Vogue 9135 - Kathryn Brenne jacket

I had a blast making this jacket! 

I ordered this pattern as soon as it was released, cut it out in mid-August, and started sewing it in early September. And it took a while to sew and finish. So here we go - the fun and funky new jacket from Kathryn Brenne.

Curiously, I already had just the right fabric for it - a polyester faille I ordered from Fashion Mart in late December of last year. It was a possible choice for Ashley's wedding dress, which, in the end, I didn't make - she fell in love with a gorgeous lace overlay tea-length dress at David's Bridal.

Oh, let's look at it again :-) Love my girl.

The faille is a bit crisp and has lots of body. It has a corded weave, running horizontally selvedge to selvedge. And it ravels like that's it's mission in life, one or more cords at a time! So I serged all my pieces as soon as they were cut. I also put safety pins on every piece, to mark the right side of the fabric. The difference between the two sides is very subtle but mismatched pieces would have been evident on the finished garment.

Three cords to 1/4" ! Ravelling is costly on this fabric.

I adore all the gathered casings and ties on the jacket, front and back. Because the faille isn't drapey at all, self-fabric ties would have very difficult to make. Instead, I used braided cotton cord for the ties. I love how the cord looks on this jacket - it just kind of hangs around.

I just noticed that my right sleeve is not turned up in this pic :-)

I cheated once again on the casings and cords. The pattern instructions have a pretty inventive application of corset hooks and eyes, intended to secure a cord at the top end of the casing, and allow it to be drawn up at the bottom end.

Ummm...no. That hardware would be so bulky, heavy, and awkward in the middle of a garment. What I did instead:

• Basted 3/8" elastic inside the casing ( inside and outside in the pic below), 
• Sewed the casing to the garment on three sides, leaving the elastic-pokey end open,
• Pulled up the elastic to gather the casing/garment,  
• Attached the cording just inside the open end of the casing and trimmed the elastic, 
• And sewed across that end of the casing to finish up - all nice and secure and no need to re-gather the casings every time a bow comes undone. Which they will do! As in all the rest of the pics in this post :-)

This is the same approach I used to sew the ties on Kathryn's pants, V9114 - here are the two pieces together!

A couple more sewing notes:

• I sewed the size extra small!! This top is super wide from side to side. I generally sew a medium/12 or 14 in Vogue patterns.
• The under collar is about an inch bigger than the upper collar, all around. It is folded forward over the upper collar and finished with mitered corners and topstitching. Tricky tricky with ravelling fabric - I messed it up on first try. So I trimmed about 1" from the top edge of both pieces and used a folded seam in the corner instead. No problem...

Right side of the upper collar, sitting on top of the under collar.

And that's it. I admit my enthusiasm flagged a few times as I was making this - it just seemed so big and awkward. But...

I love the finished jacket. It's unique, and it's truly a kick to wear. The fabric has lots of body, but it's very light, perfect for all seasons here in south Florida.

Ciao! Coco