Minoru – I Love You

My pick for my first blog-post  is… a Minoru Jacket!

This is my latest creation and by far the most adventurous sewing project I’ve attempted. It was love-at-first-sight when the tester versions of this pattern from Sewaholic began appearing late last year.

My sewing buddies (Sharon, Alison & Marie) from the Alexandria Achievers (ASG) also fell hard for this one. They were fantastic with encouragement, suggestions and advice. We all made several toiles to figure out how to get this fitting best for our various shapes and sizes.  At times I wondered if this was the jacket for me… but it all worked out in the end!

Tasia’s Minoru Sew-a-long was invaluable too! I definitely would have been unpicking a lot more than I did, without the visuals and detailed instructions. Unpicking black thread on black twill is particularly unpleasant…

I love black and white and gingham – so when one of my sewing buddies, Alison, suggested gingham for the upper collar and hood lining, I was sold! And I think it worked a treat!

I added piping to the collar to define the edge – another skill learned! (it’s very easy!)

The brass zipper wasn’t what I was initially looking for, but in the end I really like it. The brass ‘gold’ adds a bit of warmth.

The lining (b+w polka dot poly) is soft and slinky. For some reason, when I tried to sew the lining into the hem,  as instructed, it pulled things out of whack! Not quite sure what I did wrong but, hey, the lining works fine unattached.

I also inserted side pockets, as per this very helpful tutorial by Sew Well (another skill learned).

I wasn’t going to add the hood, but did at the last moment, following comments from Marie about how the hood helped the collar stand up (check out her gorgeously ‘finished’ version).  I’m glad I did!  Love the way the hood rolls up in the collar. Feels like a small but comfy pillow.  I suspect I made my collar zipper shorter than it was supposed to be; in pictures of other  hoods they seem to be much wider when out? Never mind… I am more likely to wear mine rolled up in the collar anyway.

Here are two more pics  –  front and back with hood out

Perfect for our summer-turning-into-autumn weather!

I think my sewing buddies were smart for making water proof versions…we’ve had uncharacteristically wet weather the last few months!

PS: Due to the difficulties of showing details when taking pics of black items, I’ve majorily over-exposed these pics…in normal light you can’t see the polka-dot lining through the black twill.