At the Japanese Friendship Garden in beautiful Balboa Park.
I've been a fan of blazers for a long while, particularly boyfriend blazers. I have a white one, but I don't wear it much as I'm afraid of getting it dirty. I ordered this fabric and I just thought it needed to be a blazer!
This fabric was a dream by the way. It's a "floral jacquard stretch suiting" from Fashion Fabrics Club. I think it's mostly polyester. It's fairly heavy, but not bulky. It doesn't wrinkle and it sews nice and presses nice. Just a dream to work with. The lining (not pictured) is orange acetate. I hate acetate, but the price is right. Not so nice to sew with, but slippery fabrics never are.
Sewing a blazer is hard. There, I said it. I used Simplicity 2340. I think the directions assumed that you had made a blazer before, and I haven't. It took a lot of puzzling, especially the collar. I redid the collar probably like 5 times. I was carefully matching the small dots and large dots as instructed, but on the wrong pattern pieces because there are a million large dots and small dots! I finally got that more or less figured out, but I never did figure out the back vent and I'm sure I did it incorrectly, but I don't really care, it works. However, if you have sewn a blazer before or have a reference book it's probably not so bad, and it wouldn't be so bad a second time around, if I were crazy enough to attempt it.
I'm not crazy about the fit either, which I think adds to the 80s-ness of it. According to my upper bust measurement I'm a 12, but I went down to a 10. I did a tissue fitting of the 10 and it was a bit snug, but I went ahead with it anyways. In my sewing class my teacher said that a garment will grow about a half inch when changing from tissue paper to fabric, so I didn't worry about the snugness. But this grew way more than a half inch. If I were to make this again, I'd go down another size.
One last thing- the button.
Gary hates the button, says it puts "the finishing touch on the granny look". I told him granny chic is in, but he never listens to me! Plus, this really is a granny button. When my grandpa's sister died at the ripe old age of 82, I ended up with a hot pink, faux fur, mod 60s style coat with these buttons. (No idea if it was from the 60s or just a replica. She was a good seamstress herself, I'm pretty sure she made the coat) I parted with the coat, but not before snagging the buttons. It only took me about 10 years to find a use for one of the five buttons, but at least they can finally see the light of day!
Mahalo for reading all about my crazy jacket and aloha! (and I mean that in the goodbye sense)
Adorable blazer! Granny chic is definitely in, as are bright florals, so you're good to go.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment on my B5562 puff sleeve top. For reference, I cut an XS at shoulders and bust, M at the waist, and L at the hips. I didn't have to take the hips in *too* much as I recall (though some), it was the waist that was most horrible.
Congratulations with your blazer, Stephanie. A blazer clasical style is stil my goal and my nightmare, because I didn´t give it a try yet. Making skirts seems the only sewing activity over here. Grrrrrrrrr. You gave me a push, thanks. Your review about making this nice garment is great! Suzan from Amsterdam
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