Technicolour Dream Coat Blazer

It officially the first week of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, but I don’t think anyone has told Wellington that! Its still really hot and muggy (especially at night, I’m looking forward to that ending!), and if it wasn’t for the fact that its getting increasingly dark in the mornings I wouldn’t be thinking about the changing season at all. That may be why I have made this incredibly summery, unbelievably colourful Victoria Blazer, even though it isn’t exactly seasonal anymore…

Its so bright! Its easily the most colourful thing in my wardrobe. I found the fabric in a little vintage fabric store called Sew Love Tea Do in Auckland when I was up there at the end of last year, and I seriously waffled about what to do with it. I only had about a metre of it, so a dress was out! In the end I decided it would make a fun blazer, and after my initial experiment with the Victoria Blazer I thought I would try it again. My tweed Victoria is obviously too big, so I went down a size and I’m much happier with the fit on this one!

I didn’t have enough fabric to even consider pattern matching, but I tried to match patches of colour across seams, which I think was actually pretty successful. The lapels blend into the pattern across the front pretty well! I did have some problems getting the collar and lapels to sit properly, they just wanted to roll out towards the sleeves. Under stitching the lining helped a little, and catch stitching the lining to the armscye seam seemed to help more, but its still sitting a little funny around my neck. Sort of ballooning outwards a bit. You can sort of see what I mean in this next photo…

I don’t know whats caused it, maybe I made an error when I was cutting it out. I’ve decided I can live with it!

I think what makes this jacket really nice is the lining. Its a wonderful coral coloured silk satin which I rescued out of the remnants bin at The Fabric Store years ago, before I started sewing seriously! I’ve been hoarding it ever since, too scared to use it. It was a bit of a bastard to sew with, shifty and slippery as anything, but I managed to wrestle it through the machine and its turned out ok. I didn’t have enough to line the sleeves too, which makes me a bit sad because its lovely and soft! I did have enough to use for the cuffs though (just as well, because I forgot to cut them out of my main fabric with the rest of it, and I didn’t have big enough scraps left when I realised my mistake!). I interfaced the silk, as it would never have been stiff enough to hold the shape of the cuffs on its own.

I must admit that I was deeply unsure about this blazer when I was making it…its just so bright, I wasn’t sure what I would wear it with, or when. But now that its finished, I actually really do like it! And it goes with lots of stuff in my wardrobe, because I have so much navy and grey, so I’m not sure what I was worried about. And I finally used the BHL label which came with my Holly Jumpsuit pattern! Thats the only BHL pattern I’ve bought directly from them, all of my other ones have come from Dresses and Me, and they don’t come with the official labels (though Penny does put cute little Made by Me labels in with her parcels). So that was exciting!

This might be my last post for a few weeks, as Monsieur and I are moving into our new house next weekend! I’m really looking forward to getting everything organised the way I want it, and getting my sewing room all set up, but I’m dreading the thought of packing (should really get started on that) and the actual physical moving part. Why don’t I have a teleporter??

A Practice Victoria Blazer

So this was never meant to be a bloggable item of clothing, it was only supposed to be a muslin! I never usually bother, but as one of my goals for this year is to become better at sewing and making things fit, I thought I should have a go. I know, I know, I should be making a muslin first for most things, but I usually just can’t be arsed. For the Victoria Blazer from BHL though I was a bit confused about which size I should make. My measurements put me pretty squarely in the size 12/8 box, but the finished measurements for that size seemed huge! So I bit the bullet and made a practice run.

I had this wool plaid in my stash, it originally came from the remnants bin at The Fabric Store for $10 so I figured it wasn’t too much of a loss if it didn’t work! I cut the size 12/8 first, and I do think its a bit big. I know its supposed to be a boxy style, but I think I’d like it to be a bit narrower in the body and back.

I’ll cut my next version out in the size 10/6, and maybe look at putting some narrow darts in the back, just to bring it in a little bit. The floral cotton I have set aside for my next version if stiffer than this wool, so it’ll stick out more at the back. I don’t want it to look like a tent!

Its lined with a striped acetate from The Fabric Store. I wish I had lined the sleeves, as the wool is a bit itchy, but I had already finished it before I thought of that! I hand sewed the lining to the armscye and at the back hem.

Even though its a bit big, I really like the style. The way the neckline/darts are fashioned is really clever, and really easy to do, even though I haven’t managed to get the darts sitting quite right here. I’m not sure if I need to steam the crap out of them again, or if I haven’t sewn them down far enough. I’ll do some careful measuring and draw my seam line on the next version I think, so that they sit better. I really like the wool as well, I wish I had more of it to make a matching pencil skirt! It reminds me a bit of my Nana for some reason, maybe just because its wool and plaid. Today is the anniversary of her death, so it was nice to spend some quality time with her sewing machine and one of her wooden spools of vintage thread. I think she would have quite liked it.