Burda 11-2013-117 and shattered dreams of Rick Owens

My entry at this year's Bargainista Fashionista contest at Pattern Review is a copy of an Alexander McQueen dress which I love and I've already worn twice. But this dress was not what I had first planned to make for the contest. Originally, I was planning to make a copy of a Rick Owens moto jacket that mixes leather (pleather?) with knits, both thin and chunky. Isn't it awesome?

Trying to figure out how to copy it, I searched everywhere for a photo with a front view (or any other view!) of this particular jacket, but alas, I came empty handed. I did find quite a few other Rick Owens jackets like the ones below. They all have the same large and wide open collar, and the tied half belt. The half belt in particular gives a very flattering shape because it essentially becomes two long triangles placed sideways emphasizing the waist.

It is possible that the jacket I wanted to copy has the body front and back made in the thick knit and only the sleeves in pleather (+ thin knit undersleeve). I cannot really tell from the photo that I have, but it doesn't matter. In my mind's eye my copy was always going to have only the fronts in the handknit. Oh, and yes, Rick Owens works only with black and greys, but I cannot live without color, so a royal-blue/deep purple is the most I was willing to compromise.

So here is my version. Turned out OK, right? If only... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

For my copy I used Burda 11-2013-117, an asymmetric short moto-jacket with peplum.

For the handknitted fronts I had the perfect yarn in my stash. A long time ago I made a simple bolero knitted jacket with it, but it turned out too boxy and I never finished it. Plus I also didn't like the unpolished texture that resulted from the uneven thickness of the yarn. Too "imperfect" I thought. But Rick Owens' pieces always have a punkish, rough coolness to them, and so this "imperfect" yarn would be perfect for this copy.

Since the fronts would be hand knit, I didn't want to use all four pattern pieces and have seams in the knitting. So, I combined them into a single pattern and knitted that shape, making sure to use increases-decreases and shortrows as needed to shape the fronts. Hence the "bubble" you can see where the bust goes. On Ravelry I kept notes of how exactly I knit the fronts, although they are probably not useful to anyone unless they have this precise yarn and jacket size.

For the rest of the jacket (the back, the sleeves and the half belts) I used a thin pleather in a lovely matching blue. I thought I was so lucky to find this matching pleather in my stash. "Good thing that I had saved it for the past 15 years", I thought. Yeah... and now you begin to realize where the problem comes in, don't you?

Indeed! Fake leather doesn't "keep" well. The plastic had completely dried up in those 15 years and the fabric just began to crumble every time I handled it. Ugh, the heartache! My lowest point came when I tried to convince myself that the shattered fabric added to the "punk vibe" I was going for. Sure...

So why did I finish it, since it is clearly not wearable like this? Well... On the practical side I did want to check how it would look, both the fit but also the combination of textures, and that tied closure. Now I know that I really do like it and so it will be worth trying to find a replacement fabric. On an emotional level though, I think that finishing the jacket was also my way of grieving for this fabric. And coming to terms with my fabric addiction. Sigh...

Does this kind of thing ever happen to any of you out there with large stashes? What other "surprises" can I expect after 20 years of collecting fabrics? Ah, well... I love my stash so we take the good with the bad, don't we?

I leave you with a view of all sides of the jacket, so you can see the nice shape of this pattern. And here is my review of Burda 11-2013-117 at Pattern Review.

Another peplum, knit jacket Vogue 2989

I've kinda gone astray from my plans for the Stitcher's Guild SWAP 2014. I was in dire need of a warm jacket or sweater or anything that could help to keep me warm in our newly redecorated offices which for some reason have also become colder.

So, I rummaged through my stash looking for the thickest, warmest fabric that I could find and I turned it into this:

Does look warm, doesn't it? It is also super, super comfortable. The pattern is the jacket from Vogue 2989.

A simple jacket with lovely lines, raglan sleeves, a peplum and a sort of scarf collar. I totally love the pattern but the actual jacket came out kinda wide, don't you think? I made my usual size 14 and the waist fits fine. But the sleeves and the upper chest is where I think there's too much fabric. Actually, looking at the side view there is also too much fabric at the underarm. If I make it again I will try to bring the armhole a bit higher. Perhaps even also a small bust adjustment?

Even though it is a bit too wide I am still very happy with my new jacket. It was super easy to make and came together very quickly. Because my knit had a tendency to curl at the edges I topstitched all the seams, holding the seam allowances in place. The knit is very fluffy so the topstitching is relatively discreet, which I think is nice.

One change I made was to leave the collar drape bits "single ply". The pattern asks you to cut 4 pieces of the collar drape, two for each side, one at top and one at bottom. But I thought my thick knit would look too thick and more importantly, I didn't have enough fabric to cut all 4 pieces. In fact, I didn't even have enough to cut 2 collar pieces. I nearly panicked when I noticed this but then I realized that in a real knit like this I could "graft" two pieces of fabric just like I do with my hand knits. It worked beautifully, you can't even see where I grafted the fabric together (it's ~10cm below the shoulder seam. I told you it wasn't visible!).

It closes with a simple hook and eye at the waist.

Despite the extra fabric under the arms it is a warm and welcome addition to my wardrobe.

My review of Vogue 2989 is here at Pattern Review.

Black stretch cotton jacket: Burda 08-2006-108

Hi, I am Lucia, I am a fabricholic. I buy and I buy fabric and I never sew anything. Here is to changing that!

It was looking a little desperate there for a while, after I made my pledge to sew with a plan and then proceeded to sew everything but. Fortunately I've come back to the straight and narrow and I'm actually making some progress now! Here is the very first item from my swap list fully completed:

Black stretch cotton jacket, Burda 08-2006-108

This is the second jacket I have ever made, and it shows. My first one was my Colonel Mustard Michael Kors raincoat, and I thought all my problems were due to the waterproof fabric which was devoid of any stretch and thus extremely unforgiving. This second jacket is made in a stretch cotton and it sewed beautifully until I got to the sleeves. For the life of me I couldn't get the sleeves properly set in! Three times I had to rip stitches off and in the end I just stopped because I wasn't actually improving anymore, argh!! 

There are no tucks on the sleeves, but they "ripple" as if there were. Reading in the sewing blogosphere I think my problem may be related to lacking padding in the sleeve head. This article by Melanie from Seamstress: Poppykettle is probably what I needed to have done... but if I am honest, once I finish a garment I cannot muster the strength to go back and fix or change something. 

Now reading the reviews in Pattern Review (why do I always do this AFTER I finish sewing???) it appears this pattern has way too much ease in the sleeve head. This review is particularly useful. Phew! So for next time, I'll just use the sleeves and armhole from a TNT pattern (once I have that...)

The rest of the jacket is fine, although the curved corners at front top and bottom are far from perfect and asymmetric... 

I do absolutely loooove the stretch charmeuse lining. It is soooo comfortable and luxurious!

I made this jacket originally because I needed something to go over my Burda color blocking dress. It does go but it's not quite perfect... The best I can figure is that the jacket is a little too long for my pear shape. My favorite jackets all sit ±7cm higher than this one. So that is one more lesson learned. 

Burda 08-2006-108 jacket and Burda 02-2012-117 dress

I also wrote a review of this pattern in Pattern Review.

All in all, I am still quite happy with this jacket and I think I'll get a fair amount of use of out it. As for my swap: one of six done, and this one was the hardest. Woohoo!