Summer Blues: Floral Bomber & Big Denim Skirt

Two for the price of one today!

What I'd like to share with you today are a modified Butterick bomber jacket (B6181) and a Vogue Nicola Finetti skirt (V1486), with thanks to my daughter for the happy photos :).

Let's start with the jacket - top down, as it were!

I started this floral bomber jacket several months ago - in fact I think it was in October, back home from our Italy trip - after being inspired by some online images of oversized, 90s style canvas bomber jackets. This jacket is very far removed from my original inspiration, but that's the way it usually seems to go for me - I start at point a, get sidetracked to point b, and end up at point c. I'm sure that's pretty normal :). I can't find my original inspiration images any more, but basically I'd stumbled across some waist-length canvas bomber jackets with a boxy, minimalist style. I've got my own sketches of what I found (point a), and to be honest they're closer to the Falda jacket than to what I've made here... I'll have to make the Falda later!

So starting with my "point c" sketches I went trawling through the technical drawings of all the possible contenders from my pattern stash. Although the cover art on B6181 is very boring and dated-looking to me, the pattern had the raglan sleeves, zip front and simple shape I was looking for - and it was already in my stash :). Here's what the technical drawings and illustration look like - and I went with View D:

I thought it would be pretty straightforward to make this more cropped and more fitted (oh so different to my original inspiration!), and it was. All I did was to go down 1 size from the one that fit my measurements (getting rid of the looseness), and remove length from the sleeves, body, facings and pockets - about 10cm, removed starting from the bottom of the pocket working upwards, and removed from the lower arm section of the sleeves.

Because this interpretation was so different from my original idea, I didn't use canvas - instead I used a lovely textured Japanese cotton from Tessuti fabrics (the indigo / cream) floral coupled with a little bit of denim from a large piece bought at The Fabric Store (and the same fabric as used for the skirt). The denim collar and waistband (and facings) came about because I had slightly too little fabric, and I thought the denim coordinated reasonably well with the floral and would also go with most other garments I might wear this jacket with. The zip is one that was in my stash - how handy is a stash! - but was originally bought at Spotlight when I thought I might make a few bags (didn't happen).

I'm pretty happy with the way this jacket had turned out - for example, the collar worked out very nicely after a few passes:

but there is one detail I need to correct - I made the elastic in the waistband too loose:

In the next photo you can also see that the pockets innards show when I use the pockets and the jacket is unzipped... I think the jacket would be improved by top stitching the pockets to the jacket outer.  I guess I can still go back and do this if it bothers me, but the pockets are set slightly too high to be practical on me, so this may not be an issue. 

And now for the skirt.

The inspiration for this skirt was my fellow blogger Rachel, who posted a terrific photo of herself wearing this pattern on Instagram (here) - and I wanted a skirt just like hers!

My version of the skirt also uses denim from The Fabric Store (copy cat! I hope you don't mind Rachel, but at least we're in different States, right?).  I've done a terrible job in ironing my fabric after pre-washing it, but my current iron just doesn't get very hot - I recently used its cotton setting on polyester and the heat was just right, which seems wrong. Please excuse the wrinkles...

I sewed this up in a size 14 with a size 16 waist. I would normally add about 10cm to a skirt or dress, but this time I cut the length as designed because it *looked* long...  Anyway, the skirt has turned out a bit shorter than expected (I'm about 5'8" and have a short upper body) so I've left the hem raw and am hoping it will eventually acquire a cool slightly frayed look.

Here's a look at the technical drawing for the pattern:

The waistband is just a rectangle (my waistband facing is navy blue cotton voile, as are my pocket lining pieces) and unfortunately that's not the right shape for me; I need at least a little curve in there. I forgot to ask my daughter to take photos without the jacket so you'll have to trust me on this, but the waistband needs a couple of darts to fit better. I think it looks OK with the jacket open, but there's definitely some gaping at the sides.

The skirt has in-seam pockets and the most awesome pleats in the lower tier - at the front and back, but also along the side seams:

I haven't sewn anything but invisible zips for ages, and I didn't think I could sew regular zips in neatly, but I followed the steps in the pattern and I'm happy with the way the CB zip has worked. The Vogue skirt instructions included more steps than I previously would have used for a regular zip, so I expect that's why it's better than usual for me - it's centred and even, and although there are bumps where the skirt meets the waistband, I can tolerate that because I know there were a few layers of denim in the seam allowance there...

(Oh and I should say I'm pretty happy with the zip on my jacket too - it might be time to branch out from invisible zips!)

Here's the side / back view:

All up I'm happy with this outfit - not perfect, but pretty good.  And even though I don't think the skirt style does my thick waist any favours I'm considering this skirt pattern as a contender for the upcoming Sydney Frocktails - that's crazy though, isn't it?

See you soon

Gabrielle xx