies to work all the time so unlike 86% of my wardrobe, it would get used.  Also I adore my yellow non-hoodie which it really seems I never blogged (here's the first post on that pattern), but I stupidly gave away the pattern.  So this managed to move to the top of the winter queue!  I've been a sewing MACHINE on my week-long staycations in between work.  It's been so satisfying, I'm trying to mix up the projects that have sat in my queue for years, with new ideas, so the sewing juices can get creative again instead of feeling mired down in ideas I thought up in 2021.  

I did inspect the post from my previous jacket. Not liking how tight it was around my hips, I thought of some ways I could widen the bottom of the jacket - the way the pieces tetris together makes this less straightforward.  I ended up adding width to the side back and to the front bottom pieces, probably quite a bit, like 4cm total.  I made sure all the pieces lined up - added this to my actual pattern pieces before cutting out (shocking!) and then construction proceeded without dramas.  I didn't like the zipper method when I did this the first time, but this time I did follow the instructions and they were not actually terrible.  

 

I do find it has a lot of bagginess in the armpit and upper arm.  It's not an issue for work, but it's actually really a lot.  Enough that I think I wouldn't make this pattern again - it's not very flattering, exactly?  Maybe I'll even overlock it off? But anyway sewing with scuba is very satisfying, and this is one of those projects which is so pretty on the inside too, which is nice. 

Made for Mermaids Juniper Jumper review

I bought this pattern without planning ahead of time, and sent it to the printers with a bunch of other patterns.  Then equally rushed I cut it out of beautiful scuba fabric from Blackbird Fabrics.  And then it sat on the floor and collected dust because I wasn't sure I cared that much.  I got rather sad to have used this gorgeous fabric on this as other ideas came and went. 

Size: purple.  Matches my waist/hips, and my bust of 33 as the "high bust" seemed fine, the bust measurement was 34-35 and really I would not have wanted this style to be tighter, though I see many of the pattern testers preferred a snug fit.

 

I used the high front, low back, but as you see, it's not particularly high front or particularly low back though the armholes are quite cut out towards the front.  I expected to need a top under this, and instead it's a dress all on its own! 

I'm not sure there were marks on the skirt for where to put the pockets (could have been me since the pieces sat for a few months.)  I put them 1.5" down. 

I got annoyed by the dust bunnies and summer is basically here and dresses are great, finally inspired me to get on with it.  I actually sewed this entirely on my sewing machine except for the waist seam and the hem seam (to make it prettier.)  I didn't finish any of the other seams because of the scuba fabric.  The top is fully enclosed. I understitched the neckline, but the SA is 1/4" which is too little to snip into and in the scuba even with understitching it rotates outward.  For the first time I get the appeal of the larger SA on this spot.  The SA, other than the neck and armholes, is 1/2" so beware! 

The scuba from Blackbird - bought probably last Feb or so, so I'm not sure what it is.  Maybe bamboo.  It has a standard scuba look on one side, and a paler, matte on the other which is so beautiful.  I used that matte as the exterior.  This scuba has more drape than usual scuba fabric, less body, and is a bit thinner.

1" hem. 

To my surprise I love this little dress.  It's so cute and simple and in a fabric like this that doesn't need finishing, the innards are so very neat.  The pockets are a stupid shape, there's no reason to not make them into Elbe Textiles Bardon pockets (the platonic ideal of pockets) or reshape them deeper, because the skirt billows out enough to hide all.  I knew this and didn't do it.  Live and learn.

DP Studio le 205: Asymmetric zip front jacket

 This has been on my queue for a bit, and I have promised friends I would make my own merino jacket to wear hiking, which prompted me to get on with it.  I actually have loads of hoodies and lightweight jackets and interestingly....none that I've made myself.  I have made nice ones but somehow they have always gotten wings and gone to new owners.  I'm suddenly thinking, as I write this, of a nice scuba hoodie I made, and loved and was proud of... and wondering who it went to.

Anyway so I committed an entire day to this.  Would have cut it out the day before but I didn't manage.  It takes full concentration.  I cut a size 38 as I'm not a perfect match to the size chart and I thought 34 1/2" was a better bet for a jacket than 32".  I didn't look at any measurement below the bust.  

The fabric is lightweight scuba, I bought it awhile ago and made a top out of it then found it beautiful but totally useless.  I love the fabric and hoarded the last piece for this project.  It was quite a leap of faith to use this fabric rather than the merino I have for a second version - especially since I have 3 meters of the merino and it was really really cheap.  

The instructions are nicely illustrated but they are not particularly well translated.  With knowledge of what you are aiming for in general everything ends up where it should be, but in terms of properly finishing seams it was hopeless from quite early on.  This is something I had foreseen and that's part of why I used scuba, but it's always that wee bit sad to have catastrophic pocket/zip/jacket intersections.  

