Hooray we had some sunshine over the weekend! Followed by more miserable rain. But while the sun was shining I managed to get some photos of my Minoru jacket made with another fabulous Sewaholic pattern.

 

I made this a while ago and I am really happy with how it turned out. It's made from navy twill that for some reason I could only find in the decorating fabrics section. I lined the jacket with rayon that I got on clearance for about $2 a metre. The twill was easy to use, the rayon not so much. It was stretchy etc but I learnt a lot about sewing with slippery, stretchy fabrics.

I made the version with the hood because it's just really cool. I added lining in the collar so that the rough seams weren't exposed. I also made an FBA adjustment which went a little wrong (apparently I thought I was Pamela Anderson). But it came out alright in the end. The zip was a little short, possibly from something I did with all the adjustments. I just tweaked it a bit at the bottom and a bit at the collar to make it work.

 

After all that I forgot to make all of my adjustments to the lining so it is a little loose. But who can tell.

Once the bulk of the jacket was made up I realised there was a fault in the fabric. Right at the front! It was too late to do much about it except create some super cute pockets to cover it up. Stephanie, who hosts our sewing meet ups at Can Do Books, taught me a sneaky trick to make the band on the top of the pockets. I also used some pattern making techniques to make the gathers and ensure the shape still came out right. I will try and post a tutorial about them soon.

All in all this jacket was pretty easy to make but I still learnt a heap of new tricks. It's super fun and was perfect to wear while riding my bike to the local shopping strip. The collar at the front was great to protect me from the wind and rain when the sun disappeared and I had to ride home. oh yeah and the navy matches my bike - of course (But I didn't get any pictures - I'll save it for another sunny day)