I made a perfect spring jacket and so naturally the weather has returned to winter. California is being besieged by awful storms and my friends in the UK tell me it’s not much better there.
And so to the dismal lack of photos: I’m afraid we live in an apartment designed for summer. It’s like living in a pool of shade, or a cave – absolutely delightful when the sun shines, chilly and dark when it doesn’t. So unfortunately, whilst the sun is staying away, I have very limited pictures to share of my wonderful new garment.
BUT it is so wonderful that I thought I’d rabbit on about it anyway! After sharing last week the first steps, the construction that followed was perfectly straightforward. The fronts were sewn to the back; the sleeves were inserted and the collars attached. The obvious additional step was the (bias) binding of the seams. As the jacket is unlined, this was necessary to create a pleasing inside finish – and it linked well with the binding of the jacket edges which followed.
I did bind the collar seam down as per the original Bakerloo instructions, but because of the bulk I stitched it by hand. This binding was the last to go on, so it could encase the raw edge at the top of the grown-on button band.
A quick try on of the jacket revealed that, of course, it needed pockets. I had very little lawn left so they’re quite dinky!
The final step was to add KAM snaps (to complete the mimicry of the children’s jacket that inspired this). I spent a small fortune on ordering these online – and, needing to get the colour just right, ordering five different shades of pink. I settled on a shade called Dark Pink.
And whilst I am over the moon with the finished garment, in case you’re wondering whether this was all a walk in the park – I broke three quilting needles, managed to accidentally trim off a section of collar frill so I had to unpick an entire collar AND installed half the snaps wrong, so they had to be fixed with pliers.
But it was all worth it. Seriously, I love this little jacket so much I want another. And another. Do you want one too? Let me know!
Nina x