73 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
73 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
<figure>
|
|
<img src="https://f000.backblazeb2.com/file/bsag-blog-imgs/wiksten%5Fhaori%5Fcollar%5Ffolded.jpeg"/>
|
|
</figure>
|
|
<p>It seems that I’m not alone in the sewing world in having slightly lost my
|
|
sewing mojo (or ‘sewjo’) recently. It’s not that I have completely stopped
|
|
sewing: I made a <a href="https://www.rousette.org.uk/archives/making-things-in-isolation/">birthday shirt</a>, another pair of <a href="https://www.rousette.org.uk/archives/linen-persephone-sailor-trousers/">Persephone sailor trousers</a>, and
|
|
an (un-blogged) pair of Lycra workout leggings, as well as many masks and my
|
|
<a href="https://www.rousette.org.uk/archives/a-shelf-and-keyboard-mat-for-my-desk/">keyboard mat</a>, though the latter barely counts as sewing. Those items are
|
|
obviously not nothing, but the output is less than I would normally have sewn in
|
|
a comparable period. I certainly don’t have <em>more</em> spare time than I would
|
|
normally have. Even though I have been working from home, my home office is my
|
|
sewing room and vice-versa, and unfortunately not big enough to be set up for
|
|
both functions simultaneously, otherwise I might have been able to take a short
|
|
breaks to do 20 minutes or so of sewing in my day and get away from the screen.
|
|
Mostly, I think the problem has been that while I enjoy the sewing process
|
|
itself enormously, my main impetus to sew is to produce clothes to wear in the
|
|
presence of other people, and those opportunities have been severely lacking
|
|
since March. Recently, I wanted to make something cosy and comforting, but which
|
|
would also look fairly smart on work calls, and so I decided to make a <a href="https://shopwiksten.com/products/womens-haori-sewing-pattern">Wiksten
|
|
Haori jacket</a>.</p>
|
|
<p>Once again, I am slow to this particular sewing party. People have been raving
|
|
about this pattern for ages and I have been slow to pick up on it. I suddenly
|
|
realised that a) I could make it out of the remains of the linen fabric from my
|
|
Persephone trousers and some batik I bought in Indonesia in 2019, and b) it
|
|
would function like a warm, soft, unstructured cardigan, but would look like a
|
|
smart-casual jacket. It would therefore help me ‘stash-bust’ my fabric pile and
|
|
also work perfectly for working from home. The pattern is based on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haori">Japanese
|
|
haori</a> jackets worn over a kimono. It has dropped sleeves and a boxy, rectangular
|
|
shape to the pieces and a rolled-over shawl collar, and as it is fully lined, it
|
|
is intended to be reversible. You can also choose to fold back the collar in
|
|
half (to make the front more open), or leave it unfolded for a different look
|
|
and greater coverage. The pattern is intended to be worn with a lot of ease and
|
|
so is over-sized. I did wonder about going down a few sizes, but in the end I
|
|
just went down one size so it would still have the intended over-sized
|
|
silhouette, and would enable me to wear multiple layers underneath for warmth
|
|
during the winter!</p>
|
|
<p>It’s not a complicated pattern, and is very well-drafted with clear
|
|
instructions, so it wasn’t an overly-challenging sew. Cutting out turned into
|
|
the most difficult part, because I had limited lengths of fabric from my stash,
|
|
involving a degree of fabric tetris in order to fit all the pattern pieces on.
|
|
The batik fabric I used for the lining was particularly challenging because it
|
|
had a large pattern repeat, and the pattern (like a lot of batik) ran down the
|
|
length of the fabric rather than across the width, and the fabric itself was not
|
|
very wide. I wanted to centre the pattern on the centre back line since I could
|
|
wear it lining side out. I love patterned fabric, but every time I use it I
|
|
remember how difficult it makes placing pattern pieces and cutting out!
|
|
Eventually, the only way I could arrange the cutting was to piece together the
|
|
sleeves vertically by including a horizontal seam. I managed to do this matching
|
|
the pattern pretty well, so it is almost invisible unless you look closely. I
|
|
also opted to use scraps of denim for the (huge!) pockets and the undercollar
|
|
piece.</p>
|
|
<figure>
|
|
<img src="https://f000.backblazeb2.com/file/bsag-blog-imgs/wiksten%5Fhaori%5Fcollar%5Funfolded.jpeg"/>
|
|
</figure>
|
|
<p>I do really enjoy a clean-finished pattern. This one had a new-to-me technique
|
|
of bagging out the lining by sewing the outer and lining together at the hem
|
|
first, then sewing the sleeve cuffs and hemming them at the same time, and
|
|
finally closing the front and neckline seams with the collar. This very last
|
|
seam (turning under the remaining edge of undercollar and stitching it down to
|
|
enclose the neckline raw edge) was the trickiest one. My thick layers of
|
|
denim and linen meant that my sewing machine ploughed up a giant ridge of fabric
|
|
before it, no matter how hard I tried to wrangle it, and the end result
|
|
had some giant pleats in it. Since I finished it late on a Sunday evening, I
|
|
left this mess on the sewing naughty step for a couple of nights, then one
|
|
evening during the week, I unpicked the seam and hand sewed it back down, which
|
|
gave a much better finish.</p>
|
|
<figure>
|
|
<img src="https://f000.backblazeb2.com/file/bsag-blog-imgs/wiksten%5Fhaori%5Flining%5Fdetail.jpeg"/>
|
|
</figure>
|
|
<p>I’ve already worn it during an online networking meeting this week, and found it
|
|
as cosy, soft, comfortable and smart as I had hoped. It was a lovely way to coax
|
|
my sewjo back to life again, and I expect I will make the pattern again at some
|
|
point.</p> |