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Tuesday 7 April 2015

Surprise - I've made another jacket!

Yes, flushed with success following my first wool jacket, C suggested he could buy some wool fabric for me for my birthday and that I should make another jacket with it. Well, that was all the encouragement I needed! I chose the Yona jacket as you can make it a buttoned version instead of a wrap with a tie belt, which is a style that rarely suits me.

The fabric is a 100% wool from Edinburgh Fabrics which I pressed and steamed to the nth degree to pre-shrink it. Sooo boring but essential.

Next, I made a muslin and got C to photograph the back so I could see how it fitted. Yona is drafted for broad shouldered women 5'8" tall. Bingo! Just about describes me. The muslin was cut straight from the pattern and was a good fit. I added an inch to the length of the body and arms though.

Lots and lots of pad stitching
This was my first lapel and I used tailoring techniques and also heavily read and scrutinised other Yonas in blog-land. I used cotton twill tape for the lapel edges and fold lines. I pad stitched the lower collar and under collar stand. All these steps, although they took time and involved a lot of hand stitching, really made the difference. My lapels are 'the business' and I'm really pleased with them. Not quite so pleased with my steam iron which managed to throw a 'thermostat-tantrum' and scorch a lapel but thankfully its gone a colour that sort of blends in!

I used medium weight sew-in interfacing and interfaced the whole jacket as the fabric is quite fine, not suiting but it's medium weight. I also interfaced the pockets and that was the right decision. No droopy pockets for me! I used sew-in hair canvas for the under collar, front facing and under collar stand.

Just to make things interesting, I used a good quality, dark red coloured satin lining and also did some black satin piping at the join between lining and fabric facing. I found some great buttons, I think they're more towards a navy/black colour and have electric blue in them too. Perfect!


Here you can see the colours in the fabric, there's mustard, bright blue and wine that appear horizontally and vertically. I can't escape pattern matching but I've done a good job on this back seam. The pocket is mostly matching...

The background colour gets a bit washed out in these photos but really shows up in the photos C took while we were at Holyrood Palace on Easter Monday. It was such a glorious day, wall to wall sunshine and warm.

See how rich the fabric colour is in daylight compared with the indoor photos above? Strange! By the way, the scorched lapel is the one nearest the camera in this close-up photo. The scorch mark goes along the edge of the lapel for about 3-4".

I really like this jacket and love how the fit is just about straight from the packet for me. I did have to adjust the top sleeve seam, shaving off a smidgeon just after it turned the corner of my shoulder, if you know what I mean. I like Yona's relaxed, more casual fit and style. Now for some action shots of the jacket...




It's a beautiful palace and worth a visit, if you can. Makes a good backdrop for blog photos too! But I have to say that I will wait a little while before making any other outerwear even though I desperately need it. Mind you the Minoru jacket is calling...have you got any plans for jackets now the weather looks like it's heading towards warmer times?

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