My Scraps Jacket

The book explains how to draft your own jacket pattern by measuring out the length you want it to be and the width. I used my Patterntrace Swedish tracing paper to draw out the jacket template. Once I had my chosen width and length, I cut the neckhole. I did this using my Ilford jacket pattern piece...I realised I wasn't good at trying to draw an oval shape! I also thought originally that the pattern piece looked huge so took an inch each side of my rectangle shape. I shouldn't have... I could have done with those couple of inches. When it came to drawing the template for the sleeves the book tells you the width and you decide the length of a sleeve plus hem allowance.

I enjoyed looking through my fabric offcuts and deciding what would look good together. I decided on the following fabrics: 

• Corduroy 
• See You at Six Floral Canvas 
• Blue Denim from Oh! Sew 
• Grey Blue Denim from 1st for Fabrics 
• Blue and White Aztec Cotton from Selvedge and Bolts 

All of these fabrics had been used in previous garments and I had some offcuts so it felt great to get using them. When cutting the fabrics out, I tried to keep the squares similar size to make it easier for sewing together.

I think it's easier to sew all your patches together to essentially make one large fabric piece. So I lay out my squares in the pattern that I wanted them. It was a pretty random layout and I wanted to make sure no square was next one to one another. Once I had them all laid out, then I sewed the squares into each of the rows. Then I sewed the rows of squares together to make that one large piece of fabric. I did the same more less for assembly of the sleeve pieces. 

Once all squares were assembled and pressed it was time to cut out my pattern pieces. The jacket itself was very simple to put together. I sewed the sleeves onto the rectangular bodice and then sewed the side seams. To enclose the raw edges of the neckline centre front I decided to use some anti static lining I had in my stash. It also happened to go quite nicely with my fabric choices as it was like a dark green/blue colour. To make the lining I cut the lining out using my pattern pieces and sewed it together the same way. I then attached it to the neckline and centre front using about a 10mm seam allowance. When attaching it to my main fabric I put it right sides together, sewed, then flipped to the inside so there should be no raw edges or seams on show. 

To hem my jacket I decided to turn the main fabric and lining up together twice, to make a double fold. It seemed easier to do it this way because of the way my jacket was. 

So that was my jacket pretty much done. All I did after that was give it a good press. 

This project has certainly given me the inspiration and drive to continue to make some projects that involve scraps and offcuts from other projects. In this fast fashion world I do think it's getting more and more important to find ways to be sustainable and show fabrics or garments a new lease of life that would otherwise be sat in a dark corner of our room or in the landfill. One of the projects I plan to do sometime in the next number of months is a quilt/blanket made with some of Henry's clothes from his first year. 

Like I said in a previous blog of mine when I reviewed the latest sewing bee book, I would definitely recommend the book. I love all the patterns, the transformation projects and the information about how to be more sustainable. 

So while I am more inspired to do more projects involving scraps, I'm not sure I'm ready to jump into the self drafting world just yet. The size of my jacket was a little tight around my shoulders so I think I would use one of my PDFpatterns such as my favourite Ilford Jacket. But then again practice makes perfect, so we shall see, I might just try pattern drafting another time!

Thanks for reading :)

Rebekah x

Keyword: Dressmaking 

ref: 20 | My Scraps Jacket