With this project, I’m reaching out to my inner Manuel Pertegaz, via Katherine Tilton’s Butterick pattern. I am loving the A-shapes in clothing now since they accommodate my pear shape. This Butterick pattern designed by Katherine Tilton has a ruffly look without being sickly sweet.

This project became another exercise in dealing with fabric shortage. Materials procurement was through my fabric stash. The recommended material is stable knit with a small amount of stretch, like ponte knit, or double knit and such.

Well, what do you know, all my stable knits are used up, people. The ponte pieces all became pants, and the two double knits I still have are wool. The weather is getting warm, so wool…….

That left me with this striped synthetic piece which is a lighter weight jersey but it has just the recommended amount of stretch. Its just that it’s not as beefy as ponte or double knit. Perfect, I think, for trying out this pattern. More about how the stripes laid out in a later post.  (As an aside, I’m actually ready to buy a new piece of ponte knit to make Jennifer Stern Designs’ jean pattern. JMore about that in a future post.)

The selected striped jersey, however, was a whole yard too short. Seriously, shortage has stopped bothering me; and, here’s how it went:

The body of the pattern was made with jersey, including all the gathered seams, hood sides, back facing, and only two (out of four) pocket pieces. The orphan pieces which needed more fabric were the rest of the hood (back piece), front facings, the other two pocket pieces, the sleeves (!!) and the hood cording.

Behold the orphans.

Where will I find enough jersey to accommodate the “orphans”? Can’t piece together these little bits; and nothing coordinating and suitable is in my fabric stash. However, I spy some fake black leather rolled up on a tube, standing at attention in the corner. It got my full attention: the back of the leather was stretchy, and the stretch ratio matched my striped jersey. Check. It is quite light weight, and thus would not have a weight tug-of-war with the jersey. Check.

Here are the sleeves and the facings laid out on the wrong side of the fake leather.

The black leather sleeves and the black/teal jersey body are looking good next to each other – in my mind. So far, there have been no problems. The adjustments, the wacky stripe direction and other things to be aware of, I will address in the next post.

This week, it’s a work in progress. Next week, completed jacket. Keep the faith….

See you next time.

Samina