The Cordelia Files: School Dayz Jacket

A few years back I was a student. A fashion design student to be exact. And as a fashion design student I was given homework, and projects, and things I had to make and turn in for a grade. But I didn’t mind because it meant that while my roommates were stuck at their computers writing long papers and solving ridiculous math problems I was sewing, or drawing, or writing about what I had sewn! And let me tell ya, writing about what you sew is rough. It was tedious and I hated it. I hated it so much that a few years later I had to start a blog so I could continue to write about what I sew and continue to experience the pain and suffering my well intentioned professors put me through. I like to think they get some satisfaction from my continued torture…….

By all this I mean to tell you that the jacket you are about to see was actually made for my tailoring class. After teaching us all the traditional hand tailoring skills and techniques, Dr. Deb said, “OK now, go make a contemporary jacket and I better not see any of those hand tailored techniques case this jacket has to retail for less than a bajillion and fifty bucks. Oh and have it to me in a week.”

I may be exaggerating a bit. We may have had 2 weeks for the project.

So this is what I came up with.

I used cream silk dupioni with an embroidered floral design cause I had it in my stash and I was a poor college student at the time.

I secretly dislike making machine worked buttonholes, and a bound buttonhole is not exactly a contemporary technique so I made loops for button securing—I thought it was a cleaver solution.

I gave the sleeve an inverted pleat detail cause it was the right thing to do.

And then because the silk is too flimsy and light weight on its own, I decided to flat line the fabric. I picked a coordinating fabric and I finished the seams with a flat felled seam finish so you can’t even tell that the inside and outside of the jacket were constructed as one unit. I was so pleased with myself for this little trick.