Megan (meggipeg.com), Katherine (sewblooms ) and I caught up for coffee the day after Issey Miyake departed for that great atelier in the sky, and we decided that it would be lovely to make one of his patterns to pay him homage. We went home and started digging and we each found that we had one of his patterns. I had Vogue 1204, a rather lovely jacket that I’ve been wanting to make for a few years, so now was my chance!

It has some really interesting style lines, which, I have to admit, made me gulp. These required precision sewing – not something I’m known for!

Those lines are all very narrow tucks. My pattern is for a 34 inch bust, which I haven’t had since my very early twenties. I couldn’t quite work out whether the pattern would fit by measuring it, because of the aforementioned tucks, and I had no idea how I would grade it if it proved to be too small. I, most unusually, decided that a toile was the only way to go and used a flannelette sheet. I loved it. The sewing was straight and, best of all, the fit was perfect. I had some chartreuse linen malingering in my stash, and decided that it would be perfect. What I didn’t factor in was the fact that the weave was quite open, so keeping things straight did cause me a few problems. I used colour coded tailor’s tacks for all the markings, and had to write down a legend for the colours, so I didn’t forget. I had tacks everywhere!

Lots of pressing was required and I resorted to starch (homemade of course) to keep everything crisp. All seams are flat felled, which is such a lovely feature and I feel as though the inside is as nice as the outside. It’s hard to show without standing on a ladder, but you get the idea.

I needed six buttons of three different sizes and decided the only way to achieve this from my stash was to cover them. My cricut cut perfect circles and I used the press method to make them (using buttons from my mother’s stash).

I first tried the jacket on with black trousers. It’s quite long, and the back is shaped. As you can see, the fit is really spot on.

I should mention at this point that the jacket looked like it had been slept in after being worn for a very short time. I had read an article in the paper that stated that people no longer pressed linen; that the rumpled look denoted an expensive garment. I can’t get my head round unpressed linen but it did hearten me a little.

I styled it with white trousers for my friend, Thelma’s, art show opening. I also wore a Pattern Union Eva tee underneath as the weather was a little chilly.

And when it came time to take photos with Megan and Katherine, in their Issey makes, I decided to wear it over a dress. I have several dresses that would look good with this colour, but chose this much loved one I made from a vintage pattern and a gorgeous fabric I bought in New York back in 2015. I really like the jacket worn this way.

Megan also made a jacket/coat from lovely apricot cotton velvet and Katherine made a blouse from magnificent blue silk. We spent some time comparing notes about the various designs we are wearing. I am sure that both Katherine and Megan will both report on their makes, so I won’t elaborate on them, but they both have pretty special style lines.

We did a seated photo, where we all squished on the garden bench. I love this photo.

I really enjoyed making this jacket. It was a slower sew than I am used to, and it was lovely to make something so interesting. I’m not sure I’ll be making another in a hurry, but I’ll definitely be wearing this one whenever I can.

Just to end the post I thought you might enjoy this video of a popup penguin I made with my Cricut (from a Jennifer Maker design). It sits flat but when dropped it springs up.

Miss G found this fascinating and quickly learned that if she smacked it down, it would spring back up. Sadly I only got photos, but you get the idea.