Made by a Fabricista: Boucle Jacket by Diane

Happy New Year Friends! I'm happy to get my Fabricista year off to a good start with a classic boucle jacket. It's a timeless style, classic fabric and beautiful color!

I started with New Look pattern 6028 view A and chose Fabric Mart's soft green, black and white boucle suiting, similar to the type of fabric used in the pattern photo (the fabric also comes in this pretty pink, yum!) I used this Maggy London black satin for the lining. So luxurious!

I didn't make any style changes or alterations to the pattern (don't you love when you get a pattern like that?) but I changed the lining. The jacket shell pattern and the lining pattern are the same, meaning, when you sew the lining and jacket together, the lining fabric is right up to the outer edge of the jacket. So if the jacket comes open or lifts up, you would see the lining right at the edge. I wanted a more traditional lining that included a facing all the way around the neckline and a hem. It's an easy remedy:

1) I added 1" to the hem of the jacket shell (there was only a 5/8" seam allowance).

2) I cut the jacket front facing out of the shell fabric.

3) I cut a back neck facing out of the shell fabric and attached it to lining.

This boucle is great to work with because it has some natural give, making sewing curves and easing in sleeves a breeze. I added a sleeve head to the sleeve to give the jacket additional structure. Here's how I made them (it's so easy you don't need to buy them):

Trace the sleeve head onto lightweight fleece, from dot to dot.

Draw a line from dot to dot.

Fold along the line and cut out the curve

Sew the sleeve head onto the seam allowance of the sleeve, matching raw edges of fleece and sleeve. Stitch just inside stitching line (4/8"). Press all seams toward the sleeve.

The sleeve on the left has a sleeve head and the one on the right doesn't. You can see what a big difference this tiny piece of fleece makes. The one on the left looks much better, it even makes the side of the jacket hang more smoothly. And this is all before shoulder pads!

And now for the fun part....the trim! The outer trim on the jacket is simply bias strips of fabric gathered down the center. I used the gathering foot on my machine, set the tension all the way up, used the longest stitch length and stitched until everything was gathered. I put the trim on with a straight stitch right over the gathering line. Super easy....and pretty!

I had some leftover strips so I sewed them into a continuous circle, put a button on top of the raw edges and made a flower. I'm feeling pretty tricky right now!

I think now it's time to make this jacket in pink!

Happy New Year!

Diane

Gatorbunnysews

Made By A Fabricista: Speaking My Truth

Happy Saturday All! In these unsettling times, I hug my children a little tighter, spend quality time embracing them, and cherish every moment even more. This pandemic has allowed me to appreciate deep conversations about racial injustice, police brutality, and their feelings about growing up black . My daughter Arielle, a happy go lucky child, shuns away as she is always being questioned about her race and which box she checks off on an application. She hates the fact that she is consistently asked by her peers and teachers at school if she is biracial, Hispanic, or Black . She has often times questioned her own identity, yet she gladly responds to anyone who asks, “ I am black and I am a part of the human race ”. My son despises the news media (especially social media) and doesn't watch it at all. The death of his older brother and guns triggers a fear that we pray he overcomes. Over the past few weeks, I have read some of the most unreal remarks and comments about "

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