Rainbow Weave Rigel Bomber

This is the Rigel Bomber from Papercut Patterns.
It's a loose fitting bomber jacket with raglan sleeves.

The fabric is a fairly heavy weight woven bought at Spotlight and made in Mexico. I loved the colours and immediately thought it would be perfect for the Rigel Bomber. It sort of was. At least, it was the perfect look and weight.

As much as I love the look of the fabric and think it makes a great bomber jacket, it was one of the worst fabrics I've ever sewn with. You can see from the insides that the fabric is woven with multi-stranded embroidery thread. Which means it frays like crazy and also gets caught in the sewing machine with far too much ease.

Because of how much the fabric frays I immediately had to make a couple of changes compared to the pattern. There was no way I was going to be able to put welt pockets into this fabric, nor side seam pockets for that matter, so I left those off. I also realised it was going to be essential to cover every single seam in bias binding to at least try and reduce the amount of fraying the jacket will do. But because of how awkward the fabric is, my bias binding isn't even sewn in particularly neatly. I'd also run out of black thread of all things, so my bad stitching is pretty visible on the inside.

For the facing I used some leftover grey cotton drill from a pair of pants I'd made. This meant I didn't need to add interfacing. Given the problems I'd had with the main fabric I wanted to limit any possible issues I could have with the rest of the garment. In the end the drill was just the right weight, and the grey is nice and calm compared to the brightness of the main fabric. It did take quite a few hours in front of the TV to sew it down, though, as it all had to be done by hand. But that's not difficult, just time consuming.

 The one last change I made was to raise the neckline. I did this for two reasons. First, I'd read in other reviews that the neck does sit lower than normal for a bomber jacket, and honestly it could still be lifted another 1-1.5cm easily. The other reason was so that I could use this zipper. I really liked the star pull zipper when I found it at Pitt Trading and so decided to buy it, but it was almost 10cm longer than the pattern called for. A little of that can be hidden or trimmed, but I raised the top of the neck 5cm by sharpening the front curve into the middle at a higher spot. Those changes made it the right length for the star zipper.

Overall I am happy with the finished product, even if I didn't enjoy all of the making. It got put in the corner a few times over the course of making it because I got frustrated, but I'm glad I did persist. As with all other Papercut Patterns I've used the instructions are pretty easy to follow, so this isn't a hard pattern to make. It's just better to choose a more practical fabric!

The Circle of Top

So in one of Papercut Patterns' sales a few months back I bought a few patterns. I had planned to get some of their most recent collection, but ended up going with older patterns instead. This is the first one I've sewn, the Circle Top.

I love cardigans and jumpers. Honestly, it's a good thing I can't knit because I'd be wanting to make so many cardis. Overflowing piles of fabric and patterns are enough to deal with without adding a yarn stash in. So I'm going to make what I can with sewing instead. I haven't yet made much in the way of cardigans because I haven't found patterns I like, but this one is really good.

What appealed to me about the Circle Top is how cosy it looked. I do like fit and some level of structure in my other clothes, but I'm a big fan of cardigans and jumpers that can be pulled around oneself, sleeves that I can pull down over my hands, and generally having cardis that are as blanket-like as possible. This pattern being a giant circle with long sleeves basically is a wearable round blanket, so it's great. It can be worn with the top half of the circle up like a hood or down like a cape collar, so it's nice and versatile.

The fabric is just a basic dove grey ponte from Spotlight which I bought for this pattern. I wasn't entirely sure on how the size of this pattern would affect the drape, and I also wanted something that was still solid enough to definitely be durable. I thought a ponte would fit the bill well. And it didn't hurt that it was on sale. I chose a plain fabric because I wasn't sure how a print would turn out with this top, and the dove grey because it's nice and neutral but not drab. Although it does look a little like the killer in I Know What You Did Last Summer when viewed from behind with the hood up.

The pattern is rated rookie, and it really is. It'd be a great choice of pattern for a newbie sewist looking to learn how to use knits. Honestly, it took longer to cut out the pattern than it did to sew it. And half of the sewing time is attaching the binding to the enormous circular hem. Even setting in the sleeves, often really frustrating to do, was very simple. The stretch of the ponte definitely helped with that. but the sizing and shape of the sleeve piece was just right.

This was also my first time sewing with a ponte, and it was a good experience. I had previously sewn lycra and double knit, so it wasn't entirely new. And just like those fabrics, it flowed through my machine with pretty much no problems. The only slight issue was on the hem binding, which is made of three pieces then sewn onto the top. That means that at the seams there are quite a few payers of fabric. My Janome handles those sorts of things, but it does let me know they aren't it's favourite thing to do. But, as long as I slow down and pay attention, it works fine.

I really enjoyed this. It's a quick make, comfortable and easy to throw on with anything.I most likely will make this again, and probably experiment with something other than a ponte. I also might move the sleeves up an inch so that when I put it up on my head as a hood it doesn't fall all the way in front of my eyes. If I make a summery lightweight version I'll also move the sleeves in a teeny bit so that the seams sit on my shoulders, rather than just off as they do on this one.

My Iron Hates The Morris Blazer

Doing Me Made May last month, I saw lots of people posting pictures of the Morris Blazer from Grainline Studio. I liked the look of it, a casual-ish blazer that's more cardigan than jacket, a nice shape that can be dressed up or down, so I decided to jump on the blazer bandwagon. Just a pity that my iron decided it didn't like the bonded lace fabric I used for it.

This is what less than a second of pressing the front of the blazer caused. Apparently the black thread used for the lace can melt. Of course it didn't do this when I pressed the seams while making the thing, or when I attached the interfacing, only when I wanted to make sure it was nice and neat for my photos. So in all of these photos I've studiously made sure that the front right is at least partially obscured so my iron's attack on the blazer can't be seen.

I played around a bit with where to place the sleeves. Deciding which of the shapes should be in the centre of the sleeve piece, and whether to have it at the top and bottom or in the middle, had me pinning and repinning a few times. In the end, I chose the ovally spoked shape over the solid black, because I thought it looked more interesting. It also matches the placement of the centre back.

The fabric was a little tricky to place correctly, because it's a thick ponte-style knit with the bonded lace over the top. Folding it evenly took a lot of time, and even so the back pieces slipped a couple of millimetres out of place when I cut it, which you can see in the middle of the centre back seam where the lines don't quite match up. I unstitched and restitched it, but wasn't able to get it quite right so the unevenness can still be seen if you look closely at the seam.

I decided to do french seams on the blazer, so it took a bit of extra time to make but has a cleaner look. The only exception was at the armscye, where I did normal seams and then used bias binding to cover the edges. I then stitched all the facings down by hand so that the stitching would be invisible and not interfere with the print of the fabric.

This was the first Grainline Studio pattern I've used, and I really enjoyed it. The instructions were clear and easy to follow, and the inclusion of a few extra notes to explain potentially confusing steps was really great. And the copyshop size download meant no need to sticky tape together a million different pieces of paper, which has put me off buying PDF patterns in the past. 

So while my iron has tried to attack this make, I really like it. I'm not sure exactly how I'll fix the iron's injury yet, but think I might try to use black thread and almost redo the lace embroidery. It won't quite match, but hopefully I can at least get it so that it doesn't look obviously damaged.

I was told that this is a pattern that most people want to make again and again. I'm thinking I agree, and probably will make another one myself. But hopefully next time my iron won't attack the fabric I choose!