I Felt Loopy

Before I was sidetracked by the December issue of Burda magazine, I was working on a jacket. I bought the fabric in November in Hampton Roads, VA. I had driven my older son there so he could take his friend girl (it’s a long distance relationship so she really isn’t his girlfriend) to her high school’s fall Homecoming Dance. He doesn’t have enough driving experience yet to do the trip on his own. I dropped him off at the friend’s house and spent the rest of the evening shopping. In the sale section, at the back of the JoAnne Fabrics store, was a bolt of dark brown flannel like fabric with a variegated yarn felted to it in a meandering loopy pattern. I am pretty sure it is felted because there is no visible sign of stitching and the yarn fibers can be seen faintly on the back side of the fabric.

The local JoAnne Fabric store had a different colorway of this fabric last fall. I thought it was a bit overpriced for something made of acrylic/poly/wool, no matter how unusual the fabric was. It sold out very quickly. I always wonder what makes a fabric popular at one store and not at another. At half the original price, the fabric became more appealing to me. I decided a jacket with soft curved style lines would be a good choice for this fabric. Simplicity 2810 is a pattern for a double breasted, shawl collar jacket that fits that description.

On the pattern envelope, this jacket is shown in a paisley fabric with coordinating binding around the edges. The instructions say to finish the lapel outer edges and hem normally, and then apply binding made of bias strips cut from a coordinating fabric. I had a solid brown wool fabric that coordinated well, but as a binding over the finished edges it was too bulky. I considered cutting off the lapel edge seam allowances and binding the edge using the solid brown fabric, but that was still too bulky. By this time the binding issue was driving me "loopy" and the project stalled for a bit. I felt the patterned fabric really needed some kind of edge definition. Then I remembered a scrap of cream colored faux suede left over from a Davy Crockett/Daniel Boone costume project. You know the type of costume I mean...a leather looking jacket with lots of fringe. I folded strips of the suede in half and inserted the folded edge like piping. It extends about 3/16 inch from the front edge, about the same width of the yarn.

I had two fitting issues which are not normally a problem for me with Simplicity patterns. The full length sleeves were about 1.5 inches too short. I ended up sewing a bias band to the bottom of the sleeves to get them to the appropriate length. And the sleeves were also very narrow. Bicep circumference measurement for my favorite RTW jackets is 14.5 to 15 inches. For the size 14, the finished pattern measurement was 13 5/8 inches. I used 3/8th inch seam allowances on the two sleeve seams to get a little more room. The sleeves are comfortable over tops made of thin fabric.


One more day of work and I am on vacation until after the New Year. Gift shopping is done, thank goodness! I am actually feeling very relaxed about the upcoming holiday and am looking forward to luncheons with sewing buddies, visits with friends and relatives, and doing goofy stuff with the family like the Tacky Light Tour. The TLT is when you drive around the city after dark, looking at the Christmas lights on the homes of people who go to decorating extremes. I have not planned any specific sewing, but I am sure some will occur.