Patchwork Denim Coat

This coat. Well, lemme tell you two things about it. 1) it took a bloody age to make, and I loved almost every minute of making it. 2) I don't think I'm going to keep it. 

Ever since the success of my scrap-busting patchwork viscose Scout tee, I had in mind doing something similar with denim. I had masses of scraps and small pieces of denim left over from other projects. Denim scraps just aren't as useful as lighter weight fabric scraps for working into other garments or turning into useful gift-y things like schrunchies. I was inspired by a couple of upcycled denim projects that I'd seen on Instagram, including a haori-style jacket that I can't find now. So I decided to use my beloved La Trop Facile pattern by Delphine et Morissette as the base, but lengthen both the body and the sleeves.  

Next was the fun bit. I got all my denim pieces together, and spent a number of the evenings over a couple of weeks hacking them, matching them and stitching them together. I got to select the pieces I liked the best to feature more prominently, and tried to combine them so the overall effect was varied. I decided to include some of the lovely selvedges to break up the blue a bit, and to (hopefully) create an interesting, graphic effect. 

I started on a few sections, joined some of them together and expanded where necessary until I had panels large enough to fit my pattern pieces on. There was a massive back panel, two front panels, two sizeable sleeve-rectangles and a collar. I stitched the outer together, save for the collar, then made a lining. 

Because I was working very much from the angle of #usewhatyouhave, I used some turquoise silk lining from my stash. In hindsight, I don't think it was the best choice as it's very fine, and probably more suited for use in a dress. Anyways, I made the lining then spent a lot of time head-scratching, trying to work out how to insert it. Have done so, I then attached the collar, hand-stitching the inside seam. 

I soooo wish I was the type of person who would wear this. I love the idea and ethics behind 'making fabric' from fabric scraps, and I wish I could fully embody that by wearing this coat out and about. But I've come to accept that it just really isn't my style. It's just too jarring with the rest of my wardrobe.

Therefore I'm going to ask around my IRL friends to see if any of them would like it. I do not regret making it at all, it was such a fun project to work on. I loved exploring the concept of 'fabric from fabric scraps' further and I'm sure I'll do more in the future. 

Now, a tiny bit of house-keeping. I'm afraid I've had to turn off the comments on this blog, at least for a while. The amount of spam I've been getting is ridiculous, I even had two people actually message me about it via Instagram last week. I've exhausted the options within Blogger to curtail it, so I'm not sure what to do. I'm so sad to have had to take this step though, because I absolutely love reading the genuine comments and having a dialogue with my readers, but those comments usually get completely lost within the spam. Thanks so much if you are someone who has commented on previous posts, please know that I really appreciated them. If you would ever like to get in contact with me, my email address is available on my About Me page, and my IG handle is @sozoblog. 

Stripy La Trop Facile Jacket-igan

"Is this a jacket, or a cardigan? Jacket? Cardigan? Jacket-igan?"

Well, dare I toot my own horn and say that I'm smashing my #2020makenine plans?! I do dare! In January, the epic leopard ponte became an oh so subtle cardigan. In February, I scratched my boiler suit itch with some gorgeous, rust, sanded twill. In March, I made my Romero trousers (further tweaks may still be made) from the nicest denim I've ever encountered (and I've encountered A LOT of denim). And now I present to you April's creation: some stripy ponte turned into a jacket. Or a cardigan. I'm not sure. Anyways, here it is. 

Fabric:

If you feel you may have seen this fabric before on this blog, then you are both correct and super observant. Fifty points to you. My sweet and lovely mum bought me 2m of this lovely, striped, cotton ponte/doubt knit a couple of years ago from C&H fabrics. Some of it became my Breton toaster sweater, but because the fabric was soooo wide (over 2m!) I was also able to squeeze this jacket pattern out of it as well. It's clearly softer and slightly more fluid than the fabric I used for my first La Trop Facile, so I think it gives this garment a very different look to my first version. 

I added a tiny little anchor patch that Tilly (of TATB fame) bought me back from Japan years ago. I forgot to take a photo, but I also used some anchor print grosgrain ribbon to visibly stabilise the shoulder seams, and to form a hanging loop at the back neck. The devil is in the details, after all. 

