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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Double Sided Wool Jacket


Happy Thanksgiving Eve, to those of you who celebrate the U.S. holiday.

I am as happy as a pig in slop to be at the beginning of a 5-day vacation! Not to mention that DD2 returned last night from university in Minnesota. As soon as she got off the plane, she was waxing about the joys of feeling warm air all around your body. I don't think of San Francisco as being "warm" much of the time, but it just goes to show how it's all relative. Though I think you can see that she is not unhappy with her new Joan of Arctic boots from Sorel.

Back in Minnesota... (where it's been snowing already)

If you follow the Britex blog, you'll see that I've completed another project, my last one for 2014. This time, I started with a 100% wool from the Mid/Light Weight category:

Midweight Reversible Navy & Teal Wool

In the description, they call this a "midweight reversible wool", but I would characterize it as more lightweight. I love reversible fabrics, and I love navy and teal—I've been sewing more with these colors lately—so I jumped on this fabric almost immediately.

Some of my pics show the teal side as more of a blue teal, but it is more of a green teal, as shown in the photo on the Britex site.

This is one gorgeous fabric. I machine washed and dried a sample: It did not change character or hand. It might have shrunk a bit—I didn't think to check. The sample did fray beautifully, which surprised me, as the fabric was not particularly ravel-y to begin with. But I made sure that I serged the edges of the yardage before subjecting it to the washer and dryer, as I was not going for a frayed-edge look this time.

I found this fabric very easy to sew and wanted to make use of the fact that it was reversible. There is no pattern available for this jacket, as I used a pattern, borrowed from a friend, that was traced off of an actual Issey Miyake Plantation jacket from the early 1990s.

Single welt pockets. The sleeves fold back to reveal the teal.

I love Issey Miyake designs, but they don't always love me. The original jacket was rather boxy, long, with dropped sleeves, and no internal seaming, other than the shoulders. (In other words, the original jacket had the loose fit with dropped sleeves typical of that time.) It features a "fold back", soft lapel—finished with mitered edges—that is sewn into the shoulder seam. This fold-back lapel is my favorite feature of the design.

I made lots of changes to the original pattern. I added center back and side seams, and introduced some shaping in those seams. I reshaped the armscye and swapped in another sleeve that has a more traditional sleeve cap. This turned out to be tricky, as I muslined the sleeve at least 5 times and I think it could use more tinkering.

I reshaped the hem—it's shorter in back, but dips to the original length in front. I re-shaped the front lapel, narrowing it so that I could raise the armscye—I also changed the angle of the lapel so that it "broke" (turned back) in a more flattering (lower down) location, creating a more vertical line.

The side seams, CB seam, and sleeve seams are flat felled

Don't you just love flat felling the seam on a one-piece sleeve?

Yes, that was sarcasm. ;)

I swapped out the welt pockets for my own welt pocket, as I no longer had the room to accommodate the original vertical, two-lipped, welt pocket with a large, very Miyake, pocket bag.

So, yes, this one required a lot of changes!

Conclusion:

This was a fun (and challenging) exercise! I do think I will use this lapel again, but I might just transfer it onto another TnT (tried 'n true) pattern. And I highly recommend this beautiful fabric!

Thanks to Britex for providing the fabric and thread!

And thanks to mem for taking these pics!

32 comments:

  1. You look so pretty in those rich fabric colors, accented with matching jewelry. Kudos for tackling and wrestling to the ground another challenging design. Great jacket!

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    1. Thanks so much, Carol! I am thinking that I need more turquoise in my life. I was so happy to already have those tagua nut earrings and the felt-ball necklace (which I made a couple years ago) to wear with this jacket.

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  2. Beautiful jacket--a lovely color combo and it looks great on you.

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  3. It is beautiful. The fabric is gorgeous. I, too, love double sided fabric when I can find it. The mitered finishing reminds me some of one of Louise Cutting Patterns. Well done1 (as expected!)

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  4. gorgeous jacket - love that color and it looks great on you. And yes I liked your sarcasm :) oh yeah, any time you have to scrunch the fabric into some origami situation to get it under the presser foot is one of those annoying maneuvers - i'm with you there. Happy thanksgiving and enjoy your time off.

