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Let it be said… I like a challenge.

This is what this Fabric choice felt like when I selected it, plunging into the unknown and choosing to work with something I never usually would. However, it ended up to be an amazing choice. Fortune does indeed favour the bold.

Floral Cut Out Faux Leather on Tulle Fabric… the photos don’t do it justice. It’s so hard to capture the intricacy of this fabric. It’s a black tulle backing, which a floral cut-out black faux leather has been embroidered onto using a white thread. There are gaps between the leather where you can see the tulle and yet when worn it’s not see-through in the slightest. I think I stared at it for far longer than normal/necessary when it first arrived (whilst mostly trying to get my head around what on earth I was going to make with it, having not actually had a clue when I chose it). I contemplated so many different things I could make with it, it would make a truly stunning dress, top, trousers, shorts (I could go on and on) but it finally struck me that this would make an incredible jacket.

In the hunt for a pattern that I felt would be simple enough so as not to over complicate the fabric I stumbled across Simplicity 8418. I say stumbled because when I decided upon a jacket I had structured, biker style in my head… but once I saw this bomber jacket pattern with its simple lines I just knew it would work.

One major thing I would say about the pattern is I sized down from the size my body actually measured at. I make a habit now (having all too many times made garments that are too big even though I measured myself before starting) of checking the finished garment measurements before choosing a size. Sometimes these are listed on the back of the envelope (as they were in this case) but when they aren’t I run a tape measure across the bust/waist/hip of the front and back pieces (remembering to minus the seam allowances) to get a finished size. The size they suggested I would be would have been huge (which is fine if you like that kind of thing) but I wanted it to be reasonably snug so I chose to size down, a decision I’m really pleased I made (it fits so well).

The fabric has a section of around 10cm of tulle on the selvedge before the leather design starts. This means that there is a beautiful edge to the leather that follows the floral cut-out design. It does also mean the fabric is narrower than you anticipate. I had 3 meters of fabric and managed to fit all the jacket pattern pieces on (easily) with just over half a meter spare. (The pattern envelope suggested that for a 60” fabric it should fit in 1.4m, although I didn’t cut the pockets from the pleather I opted for using the lining fabric instead so I think it would have used just over the amount stated had I not done this). I pared the fabric with a teal lining fabric that I found in my stash and a black rib fabric for the bands.

Before I began sewing the jacket I had a little test run on a scrap of the fabric. I always like to do this on a fabric I haven’t worked with just to get a vibe on how it’s going to behave. Leather has a habit of providing a lot of friction between it and the presser foot, this fabric however glided beautifully. I did change my needle to a leather needle however, I didn’t want to risk it skipping stitches if the needle wasn’t going through the fabric properly and with the leather needle in the machine I had absolutely no problems. (I actually didn’t even change the needle back to a regular one when I was sewing the lining pieces together and had no problems there either).

My biggest anxiety about this jacket was the zip. Leather/Pleather fabrics can easily pull out of shape and you can end up with wibbly seams (which you really don’t want down the front of a jacket). I would love to give you details of some crazy trick that I did here to avoid it happening but quite honestly it just wasn’t a problem.

The only actually fiddly part was figuring out the geometry of sewing the lining to the jacket at the sleeves. The instructions in the pattern were clear, but it’s one of those moments you query whether you can have got right whilst you wrestle this tiny opening through the machine.

One final note to add, make sure you press the lining and the jacket separately before you sew the two together, it makes it easier. The pleather pressed absolutely fine, the seams remain a little bouncy as you’d expect but with a low heat and a pressing cloth protecting both the iron and the fabric I experienced no problems at all.

Having enough fabric left over from the jacket to make a matching skirt was a moment of joy. The way the leather finishes on the tulle lends itself beautifully to something with a hem edge because it doesn’t need hemming. I chose to cut away some of the tulle (I cut the tulle so it finished at the lowest point the leather reached) so you still get a hint of the tulle there) but you could just cut off the selvedge strip and leave a larger section of the tulle and it would look really lovely too.

I self-drafted the pencil skirt pattern, it’s really simple and if you’ve never drafted your own patterns it’s a great one to start with.

Take your waist (W) measurement and your hip (H) measurement and write them down.

(I’ll use mine as an example). Then decide on your finished skirt length (L).

So you should have something like this:

W = 34” H = 45” L = 20”

We are only going to draw out half of one side of the skirt (the back and the front pieces will be the same) so we are going to quarter the waist and hip measurements. So I now have:

W = 8.5” and H = 11.25” (I will now refer to these measurements as W+H)

Draw a straight line on your paper that is the same length as ‘L’, this is your centre front/centre back and will be placed on the fold when you put it on your fabric. At the top of this square across your ‘W’. Measure down 9” along your centre front and then square across your ‘H’.

The only thing left to do is to account for a dart. (if you drew the shape as is, it would work but it wouldn’t sit particularly flat). The width of the dart at the waist edge should be half the difference between your hip and waist measurement. If you wanted to see this as an equation is would be Dart = (H-W)/2. So for me, the width of my dart is around 1.4”.

You square down to the hip line and mark a dot and this is the end point of your dart, so then you just join up these 3 points to form the dart. (Where you position the dart on your top edge is up to you, I usually aim for around 10cm from the centre front/back.

The final part is to then add the size of the dart onto the W line across the top of your pattern (so the total length of this line is now W+Dart width).

Now choose how wide you want the hem edge of your skirt (I like to use the same width as the top edge) and join the dots with a slightly curved line, add your seam allowance and Taa Daa, a simple skirt pattern.

Usually on a sewing pattern you would need to add about ½” to your body measurements to account for wearing ease. With this fabric I found that this actually made it too big (it isn’t stretchy but it does have an element of give to it). If you’re at all concerned it’s going to be too tight add the ½” as you can always remove it later if needed.

To create the waistband, I cut a strip of rib fabric (that I had left over from the jacket) 10cm wide and the full length of my waist measurement (allowing it to stretch slightly). After sewing together one of the side seams I put the waistband on by folding the rib fabric in half lengthwise and attaching both raw edges to the top edge of the skirt. I then inserted a concealed zip in the remaining side seam (which as per the jacket went in really easily with no problems at all) before sewing up the rest of that seam and it was done!

I really enjoyed working with this fabric to create these two pieces. I am still not convinced I’ll be wearing them together but that’s just my personal style. The great thing is though they do actually work as a co-ord but equally the jacket looks really cool with a pair of jeans.

Thanks for reading,

Clare

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