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Completed: The Minoru Jacket, Round 2

Hey, look, I made another Minoru Jacket! And it’s even better the second time around, yeah? 🙂

Ever since I made this my first go-round as a pattern tester, I’ve been dying to revisit this pattern and improve on my finished version. Not that the pattern written as-is needs improvement – it’s pretty wonderful! But there were definitely a few things I wanted to change from my original white version.

First and foremost – the size. I don’t know why I did it to begin with, but I definitely cut the wrong size on my first incarnation. It was just toooo big! I cut this one in a straight size 0, with no alterations, and I think the fit is superior.
(As a side note – I know a few of y’all use me as your ~size double~, so I think it’s important to point out that I am not the same size anymore. I don’t know if you can tell from the pictures, but I have lost quite a bit of weight over the last few months and my measurements decreased by a couple of inches. I am now 34-26-35 – just FYI! So with that in mind… the 0 fit me perfectly, and did not need a FBA.)

Second necessary change to this pattern – the FABRIC. Oh godddd, the fabric! While I really really loved the idea of white corduroy in theory, the reality was a sad floppy, blindingly white mess on me. While I have seen a few versions that do beautifully with a softer drape to the fabric, I think that in general, this jacket needs a bit of structure. As well as color 🙂

For this jacket, I used a fairly thick cotton twill that I picked up at Vogue while I was in Chicago. I knew I wanted something orange or yellow, for visibility. What I didn’t consider was how difficult it would be to pair up colors with this shade of orange, without looking like I was rooting for some shitty sports team. I’m pretty sure I had buyer’s remorse over this fabric almost the instant I bought it, hence why it sat on my sewing shelf for, oh… six months or so.

In the end, it was the lining that saved me. That, and a VERY unlikely fashion inspiration.

I will tell you who it is, but you have to promise you won’t make fun of me.

PROMISE?

That would be ol’ Andy Bernard from the US version of The Office.
I told you it was weird (and the ~punk rock~ 15 year old in me is weeping right now), but for real – he wears some of the most amazing preppy color combinations! Pink, navy, orange, red, yellow – it’s all sooo good. I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy, but I want my whole wardrobe to mimic his, at least as far as the colors go.

Which is exactly why my Minoru turned out awesome. Navy polka dots fix EVERYTHING.

And check it out: It matches this sweet silk scarf my mom bought me (now I need to find a way to wear it so it doesn’t look so much like a tie, hmm)

Anyway, enough about Andy & Co, back to meeeee

I only made a few changes to the pattern – the most noticeable being that I lined the hood. I think the lining is so bright and fun, I wanted it to show when I had the hood out!

I omitted the elastic cuffs at the bottom of the sleeves – I found that the original length of the sleeve was long enough without an added cuff. And anyway, I don’t care much for elastic cuffs. As a bonus, I can flip the hem of the sleeves up and show off that fun lining 🙂

Oh, yeah, and I added side seam pockets!
This was EASY: I used the pocket piece from my Tiramisu patttern (you can use whatev, but I love the size of this one – it’s perfect for what I need to carry) and inserted the pockets about 1.5″ below the waist markings, understitched, and then sewed up the sides as normal (no topstitching, though, I didn’t want to sew those pockets closed!). Note – when hemming, make sure you don’t grab those pockets before you topstitch the hem 🙂 Depending on their size, they may hang low enough.

The final change I made was to add lining to both pieces of the collar – the pattern only has you line the side where the zipper is inserted (for a clean finish all the way around, and yeah it’s pretty brilliant). However, when you open up the zipper and pull out the hood – you can see the “wrong side” of the collar fabric. I just basted another piece of lining on top of that; now you can see the lining when I pull the hood out.

I love the hood – it makes me feel all fancy.

I have NO IDEA what I’m doing in this picture, but I thought it was too hilarious not to share!

My only beef with this jacket is that the material is quite thick, which means the collar is all kinds of crazy huge when the hood is stuffed into it. See what I mean? This wouldn’t be nearly an issue with a lighter weight fabric. The collar isn’t even interfaced – the fabric is just, well, ~robust.

But, you know… I think it looks pretty good 🙂

One more secret and then I’ll stop – I couldn’t find 2″ white elastic for the life of me. I ended up having to this stuff:

Underwear elastic. So yeah, anytime you see me in this coat… that’s underwear elastic in the back.

One last thing, assuming you’re not experiencing a Lauren Overload right now (sorry sorry!)- I wanted to give a head’s up that I’m participating in Marie’s Watch This Lace group project, and my make just got posted up yesterday! Yeah!

If you want to read more about it (and see more pictures!), hop on over and take a lurk!

Ok, that’ll be all.

Tags: completed, guest post, jacket, minoru, preppy, sewaholic

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Categories completed projects - new

pattern testing: the minoru jacket

15 Nov

time to talk about the minoru! finally! for those of you who don’t follow (the… three of you? ever?), tasia of sewaholic patterns recently dropped her 4th pattern, a darling sporty jacket called the minoru. i was chosen to be a pattern tester (out of 600!! geez louise!), which was awesome, except for the part about dropping all my sewing fun-times for 2 weeks :). this was also during the dark month that my truck had died & i hadn’t replaced it yet… so i actually rode the bus to the fabric store. it took an hour (for maaaaybe a 14 mile drive?). that is some dedication, y’all!

anyway, a few of the pattern testers have already posted theirs, so i will follow suit and post mine.

i’d actually been toying with the idea of making a cycling jacket – something brightly colored, to increase visibility now that the sun is setting earlier & earlier. when i saw that the pattern we were testing was going to be a sporty jacket, it was like god himself had sent the pattern down to me from the heavens. i initially wanted to make my jacket in a bright yellow corduroy, but the fabric store was lacking (and i didn’t have the means to shop around), so i stuck with white. in retrospect, this was not the best idea i have ever had – it gets dirty faster (duh!), my patterned lining shows through, and it is hard as shit to photograph. btw, i think i took over 150 pictures of this jacket. it was that hard to photograph.

anyway, the pattern itself was a total breeze to work through! tasia has it labeled as intermediate, but i think an advanced beginner could easily tackle this. the instructions are great & the pieces lined up nicely! i did have to make a few changes to get the pattern to work for me – the big one was a full bust adjustment. since these patterns are for the pear-inclined, there is not a lot of room up there! i had a bit of trouble since this jacket doesn’t actually have any darts in the front, so i had to add my own dart & then slash and spread from there. i also shortened the jacket, as the original length overwhelmed my short frame.
one thing i wish i had done was interfaced the collar – it doesn’t call for it in the instructions, but it is also assumed that you are using a heavier fabric. my corduroy was very fine & lightweight (hence the see-thru), and my collar just flops. i considered interfacing it while i was making the thing up, but i wanted to stay as true to the pattern/directions as possible so i could offer better feedback. so there’s my feedback – use a sturdy fabric, or use interfacing!

anyway, i love my jacket and i love all the fun details that make it so special – the topstitching (btw – buy 2 spools of thread. you will need them!), the fine gathering, THAT ELASTIC WAISTBAND THAT IS BEAUTIFUL AND GENIUS (sorry, i got excited for a second there), the inside pockets, the collar. i will definitely make this again – in my preferred yellow, with an interfaced collar 🙂 and a hood. i think i missed out by not doing the hood.

anyway, pictures!