Now that autumn is here I’m planning to make a new jacket for myself. Jackets are actually my favorite thing to sew I think...there’s a certain complexity sewing wise which is interesting for me and they get a lot of wear so it’s definitely a win-win. I’m going to share some of my inspiration in this post for my upcoming make.
Normally I would post after finishing my project and I’d probably post only a photo on Instagram about the inspiration but lately I’ve been feeling that Instagram is really moving away from the format it used to be, the format I loved and used to share things related to my sewing (process). I know I’m not alone and that many other people in the sewing community who I follow have been talking about the same topic for some time now. I know it’s just how “life is”, it’s a commercial platform that has to make money and we, the users of this social media platform, have to adapt to their rules...because after all we’re using their services.
Anyhow, I feel that I’d like to share my things in a more consistent way, in a way that people who are actually interested would have an easy access to this information. And for me personally too, this blog has always been my sewing diary and whatever the future brings, I know that my stuff is safe and in order here. I was especially motivated to start blogging more often after one of my students in class told me that she was revisiting my old posts to see how to make a softshell jacket for her daughter and that she could easily see different methods here. It reminded me of the importance of writing things down in a more concise manner because I can always come back to my archives to find out what methods I used etc. And it’s also beneficial to my work when teaching classes, I can direct the students to certain posts with more information than just a single IG photo. While it feels like people want to consume information faster and faster (and in video format when possible), I really do belive that there are other folks like me who get overwhelmed about it all…and who actually like to take a moment and read something a bit more elaborated. Either way, there’s something for everybody.
That said, many times I haven’t written here and I’ve chosen the IG post because I felt that I didn’t have time to write an “entire blog post”. But the truth is that the posts don’t have to be super long in order to provide something useful/beautiful/inspirational. I will try to push myself to write more blog posts when I actually feel that I have something I want to say or I feel that some particular information should be saved here for future reference.
So let’s keep it simple and I’ll tell you about the jacket I’d like to make for this fall! I have this beige cotton canvas type fabric I got last spring as I wanted to make a jacket in this colorway as it’s something that is clearly missing in my wardrobe (I loved my beige Kelly anorak but it is unlined and by now it already has some pilling so it’s not in use anymore). The thing is that recently I’ve made several dark green/ army color jackets and it looks like I instantly gravitate towards this color in outerwear, haha (see this green softshell anorak and this green canvas jacket). Not to mention that my partner has several jackets in the same color and I made my daughter this cute green softshell jacket...when we go out together it looks like we play dress up, hahahaha. So yeah, a beige jacket has been something I wanted to make for some time now (although when I saw these fabrics at Sewjo I even dreamed with the dark green abstract zebra print that night, I kid you not, haha).
How cute are these oilskin fabrics from Sewjo??? And I’m not even an animal print fan, hahaha.
As this jacket is for transitional weather I will underline it with another fabric (I actually made a light brown one last year but I didn’t line it and in the end it’s not very funcional!) and I had this striped knit fabric in stash that I will use for this purpose. I’m thinking about using the same pattern as I used for this dark green jacket, the Moderne by Aime Comme Marie. I actually haven’t blogged about that make so I will take better pictures of it while I’m at it. I was really happy how it came together as I had been dreaming of a jacket inspired by the Will jacket by a French brand called Sezane. I lined this cotton twill fabric with a fine wool blend I had in my stash and it turned out really great, I’ve been wearing it a lot.
The canvas jacket made with the Moderne pattern
I used a wool underlining + bias tape to finish all the seams
Will jacket from Sezane, photo via Pinterest
Will jacket from Sezane, photo via Pinterest
This time I’m thinking about adding a hood and using different pockets to make it different. Here are some images from Pinterest that I really like :) Let’s see how it goes!
