A Wedding Blazer

We attended a family wedding the weekend before last. As I had made Rowan a blazer and trousers in plenty of time I was really keen to make a full outfit for Casper too. I had to scrap making the trousers in the end but I did just finish the blazer in time – at midnight the night before we had to leave. I was certainly very relieved to get it finished and to find that it fit too. There wasn’t really a back up plan. Most of these pictures were taken at home yesterday. Unfortunately it was far too cold on the day of the wedding (or yesterday) to stand around taking photos – the shot below was taken hastily before we headed for warmth. I can’t wait for the cold spell we’re having in the UK to end. I made the shirt that he’s wearing below for the PR&P Valentine’s theme sew along and wrote about it here.

The pattern is burda 9671 ‘Boys Sport Jacket and Trousers, which I bought here. I used a different blazer pattern to last time for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I wanted side panels as I’d like to experiment with adding side vents in the future. Secondly, this pattern has different pieces for the lining so it has an extra bit of give in it. There’s a pleat in the centre back and a rolled hem. All the extra pieces did make it more time consuming though. The welt pockets were my own addition and I followed the same tutorial as last time (found here and here). I postitioned them just at the bottom of the darts.

I chose a fairly neutral colour so it will go with everything and hopefully get lots of wear. The fabric is Essex yarn dyed linen in black. It is so soft and has the most beautiful texture. I originally bought 1m from The Eternal Maker to sew a bag for me and got the rest that I needed from M is for Make. I’ve since bought even more and still plan to make the bag. Both of these places have great service and Kate from M is for Make was especially helpful as, after a problem with another order, I needed the fabric in a bit of a hurry. Once I’d started cutting the pieces out Casper told me that he liked all colours except for grey. Not really what I wanted to hear but it was too late to use anything else. Fortunately the Alphabetty in red lining and the rainbow dots I used for the pocket lining provide enough interest for him to like wearing it. The alphabet print (bought here) is from the Summersville collection by Lucie Summers for Moda, although a lot of it is out of print now. The rainbow dots fabric is by Fabric Freedom and is also out of print. It was one of the first fabrics I ever bought.

The instructions didn’t really include detailed enough explanations, especially at certain points like the rolled hem. I did mostly follow the steps and made something up for the hem. I’ve since found out how to do it properly. I did vary one step to avoid hand stitching the hem – after joining the front facing to the lining I sewed the hem with right sides together. After that I turned the jacket (very slowly) through one of the sleeves, something I would definitely not repeat or advise. You can still avoid the hand stitching but turn it through a hole in one of the sleeve seams instead. Once I had finally pulled it through I sewed the sleeve hems by hand. I thought this was worth doing as it will make it easier to adjust the hem if I ever need to. Also, my stitches are not visible as the lining sleeve is shorter. Next time I make a blazer I’ll keep the difference in the finished lengths but make the lining sleeves longer so there is more flexibility to lower the hem if needed.

Despite the stress this blazer caused me I do love it. The final fit is great – I made it in a size 5 although normally I would adjust a pattern to use size 5 length with size 4 (or less) width. I could not be bothered this time though as there were so many pieces. It’s lucky I didn’t as he might have struggled to do the blazer up. I really like some of the details like the darts, the rolled seam on the collar and the shorter length of the lining sleeves. I definitely want to make another one but maybe not for a while.