Camo Skulls softshell jacket

 

I bought this fabric in the summer from Rock Star fabrics because despite them selling by the half a metre is worked out far cheaper than Ebay for the same fabric. Good thing too because I ended up buying 3m for the Ebay 2m price and I needed it because I cocked up on the right front and had to remake it. 

I sewed the pocket on slightly lower on the rights side but the stitching, when unpicked marks the fabric, so I realy did not want to wear it like that, so I ended up unpicking the entire side including the shoulder seams and resewing a new section. It was worth the effort though.

The pattern is Burda Style 139; 12/2012. Its meant to have exposed seams and be made in fully loden wool fabric. I am not actually sure what fully loden is but I think probably that heavy wool thats almost felted used for making winter coats. This though has normal seams and is softshell. I added two facings behind the zip and an extra facing all round the bottom to close the hem. 

 

Then hand sewed at intervals to keep the extra hem facing attached all the way round, Since its a princess line there are lots of inner seams to attach to. I also omitted the CB seam since could not see the point with this fabric and its a straight seam. Having it would ahve helped with keeping in place my hem facing but I did not yet kow I was using the hem facing because this was the first time making this and to be honest converting from exposed seams to normal was surprisingly hard to do. I very much made it up as I went along meaning this has taken me over two months of sewing to get it done with lots of thinking in between sewing.

The zip facings were then sewed so the hem facing covers them. This is wrong. It means they do not fold properly but so far I have not alterered this. They should have been sewed on top with the setup I have here.  I may not bother altering though but will remember next time I make this jacket. I suspect I will remake this one because its a great jacket so far.

I deliberately left the selvedges attached to the hem because it names the fabric. Not sure this was actually a good idea or not but it does give the jacket a RTW feel. Do I actually want that? Not sure.

 

The colour blocked leggings were made in 2019 and are from the reverse of that wrinkly crepe scuba. They are very warm in winter and much better than normal exercise fabric at this time of year. 

UPDATE: May 21: I added a pull cord round the hood:

 

I have recently updated this by adding an extra piece of fabric to make a channel because it had no pullcord round the hood on the jacket and kept falling off when its windy - which it seems to be lots when your hood falls off. It has small grenade shaped stoppers. The pull cord is currently a second hand (washed though) shoe lace but I am going to source something better. It works for now.

Hope you have a Happy New Year

Take care and have a safe and happy 2021

Bracken