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  5. Beautiful color and piece of fabric which of course equals an amazing jacket! I'm in awe of Issey patterns and designs but they are something I'd never wear. However, I'm thrilled when one of my sewing sistahs uses one to make something awesome! Love the pics too!

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  6. Love the two colors on you. Goes great with the original jewelry. Great photos of the sewing process.

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  7. Really nice, Shams. I especially love the foto in front of the colorful bikes. Lisa from BABES

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  8. I like your new jacket. I've never seen double sided wool, would like to get my hands on some though.

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  9. I love vintage Issey! I have a jacket from back then that I still wear all the time and it still gets compliments. Love your double-sided wool too. Nice jacket, Shams!

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  10. Fun post! That color combo looks terrific on you. I agree, the collar is a hit.

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  11. Love navy and teal together! Great jacket.

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  12. Beautiful jacket and gorgeous details.
    My dd went to high school in NW Massachusetts. Cold, very cold and she had a pair of Sorels that she has abandoned here never to be worn again in lovely Austin.

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  13. Simply gorgeous! Congrats on another amazing success.

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  14. What a great fabric! I´ve seen something similar in the fabric shop I usually visit and I no ideas came to my mind...seems that yours work better! Love your new jacket and I admire you for putting so much effort into it!

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  15. GREAT jacket, oh muslin mama! Have a good holiday and enjoy DD2 while she's here!

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  16. Beautiful fabric. Gorgeous colors!

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  17. Beautiful jacket. The color is beautiful on you. Your daughter looks happy!!

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  18. This looks so good on you - the colors and style are just perfect! The lapels are really cool, showing the back side of the fabric so well. You put a lot of work into this and it shows. A great make! Love your photos, too!

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  19. To me looking at that sewing is like rocket science -- no way do i understand -- but the end results are fabulous. i agree -- that color looks great one you. The google campus looks nice too. And we may not have warm summers here in SF but we sure don't have snow1 Happy Thanksgiving!

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  20. Beautiful Jacket! I love the combination of those colors and it suits you so much. It look comfortable too, which is another great feature!

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  21. I love your jacket (and the earrings)! I'm coming to SF for AGU again on 12/13. Want to meet up?

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  22. That is inspirational! The lapel is very clever. I can't believe you had to do five sleeve muslins though - that's determination.

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  23. Love the jacket and it suits you so well. Nice.

    Your comment about warm being relative reminds me of when we lived in the Yukon Territory. Our first winter there we experienced three weeks of the temperature hovering around -40 (Celcius AND Fahrenheit), then one day it warmed up to -5 Celcius (23 F). When I went outside I was amazed how warm it was, it actually felt warm! I will never forget that, so yes temperature is all relative,

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  24. This is so becoming.
    Love the reversible fabric.

    My Minnesota sis & family stayed with me in August during our Oregon hot weather. I was pretty happy to get the house cooled down overnight to 70'. Until I had to break open the winter blankets because the MN people were freezing. Lol.

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  25. I went to look at the fabric on the Britex website, and they say "Guest Blogger Pick!" next to several other wools in the blue filter but not the one that appears to match what you used. It was a great choice and I think they should have not just the comment, but an actual link to the blog.

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  26. I really love this! And it's of course so well sewn. Swoon!!!!!

    We are in the thick of winter already. I have those Joan of Arctic Sorels too and they are money well spent! :)

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  27. Is it weird for me to LOVE looking at your mitered collar? You do such lovely and creative work.

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  28. Ah Seattle was 60 today, and the day after next the high will be 30.

    I am always good for a Miyake jacket; they don't get old, just worn out. I still wear all the ones I've made over the years and they all still look sharp. Very glad my finishing skills were up to snuff then. Still think there must be a trick re the flat felled sleeve.

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  29. Looks fantastic on you, both in color and design. The color combination is striking and lovely. Of course the workmanship is impeccable, as always!

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  30. Yes, what constitutes cold weather is definitely relative. When I first moved to Berkeley from southern Cal, I complained about how cold it was to so many people that I received 5 warm blankets for Christmas that year! The colors of your jacket are wonderful on you and the style is flattering. I laughed when I saw your photo of the scrunched sleeve -- definitely been there! I hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving weekend with your daughter!

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