My work-from-home office is also the space where all of my crafts live: my yarn cabinet, fabric storage, sewing machines, tea materials, spinning wheel, etc. My schedule before a few weeks ago was to mainly only use this space on the weekends while sewing or starting new projects, and one of the unexpected small happinesses from being home has been how I’ve paid attention to and used the spaces in my home differently than I previously ever had. Being surrounded by these materials has been super inspiring and has led to a cacophony of new ideas and things to work on. As a part of my effort to stash down, however, I’m trying to remain focused and purposeful in my crafting, with allowances for random new ideas and energy. First on my projects list was a new Wiksten Haori jacket for the spring.
Ever since my last Wiksten Haori (gosh, I cannot believe that was 2 years ago) I have wanted to make another one of these useful, simple, beautiful jackets. I have been eyeing this beautiful cross-stitched fabric (like this, but I purchased mine at Freeman’s Creative). I believe that I purchased 2.5 yards, since I knew I would shorten it and I wanted to make an unlined version using Jenny’s tutorial on her blog.
I made a size M again using the original pattern from Making volume 4 “Lines” and only shortened it by about 2” to make it a little longer than my last cropped version. I also lengthened the sleeve by about 4” and then did a double cuffed sleeve to make it feel a little more polished. I followed all of the modifications for the unlined version until I got to the collar. I didn’t have quite enough fabric to cut out four full pieces for the collar so I had to improvise a little. It worked out great, though, and would totally do this again. Here’s basically what I did:
- Sewed the two pieces together at short ends to make one super long strip (as directed)
- Folded over both long ends 3/8” towards the wrong side on both sides
- Lined up one long side with the collar seam at the center back neck and pinned one long, folded side to the raw edge of the collar and sewed at together.
- Like a quilt binding or like a folded skirt waistband, I brought the other long folded edge around to the inside of the jacket and overlapped the 3/8” fold over the seam I just made by securing the collar to the raw edge, pinning into place. Now the seam is enclosed behind my nice fold!
- From the outside of the jacket, stitched in the ditch slowly to not break any pins all the way the length of the collar and secure the inside folded edge. Took out the pins and ironed a nice edge for the collar.
I finished sewing and basically didn’t take it off for two days. It’s so comfy and perfect for layering inside my chilly house for hours on end. Looking forward to styling it with some dresses and jeans soon as well.