The jacket got put together in the day I had allocated, but sewing down the facings was another story.  Really this needs to be heavily understitched on the facing, collar and hem.  My scuba does not iron.  I mean, ironing doesn't do anything to it at all, so I had kind of puffy parts, like the hem just puffing out.  Understitching would have helped.  I've taken a lot of notes for the upcoming merino version.  After about 2 weeks of sulking about I finally took a very deep breath and stitched in the ditch to get all the facings down.  I strategically tacked the pockets to hold them in.  The facings kind of overlay the pockets, but a few tacks here and there are helpful.  

 

Result was good.  I topstitched the bottom of the hem to get rid of that puffiness but decided not to meddle anywhere else (it kind of lettuced but I hope it settles with time, and it's better than the previous puffiness.)  I adore this jacket.  Everything comes together pristinely on the outside!  The fit is good and I'm glad I didn't size down.  Of course, a wee bit shorter would have suited me but this type of jacket can be a bit longer without looking oversized on me. 

 

 I think I prefer the pocket side with the open pocket, it's perfectly angled for hands and objects, and it's easier to get a good finish on it.  Zip pockets in stretchy fabrics are always a crapshoot and this one does need to be held at the top as you open it so the fabric doesn't pull, but it's a nice secure pocket - both of them are huge and fully fit hands!  This is a functional jacket!  Don't be led astray thinking it's a wimpy fashion piece...

I would add to the instructions the following clarifications: 

-on the open pocket, understitch after attaching pocket to the body 

-really understitch everything - the facing against the zip, the neck at the top and the hem.  

-For a clean finish fold the hem in by the seam allowance before sewing it to the side facings.  Also, baste a line along the front facing and the inside neck piece to know where to fold it in afterwards.   Stitch in the ditch in one go from front up the neck and back to where the pockets get in the way.

-re the pockets: finish every single edge before you start.  So, overlock the pockets all the way around.  Overlock pocket openings first.  Then sew together.  You will not get a second chance!  

The good news is that the mucky bits of my pockets are on the invisible side and actually it looks reasonably neat now.   The only zip that fit is a precious Riri zip which I think I bought in Switzerland so once I'd committed to that this project had no choice but to be awesome.  I'm now quite keen on making the second one and seeing whether I can get perfect innards too! 

Ready to sew Jimmy sweatshirt in scuba

This pattern is for yet another variation on a knit tshirt, by French company Ready to Sew.  The exciting features include raglan, 2 part sleeves, detail pintucks on the front sleeves, and two hem options both including godets.

The instructions are in English and are pretty decent as far as translation goes.   For some reason their theme for patterns is to use men's names starting with the letter J.  Though I see now they've expanded to a few female names too.

I made this in red merino last year, in version 2 with the hem band.  I made the size 36.  That seemed like a small size to me but it was way too big.  I gave it to a friend.   In a heavier weight material the size might have been ok but in the merino it was just very long and drapey. Seems like the sleeves were pretty long too.  I didn't take very good notes before I gave it away!

So I had few notes, no photos to inspect, and decided to take the leap and go for a size 34.
The pattern pieces are interesting.  You have the option to not cut off edges, but to abut them.  This is great.  I don't much like the cutting.  However the result is that there are wide margins without any lines on them - you have to extrapolate the lines there.

The first time I printed the 36 with all the layers, it was impossible to tell which were the pintuck lines and the marks for my size because they are only differentiated by colour not by the shape of the line.  For the 34 I only printed the layer for my size and although the pattern looked a bit naked, it seemed to have all the marks...except 1 of the 4 pintuck lines, which was lost in between pages!!  So these pdfs are not as straightforward as average and make me hesitate to consider this company for more complex patterns (I was in love with the Joseph coat when I discovered this company, but I've hesitated to make it.)

I was also really jumping in the deep end - I cut straight into this gorgeous scuba that I bought sometime last year.  It was a ridiculous purchase; I think I bought it while I was in Nepal because I saw it on somebody on Instagram.  It shipped to my parents and then I just petted it for awhile and thought of all the things I could make.  So now it's here, and soon I won't be sewing much, so now seemed like a good time!

I barely followed the instructions because anyway, it's like a tshirt.  My borrowed sewing machine seems to be generally miserable.  One entire bobbin was catching and not stitching well even after changing needles - magically fixed with the next bobbin of thread, but means that I flipped it over and redid every seam.  And I made this right before dinner and was both desperate to make a work of art, and desperate to hurry on to dinner!

So:
sleeves are a tiny bit short.  But ok
and otherwise I love it!!!
I top stitched the sleeves and the raglans.  I left the hem for now as I thought anything I did would mess it up - I was thinking of leaving it raw but after wearing it I think it would be better to have the weight of a hem.  I might still shorten it an additional inch or two.

