Cross-Dyed Linen Jacket with Bias Fringe

Hi, it's Shams from Communing with Fabric with another garment made from a lovely Britex fabric!

When Britex asked me to choose one of their linen fabrics, I was drawn to their Cross-dyed Turquoise Linen.

Note: This fabric is difficult to photograph. In real life, it seems less saturated to my eye than shown in this photo, but it looks more sky blue in some of my photos than in real life. In any case, it's a lovely color and you can always order a swatch!

I am a huge fan of linen that is woven with one color in the warp direction, and another in the weft. With linen, this effect is generally referred to as a cross dye (though it's actually cross woven, but it's referred to as cross dye) and I love the resulting visual texture.

Earlier this spring, I made a jacket using cross-dyed linen and the Tessuti Silva jacket pattern. This pattern is suited for linen and features a raw bias edging. The concept is that, with time and washing, the bias edge gently frays. But I am an impatient sort, so I fray the edge manually using a low-tech tool—my thumbnails!

I like the effect, but it does take awhile. For this jacket, I timed how long it took to fray the outer edge of the jacket: 3 hours and 17 minutes. I neglected to time my fraying of the sleeve hems, which probably took another half hour.

It created a lot of lint!

But the effect is totally worth it!

I made a few other changes. My last version of this pattern had no pockets and I like pockets! I made a patch pocket, but when I pinned it to the front of the jacket, it made the jacket hang awkwardly. I decided to center the pocket over the side seam, which worked great!

I had small pieces of canvas that had been stenciled and painted by Miles Frode. I purchased these from Diane Ericson last spring at Puyallup Sew Expo.

I cut several rectangles from the canvas and trimmed them with the beautiful selvedge from the linen. I embellished the back, the pocket, and the right front edge with these pieces.       Finally, I closed the jacket using large snaps that I covered with scraps of turquoise lining.

I now have another great linen jacket for the warm weather, on those rare occasions that I leave San Francisco to go somewhere warm!

Thanks to Britex for the fabric!
And welcome to Kirby, the cutest pug puppy EVER!