Hello! So, in the never-ending saga that is my making journey, blah blah blah; I want to try and make at least one thing per month for no reason other than it satisfies my creative desires. This is kinda important since lately I actually seem to make a lot of things that don’t satisfy me creatively at all … strange, huh? anyway, it’s just something I want to make time for, for my own personal happiness.
It doesn’t have to necessarily be “useful” or practical either… just something that I want to make, just because. While also being entirely from the stash, the other important proviso of course!
Something that’s bothered me for a while is that I have practically zero purple clothing… and nothing purple in the stash either. Also, today is the 10th anniversary of BTS debut, and being a reasonably recent fan (more on that later) I thought I could observe this milestone and fill the gaping purple hole in my wardrobe at the same time.
I had some cherry red cotton corduroy, originally from Mum’s stash… and I also have plenty of old jeans. I think these ones were also Mum’s actually! Thanks, Mum!
Plans were made, patterns were perused, discarded, dyes checked out. I worked out I could cut out the Named Maisa jean jacket from my corduroy, and also get a little matching skirt out if I cut some of the pieces from the old jeans. To make everything purple, I would dye the cherry red corduroy with navy blue dye, and the blue jeans would get a red dye bath, This may or may not have been a disastrous adventure, but you know me, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I was so excited to see how it was going to go!
Stuff cut out. Here are the bits and bobs. The leftovers (middle right) are, I’m proud to boast; practically nothing. I did save some of them for another little project, yet to be realised…
I made up the body part of the Maisa jean jacket first, and overlocked the edges of the other red jacket bits, for dyeing.
I cut out a few extra pockets… I wasn’t sure where these would go exactly but I just cut and dyed them anyway, thinking I’d find the right spot for them eventually.
The second stage was to make the skirt. The design is my own, that I’m planning to make into a pattern for mine and Cassie’s tiny little company this year, if possible! It has deep pockets, and no zip, instead closing over a hip pocket. I made this completely including lining, before dyeing it as a whole in the same dye bath as the jean jacket body, just with a little bit of extra blue added. I used a green lining fabric (why not, ’twas in the stash) and some leftover pink linen from my Lennox dress to line the waistband. This is how they turned out after the dye job. I’m really happy with how (to my mind) gorgeous the colours look together!
Last step was to construct the jacket sleeves and collar, and dye these and the rescued jeans pockets in a red dye bath. I’d added a tiny bit of blue to this bath too, on a hunch; and am quite happy with the level of purple achieved. Then I finished the jacket construction. The two extra corduroy pockets got stitched onto the denim sleeves of the jacket, and the rescued denim jeans pockets got stitched to the body of the jacket. Of course I’m thrilled to have some useful pockets on the jacket!
Some details: I used copper jeans buttons, these were the only things bought new for the project. For the most part, I used black thread or a dark khaki thread for the skirt lining and some other parts; and navy blue overlocking thread throughout. For the skirt; I had two purple buttons already in my stash, which was handy.
Final verdict; well of course all that strong red turned out more raspberry than purple; though the jacket sleeves are decidedly purple. I still love it though! and am very excited to wear it a lot during winter. Although I “wanted” purple; raspberry is of course one of my favourite colours; so how could I not be happy?!
* “borahae” actually kinda translates to “I purple you”, and is a BTS thing… So I’ve been a low-key fan for a few years, but it wasn’t until I started making wedding dresses and spending a lot of time listening to youtube videos and bingeing on BTS Run while I hand stitched tiny lace motifs onto silk and tulle bodices that I really got into them a lot more. Then during the making of Lainey’s wedding dress, I finally finished viewing the entirety of BTS Run and of course anyone who has watched the show knows you cannot help but eventually became hopelessly addicted! Aaah! I’m not going to say any more, because it’s a little bit embarrassing, at my age! but anyway there it is. I’ve said it now! 💜
O hey!
A jeans-to-jean-jacket project has been a long-term “thing” in my little bucket list of refashions that I have in my head. and one of the reasons I’ve been collecting my children’s old jeans for only like, forever… recently I was asked to speak at the 20th anniversary celebrations of Australian Sewing Guild, a huge honour! and in the general chit-chat heard mention of their 
While I lurve a patchy aesthetic to my clothing, and of course the beauty of a thing like a jean jacket is that it’s supposed to look a bit beat up and NOT a work of beautifully tailored perfection… I still wanted it to look at least a little bit intentional and not too bunged together. There was plenty of colour variation even within each single pair of jeans as well as fashionable distressing effects everywhere too, so I carefully cut so as to make sure the colour variations were matched symmetrically all over the jacket, for example; the upper arms are cut from the same area of one pair, the side fronts also both from the same area of another pair, ditto the two side backs, etc etc, so as much as I possibly could the lighter blue areas are balanced out nicely and symmetrically with the darker blue areas on the jacket.
Thoughts on the pattern: description says a classic, unlined, button-down denim jacket with collar; short and loose-fitting design with flap pockets at the front; sleeve vents and wide button cuffs, wide band at the hem. Well, hmmm, I’m not going to start ranting about my pet hate; the incorrect use of the term “button-down”. Noooo, I’m not. Apart from that! everything else about the pattern is pretty awesome. A slight negative; it is a bit more loose-fitting than I anticipated. Not 80’s loose, but still pretty loose. I’m ok with it really… I will certainly wear it anyway! it’s so comfy and feels absolutely fantastic on! plus I’m only wearing it over a thin little Tshirt here and of course a bit of oversizedness is a good thing when I’ll want to wear it over cardigans or long-sleeved woolly tops in the winter. I think when I get a little time I might have a go at re-jigging the pattern to be a little more form-fitting, for the future. I still have plenty of pairs of jeans that need refashioning, so a second, differently styled jean jacket might even happen. One which even has bigger and better functioning hip pockets!