The light weight fabric means that the godets kind of flow.  It would have a lot of volume in a heavier weight fabric and I can see why sweater knits are recommended.  I can actually see this being nice in a pretty heavy sweater knit.  I didn't like it in merino, though I think now that I have the correct size it would work better.  I think in sweatshirting or other fabric with a lot of body, I would find annoying how much it would stick out and create a bell shape. 

Of note, it has a high low hem, and if you want to shorten it, because of the godets, you have to use the lengthen-shorten lines (which are provided).  Version A is fine the way it is but I recall the version with the hem band was really really long - because you have the full length plus a band.  I would probably shorten it 3 inches.  I'd be tempted to do that above the godets.  I don't remember where the shorten lines are in the pattern, seems like they might be through the godets, which seems like too much work.

While I was obsessively trying it on I thought another very cool variation would be to not use the godets at all, but to add about 2" to the front and back at the sides and overlap them.  It would be a tunic with high cut sides - almost like a sari top....

Anima and Virginia pants: a scuba experiment.

I had a length of some scuba fabric from Spotlight and was planning to make a dress with it. But then after kayaking I got to thinking it would be nice to have some scuba kayaking pants.

So I decided to make both the Anima pants and some Virginia leggings and see how they would come out.  I suspected that the Virginia leggings would be too tight, because the scuba fabric tends to have a lot less give compared to other types of fabric. 

I was right. I used the same sizes I have been using lately: XXS in the Anima pants, and XS in the Virginia leggings, with the high waistband and the petite sizing.

Above: are all Anima pants.  Below: are all Virginia leggings.  The leggings honestly I can barely pull them on.  They were a direct to op-shop kind of sew.

But the Anima pants are great, and will definitely be my kayaking pants for the rest of this winter!

You can see the waist of this is loose on the hanger.

Virginia pants are very tight on the hanger!

Hey June Halifax Hoodie take 2

Hot on the heels of my first Halifax Hoodie, I made a second one, still in size S. I cut it out before the first was done, optimism springs eternal and so forth.  I guess this is an example of when a functional muslin is great.  Because I had a lot of anxiety and took forever to make the first hoodie, and the second one took a day.  This was partly a learning curve - new sewing machine, with buttonholer, zipper foot, etc that I didn't know how to use and was anxious about.  On the second version there were no such problems. 

Sometimes, though, a project is great because of great fabric.  This is lightweight, dry feeling scuba material from emmaonesock, by Theory.  It's sold out.  The black inside is slightly more cottony feeling, while the outside is smooth.  In order to use this fabric I had to make some changes to the pocket binding, but other than that it simplified the process dramatically, because of course this stuff doesn't need any finishing!! 

The only, and obvious, fit change I made was to shorten the bodice by 4".  So, be warned.  If you are long of torso, the Halifax Hoodie will fit you like a dream.  If you are like me: 5'4" and with functionally no space between your ribs and hipbones, this thing will be like a sweater-dress. 

My pictures were taken while out dogwalking; I thought it might be nice to see something in use for once.  That totally means I was caught in every photo with a weird expression on my face! Also I haven't sourced a string for the hood but the buttonholes are functional.  They are in a really strange location, 1/3 of the way up the hood.  I would recommend  putting them much lower down. 

So, more on the fun of working with scuba:

As I noted, I had to do some work on the pockets.  In fact I had to cut one pocket out two or three times.  The binding as instructed didn't work, because the binding was too short and didn't stretch.  A longer binding did fit, but it stuck out on the curve, because scuba has too much body to lie flat on a curve like that.  I tried a different colour cotton jersey binding, but having a second color and type of material was too distracting.  So in the end I drafted a little facing by just copying the top curve of the pocket, and then understitching and flipping it inside.  I topstitched it down and cut off the excess.

Edges: I didn't fold over edges on the pockets, I just sewed them flat.
Similarly, I didn't finish the: jacket to hood seam, the zipper seam, or the jacket to hem seam because they look just fine hanging out.  What I do recommend is to finish these seams by cutting all except one seam short, and just topstitching that one down - like a faux-flat fell seam.  That would enclose the loose edges and look cool on the inside (although the seams don't bother me.)  So obviously I skipped the twill tape this time, and I'm glad of that because I still don't know what I think of it. 

I did find that the scuba had enough stretch to use it as the cuffs and hem without any change. 

I'm really thrilled with this hoody and everyone is impressed because it looks professional.  I have a sexy riri zip that I brought back from Switzerland, specially cut for this project, and for once it was even cut to the right length. 

My only final thought about the scuba fabric is that this particular fabric is thin scuba with a cool feel, and although it's good for layering since things slide over it, it isn't very warm.  I think it'll be best in spring when I just need something to take the edge off - here it's already frosty in the mornings!