New Jacket, New Style

I'm decidedly pretty bored with the typical "Look what I made!" formula of sew something, take some photos, then post. I get that it's the easiest thing to do, but it's not been any...fun.

So, I made some non-boring Photoshop collages to present my new work. I certainly won't win any Photoshop awards for any of these, but I definitely had fun.

I picked Burda's Boxy Jacket with Leather Patches because duh! That one looks just like something I would wear. I even already pretty much have the sunglasses.

Of course, I decide to put my own spin on it. Why leave that nice inside of the jacket plain and boring if you can leave part of it open? I turned part of the facing into what the lining looked like by using interfacing on the back to stiffen it. This also gives that part of the jacket more pizzazz when left open.

Here are better photos of what the jacket actually looks like.

Sometimes I really don't understand why Burda patterns are made the way they are. Perhaps it's because I generally design all my own patterns, but they sometimes have you do it the hard way. In this pattern, they want you to MAKE the faux leather armband by using some stretchy tape stuff on the back of the leather that I've never used to gather it.... come on!

Joann had this perfect faux-leather quilted fabric so I just used that. I had to edit the sleeve pattern a teeny bit. This pattern wants it to be 3/4 length and yet again, I asked why. In the end, I think my sleeves came out shorter than the Burda pattern even originally intended as I had to shorten the sleeve about 3 inches but it is full-length on my 5 foot frame.

It's also not clear immediately that this jacket has a drop-shoulder. This of course gives it an extra boxy effect. As a small girl with broad shoulders it's not necessarily the best silhouette, but hey. I think it's fun.

This pattern also calls for you to buy hammer-on snaps. I bought ones at Joann yet again and they absolutely did not work. I wanted to practice with just ONE and ended up "practicing" with all of them, throwing them all away. I fixed that problem however with giant sew-on snaps on the inside and adding some cool faux buttons on the front. I have no idea where the buttons I used came from  but I'm glad they were hanging around in my stash.

One last gripe: Why does Burda think no one at home can sew a lining in a jacket? Or is it just too much extra work to put into the PDF? A lining in a jacket is totally not scary and I sew mine entirely by machine.

I'm currently out of work again, so expect at least two more upcoming projects from me (and possibly weird Photoshops to go along with it.) I had been working at a popular candle shop part-time and the location I worked at closed. Strange, I know. That was the last mini-disaster of 2014 and I'm glad that year is over. So I'm using the time I have to delve into being a creative weirdo again while looking for my next adventure.

If you have been following the Instagram, you will see that I found two amazing retro mid-70s patterns together 53 cents each! One of them is the cutest romper and I decided it needed my hand-drawn Victrola print (below). I had been looking for an excuse to print it up and lo and behold, the sewing pattern showed up!

                        This pattern design will be available for sale on my Spoonflower account!

Have fun, everyone!