Saturday 9 February 2013

Minoru magic

Pattern: Minoru jacket from Sewaholic

 Size: 8

Fabric: 'Merlot' baby gabardine from Mason's




Tasia of Sewaholic must be a sorceress. That is the only conclusion I can make. As you may know, I've not had great success with jackets in the past, so was scared to try another one, particularly something as sophisticated as Minoru. But I became obsessed with reading about other people's versions and it seemed everyone was united in their love of how easy the pattern was and how satisfying the results are.

More than any other designer, Sewaholic things just fit me. They are designed especially for me, I think. Plus I know that the instructions are alwasy easy to follow, and there's a detailed sewalong for Minoru, so I stopped being a big girl's blouse and got on with it.

I usually wear a 10 in Sewaholic, but I thought it sounded like there was rather a lot of ease and I didn't want this to be a baggy coat. So I opted for an 8 which worked out fine. I've had the leaf cotton for ages. It was the end of a roll and not quite enough for a dress or full skirt so it has sat around feeling sad and lonely. I knew it would look delicious sitting in the hood of Minoru, so it finally has its place in the world.

As for the pattern; sheer magic. I mean, the idea of ME making something that has a zip in the collar which houses the hood?! But it was so easy I felt I must have missed something. No: it's just easy.

Woomph. There it is!

I have done so many new things whilst working on this jacket - the aforementioned zip, making a hood, open-ended zip, nifty ways of attaching lining. It's like a right of passage in fabric form. Things got a bit trickier towards the end; the incredible way for attaching the sleeve lining to the cuff was fiddly, but way preferable to slipstitching! Annoyingly the most taxing bit was finishing off the bottom hem (most likely because it highlighted sloppy cutting on my part!).

I love this jacket and am so proud of how it looks. As with anything I make I can see the faults - the zip isn't perfect, my stitching in the ditch needs some work, and the back is a bit baggy above the waistband, but those are things to think about next time round. :-) I also suspect that I put my sleeves on backwards but let's forget about that cos they're not coming out now.

Baggy back.
A friend pointed out that I'm having a love affair with Sewaholic, and she's not wrong, but more than anything, I'm having a love affair with Minoru. I have actually had daydreams of skipping through autumnal woods wearing it, possibly with a country / 80's power ballad soundtrack. I hope we have a happy ending.

Warning: Lots of pics! But at least we went out and about for these! In the rain.



Look a hanging hook! And yummy leaf lining
A funnel neck to hide in
Posing in the rain

More of that wonderful hood-hiding zip
Hood makes an appearance.
Oooooh, check out ma linin'




2 comments:

  1. Wow cool! What a great make. I'm loving the hood-hiding-in-the-collar. So nice you finally found something for the leaf material - very satisfying. :-)

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  2. OMG, it's so beautiful! You've definitely inspired me to try it out now. And that lining's gorgeous - it's like it was destined for Minoru! xx

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