Pattern:

My original La Trop Facile jacket is about 2.5 years old now, and it remains one of the garments I enjoy wearing the most. The pattern is by Belgian designer Delphine et Morissette (pattern shop here), and I'm obsessed with her many patterns. All but one or two are only available in French, so Google translate and I are good friends at this point. The La Trop Facile is a genius combination of elements that I didn't know I was looking for until I made my first version: it has volume, but isn't overwhelming, and it looks and functions like a jacket but is feels more like a comfy cardigan. 

For this stripy version, I had to omit the turned-back sleeves detail due to fabric restrictions. The heaviness of the turn-backs might not have worked too well with the knit fabric anyhow. As the name would suggest, this pattern is a very quick make, especially for a jacket. Obviously, I had to pattern-match the hell out of the seams and pocket application, which slowed the construction process down a touch. 

Thoughts:

Generally speaking, I very happy with this garment. I'm not entirely sure that this pattern and this ponte were a match made in heaven though. It's likely that the garment style would be better suited to a fabric with a touch more structure, but I think I've just about got away with it. The stripes also make this garment a little harder to pair with other tops underneath. I'm hoping that Me-Made-May will help me discover a few tried and tested combos so it gets the amount of wear that it deserves.  

La Trop Facile

This project is a definite departure for me, style-wise, and another pattern by my current sewing-pattern-designer-crush, Delphine et Morissette (designer of La Brune). It took me a couple of weeks after finishing it to actually start to wear it, as the look and the volume feel quite different to the rest of my wardrobe. But now that I've broken the seal, it is the garment I'm most excited to put on at the moment and I wear it every day. 

Pattern:

This is La Trop Facile (the 'Too Easy') pattern by Delphine et Morissette, a casual outerwear garment that can be made in a variety of fabrics. If you google this pattern, you'll find a surprising lack of other people's versions out there compared to some of her other patterns, and I'm not sure why this is. I love the no-frills utility of this garment, and, for me, it hits the sweet spot between 'cardigan' and 'jacket' that I didn't know I was missing. 

To buy any of her patterns, you have to make a request via a contact box; it's not an instant download like most PDFs. That may be frustrating if you want to get cracking immediately, but I found it quite charming to have some direct contact with the pattern designer herself. You can then pay via Paypal or bank transfer. Be warned: the PDFs are pretty basic. The patterns tile together like most PDFs, but the look a bit different as they aren't digitised, and the construction step-by-step page/s are in French with no illustrations or photographs. That said, some of her patterns have additional photographic step-by-step assistance through links on her blog but you need to go find the original blog post about each garment pattern to find them. I think. 

But once all that was dealt with and the pattern was cut out and Pat had been bribed into translating the instructions, it really was very easy to make. I veered away from the instructions a few times: once to add interfacing to the neckband (which, annoyingly, I decided to do after I had already attached it and had to carefully unpick the damn thing), another to attach the neckband slightly differently than instructed, by finishing it by hand to get a neater look with my bulky fabric. I also added rectangles of bias binding to the underarm to strengthen the areas where I had to snip into the seam allowance at the curve (see above), plus, I used some ribbon for a back-neck hanging loop instead of making a self-fabric one which I feared would be too thick (see below)

Fabric:

I bought this navy/black matelasse from Fabric Godmother, but I'm sad to say that they sold out of it some time ago. It's basically a stable knit with a slightly spongy quality, plus it's cosy and doesn't crease. The deep, inky-blue colour seems to work relatively well when worn with both the navy and black items in my wardrobe. The pattern designer suggests that this pattern works in a wide range of fabrics. I'm tempted to try this pattern again in a loosely woven fabric for the warmer months (something like this).

Thoughts:

As I've already said above, I'm super into this garment. It feels to nice to wear, and has upped my daywear game by helping me look a bit more put-together than if I'd chucked on a cardigan to leave the house. It's also incredibly useful for when I'm wearing Frankie in the baby carrier. I'm hoping I can wear it for as possible layered and with scarves as the weather gets chillier.