Springing forward in Green: Simplicity 1421
Happy Sunday everyone! I made this jacket last month as a part of Katie Kortman #sewhappycolor challenge, but I am just now getting around to this post because things have been super hectic around here. Hectic for me, however, means lots of a new makes for you all to read about soon!
I also pledged only to sew using fabric in my stash during March. You know, just trying to get rid of some fabric so I can purchase more fabric. The material that I used for the blazer has been sitting in my stash for a long time. The forest green knit is a ponte knit, which I purchased from JoAnn over a year ago. The olive green ponte knit was purchased from Amazon a few months ago. The binding is made from mixed print medium weight cotton purchased at Hancock before it went out of business (how's that for stash busting?). I was on the fence about using it as bias tape because I don’t usually go for anything this colorful with a business piece but I did it anyway. It’s good to be uncomfortable here and there.
Time to talk pattern. I used Simplicity 1421 (s1421) to make my blazer. I chose this pattern because it has excellent reviews and it comes in cup sizes, which was perfect because I wanted to make this with little to no adjustments. I went with the size 8, C cup. This was my first blazer, so I don't have any other experience to compare it to, but the instructions are well written, and I like the technique that they use to create the bias tape. But If you are a visual learner here's a cool video on Instagram that shows the steps perfectly. I omitted the jacket pocket, because that’s not really my style. Other than that, this jacket looks exactly how it looks on the pattern cover.
The jacket is unlined with princess seams, and Symplicity gives you two ways to finish the seams if you are using a woven fabric to hide fabric fray. Since mine was made with knit, I serged my seams instead of using the recommended finishing techniques. For interfacing, I used Pellon ek130 as the stabilizer. The olive green ponte was a lighter weight than the olive green ponte, so I interfaced the back panel pieces as well. I am hoping to make a full suit later this year using s1421 for the blazer, so this green blazer is a muslin. I will need to make a few adjustments to the back, and I also think I need to grade down a size for the armhole.
I styled this blazer with my Vogue 9298 bodysuit (I will be blogging about it pretty soon), jeans, and my Michael Kors sandals. I really love this jacket, I do not have anything like this in my wardrobe. I am happy that I stepped outside of my comfort zone with the bias tape finish because I really love the finished product. Hope you all are having fun planning your spring wardrobe!
