I finally made my first Minoru. I have loved this jacket pattern since it was first produced. I have been looking for a suitable casual jacket for years. Yes, years. I either don't like the style, the fabric, the price or whatever. I have an ugly old Gore-Tex that works perfectly well for what I need, so I wasn't going to buy something I didn't love, or at the very least, like.
The changes I made to the pattern. The usual pockets on the outside. This is almost a given. The interior pockets are intended to have Velcro closures. There is almost nothing that I hate doing more than
trying to sew on Velcro. Instead I redrew the pocket pattern, making sure there was room for my iPhone and credit card holder, and added zippers, and spent about six times as much time as I would have if I had just used Velcro. I consider it time well spent. Velcro is evil.
Updated: I forgot that I straightened out the waist a little lot, as I don't have much of a waist. If you are a square instead of a pear you may want to do the same.
I am also a touch bigger than the largest size and so I had to grade up the pattern. I used up the last of my Swedish tracing paper. I can't figure out if I like this stuff or not. I don't like tracing with it, because every pen I use bleeds through and the pens sometimes catch on the paper. On the other hand, I like that when I am marking the fabric with
Frixion pens, the ink goes right through the paper, and I don't have to use a tracing wheel etc. I usually use plastic table cloths from the dollar store. Hmm, something to think about.
For those of you who are screaming at me not to use Frixion pens because of the ghosting, I have had 100% success with removing the ghosting marks with my standard stain remover of equal parts hydrogen peroxide and Dawn dish detergent (not safe for silk or wool), but YMMV, always be sure to test on your fabric.
My outer fabric is thrifted stuff and I think is cotton, possibly with some linen, the lining is that insane
Home Sewing is Easy fabric. I love this fabric, and couldn't figure out what to do with it. It is too silly for me to wear a garment out of it, but a lining is perfect. I couldn't find zippers close enough in colour to satisfy me, because I live in a sewing desert with only one
useless chain fabric store, so I used black. I like the look.
I wrote all of the above quite awhile ago when I was still in the infatuation stage with the jacket. Since then I have sewn and ripped and sewn and ripped. I have never in my life screwed up as much as I have on this jacket. I can easily state with no danger of exaggeration that I spent three times as much time ripping out stitches as I did actually sewing. I have to state it is in no way the fault of the pattern, or my choice of fabric. It was me. All me me me me. At one point I was considering setting fire to it in my driveway and then driving over it in my car and lawn mower and snow blower. So I wisely decided to take a break from it. For a month and a half.
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Canadians, notice the piece of Canadiana memorabilia. |
To make it all worse, I don't like the jacket on me. When it isn't zipped up it looks okay, but with the zipper done up it is like it is designed to draw attention to my worst features. I have a short neck, and the collar makes me look like my head is attached directly to my shoulders. I have a protruding belly, it couldn't be more obvious if I had appliqued on an arrow pointing to it. Don't get me wrong, I WILL wear it.
UPDATE-since writing all the above.
I have worn the jacket quite a bit and have had a few unsolicited compliments, also the few people that I told I made it were very complimentary. So now I like it, making it clear that I am very easily swayed and have no firm opinions of my own.
GIVEAWAY
And now for the giveaway. Recently while indulging in one of my favourite hobbies (thrift store shopping), I found a brand new, uncut, unopened Minoru pattern. So my find is your potential gain. If you are one of the 13 people who haven't made a Minoru yet, leave a comment and I will draw a name on Sunday, November 17.