Coco Loco Take Two

Before you say anything, the bottom edge of the jackets are definitely level, that’s the crux of having to take pictures all by myself, no one tells me, that it’s not straight.

All by Myself, don’t wanna take pictures, all by myself, anymore, anymore, anYMOre.

Well, at least I’m smiling in these pics, that’s something.

Have you seen True Bias blog post on her Blazer, the Coco Blazer by Schnittchen? When I saw it, I just gasped and thought, WANT!! This has to be mine. Then House of Pinheiro and Judy Dies und Das followed suit and posted their versions and I couldn’t resist any longer and had to buy the pattern.

It’s a cropped blazer with no front closures and completely lined. I bought the PDF-pattern, and you get German and English instructions and separate pieces for jacket and lining. The instructions are simple text instructions, so it’s honestly more for experienced sewers, although it isn’t that difficult to sew,  but if you need more detailed help in the way of pictures, Schnittchen offers that here.

The jacket is very versatile, a simple in-between season jacket, which fits in thoroughly with my wardrobe – accompanying my dresses perfectly. I can imagine this jacket in lots of different colours, maybe I could make one for each of my dresses, make it an entire outfit? Yeah, okay, black goes with nearly anything, but, you know, Spring, Summer means colour, not dreary black, although I do love this fabric very much, it’s fabulous, it’s quite firm, has a little stretch to it and is entirely embroidered. What it’s made of, I have no idea. The lining I used for this is very soft and silky, but I guess it’s something synthetic, but it feels and looks great. Both outer fabric and lining don’t wrinkle, so that’s cool.

Changes I made: I lengthened the sleeves, the original offers 3/4 sleeves, I’m not that big a fan of those. I also added frog closures. Rachel encountered the same problem as me – it fits nicely, when held together, when it just hangs loose, not so much. And the frog closures give the jacket a hint of the Orient. I read different instructions on how to attach fro closures, most of them mentioned hand-sewing them on, fortunately I own a RTW blouse with frog closures, and they certainly weren’t sewn on by hand, so I just imitated it and just sewed several straight lines over the edges, works fine and is not really visible.

This is the first time I used a pattern by Schnittchen, but now that I have discovered her, I am quite impressed. She offers simple lines, quite modern and I had to buy her new book on plus sizes, which offers a nice range of clothes, which I will have to explore soon.

I have been wearing this jacket on and off, when the weather allows it, mixing it up with my second Coco and my two Rigel Bombers, mostly it was too cold to wear it, and then too warm. But usually in the mornings works fine.

So, now let me present to you my second take on the Coco pattern:

I’ve really mentioned the important details already, which went into making this pattern at the top, the only difference is, that the sleeves are slightly less long than in my first take, not intentionally though, the sleeve lining somehow turned out to be a tad too short, so I had to adjust the outer fabric sleeve length. Therefore the sleeves are shorter, but still longer in length then the pattern pieces would have you cut them. Nevertheless, the length of the sleeves are perfect for bangles, lots and lots of bangles.

The fabric choice was totally inspired by True Bias’ Coco, as she chose a black and white graphic art pattern, and I was delighted, when I discovered this slightly stretchy fabric with black and white diamond shapes. To give it a little more oomph, I decided to use bright pink lining fabric. Unfortunately it crinkles horrible, but it’s only to peek out, not be full on display.

I also decided to close the jacket with frog closures again, because I just think it looks sooo pretty, either closed or open. In the bottom picture you can see that the lines of the rhombi nicely line up.

Here you can see the two jackets side by side and how nicely the line up at the bottom.

this is just a placee holder or  a secret message?

The details

Fabric: version one: black embroidered stretchy fabric, silky lining fabric, version two: black and white cotton with some stretch, pink synthetic lining fabric
Notions: Thread, light interfacing and frog closures
Pattern: Coco Schnittchen
Changes made: longer sleeves, added frog closures
Another one/Recommendations: Have already made my two and the third one has also been cut out. And as it’s not a dress, you don’t have to dread the hemming, that’s really a breeze, and finally I know how to attach the sleeves to the lining without any visible seams on the outside.

So that’s the end of the #IPM, for me at least. I really enjoyed seeing all the lovely handmade garments, which have been posted here, and got inspired to take on a few more new to me indie patterns.