I made this jacket with the intention of wearing it with the outfit I made for my cousin's wedding, but they didn't look quite right together in the end so I didn't wear it on the day. It was an interesting project though, and I think I'll get some use out of it.
But, STOP PRESS, the best thing about making this wee jacket was that I discovered my new favourite technique: the Hong Kong finish!
The Hong Kong finish is basically a neat way to finish seams when overlocking or french seams won't cut the mustard. It involves sewing bias binding onto each side of a seam. As this jacket has a princess seam I think it gives the inside of the jacket a really cool look - in fact the inside of this jacket is way more interesting than the outside. To learn how to do the Hong Kong finish I used a tutorial in my copy of 'Sewtionary' by Tasia of Sewaholic but you can also find plenty step-by-step guides on this here world wide web.
To make the jacket pattern I started with the Jackie pattern from La Maison Victor but I made quite a lot of changes to make it fit and I added a pleat at the back.
I previously made a modified version of this pattern for the Sew It Up competition back in 2014. This time round I changed the shaping at the front. Unfortunately I think I should have used some stronger interfacing as the fabric requires a bit more support to sit right. I feel it droops slightly.
To jazz up proceedings I also used some red piping in the shoulder seams.
Not a life-changing project by any means but always good to learn new techniques and do a bit of pattern engineering to modify patterns! I particularly enjoyed working out how to do the facing which I mostly sewed by hand.
I'll definitely be using the Hong Kong finish more in the future to make the insides of garments as nice as their outsides - and maybe even better.
