This jacket has a little backstory to it - it started off as a vintage jacket (I'm kind of guessing from the 1960's?) that belonged to an elderly lady my Mum was friends with. Mum saved it from being donated to charity with the thought that I could rework it into something more wearable that she could wear to the lady's grandsons wedding in September.
I've had it sitting in my sewing room for months now because sewing velveteen scares the hell out of me! The last time I used it I managed to scorch, melt and swear at it, lol! So this time I spent a bit of time playing with it, trying out interfacing, ironing and sewing scraps. Surprisingly the fusible interfacing went on fine so I didn't have to bother with interlining or sew in interfacing.
I don't have a needle board so I pressed it from the wrong side using a press cloth and not putting any real pressure on it (on that note, I'm guessing it velveteen? I could be wrong though and it might be velvet? It feels beautiful anyway, lots nicer than a polyester velvet). I didn't have enough to use the velveteen on the facings so I used the original satin lining. It surprised me how much it used, I expected to have a lot of left over material but was only left with tiny scraps!
Its hard to capture the colour properly, its a real deep emerald (my husbands been calling it the leprechaun jacket!)
I had a lesson in humility trying to do bound buttonholes in velvet! They are are a little wonky and uneven but the nap helps hide it a bit!
A little note about the spare buttons - I've been getting frustrated about left over buttons so came up with this idea - a scrap of the material from the jacket with the buttons sewn on and a eyelet in the top. That way it can hang on the clothes hanger and you know straight away which piece of clothing it goes with and you don't have spare buttons hanging around!
This was my Mum's birthday present - Happy birthday Mum :)
What a lovely gift and upcycle! It does look like cotton velveteen to me, and a lovely quality at that! Regular velvet would have never survived the ironing. Cotton velveteen is wonderful that way and usually washable in a garment that's not tailored like this lovely one. Using the older lining for the facings was an excellent idea.
ReplyDeleteThankyou :) Thats really interesting about velveteen and makes a lot of sense about how I could iron it without melting it. Its beautiful fabric, a lot more luxurious in real life than what I could capture in photographs - I would love to find some more oneday.
DeleteVery nice job,your braver than me with those buttonholes and the button idea is ingenious!
ReplyDeleteThankyou!
DeleteThis is lovely, gorgeous colour - and a lucky mum!
ReplyDeleteThanks! The colour os so much richer in real life, I had a lot of trouble photographing properly!
DeleteWow, Suzy, it is gorgeous! The jacket is a lovely and fabulous gift for your mom. She is a lucky lady!
ReplyDeleteThanks Andrea!
DeleteOh my goodness, what a lovely reconstruction! That jacket is gorgeous! I hope your Mom loves it to pieces (not literally).
ReplyDeleteThanks Heather!
DeleteLucky Mum. You have done a brilliant job with this jacket. It is such a grgeous colour.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marie :)
DeleteGreat job Susy - and what a lovely story that your mum will wear it to the lady's grandson's wedding. How lovely. Love the combination of linings too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Beajay - Mums pretty excited to show it off at the wedding!
DeleteI'm secretly in love with animal print... but the only way I could ever feel 'normal' wearing it is as lining. I was just thinking about my next project having zebra print on the inside - so I'm super excited to see how well it works with this jacket! The emerald green, black and white look gorgeous against each other. Love it!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm the same with animal print, I can't see myself wearing it normally but I love it as jacket linings!
DeleteSuper work, as usual!!! Love the lining - so unexpected inside. Lucky Mum....
ReplyDeleteThanks Judith! I love sewing for Mum, she's always so appreciative of what i make her that she ends up telling strangers that I made her jacket/dress/etc!
Delete