Red Velveteen

The Marin Symphony had a concert back in October, which I attended with Mom.  I was planning on wearing a particular dress, but it was likely that the evening performance would be too chilly for a sleeveless cotton dress.  So the obvious thing to do was make a coverup!

I will also say that a red jacket is a welcome addition to my wardrobe since I have a lot of red in my closet.  Right around this time, Charm Patterns released The Brooklyn Jacket.  I have never made one of their Patreon patterns, but it looked like something that would be fun to try.  These are print only patterns, which is not my favorite thing to deal with, but I folded and taped my 8.5X11 paper, and transferred the pattern to interfacing.  With that chore complete, it was time for the fun stuff.

When it came to fabric choice, I kept returning to velveteen.  I haven't worked with velvet or velveteen in some time, and I figured that velveteen shouldn't be too painful to work with after a hiatus from the rather finicky textile.

And lucky for me, I also happened to have a suitable red lining on hand.

The fabric didn't give me that much grief, thankfully, but I did encounter a problem with the drafting of the pattern.  The front piece and the front facing pieces do not match for this particular view, as you can see in the photo below.  

At least I hadn't made my buttonholes before figuring this out!

I think the proportions of the front opening are slightly off because I had to trim down the front to match the facing, but it could have been worse.

And honestly, I was more concerned about how bound buttonholes in velveteen were going to turn out.

But thanks to my handy Singer Professional Buttonholer and it's bound buttonhole template, it was smooth sailing.

I have a needle board, so I decided that a fusible interfacing would work for stabilizing the buttonholes/facing.

It all worked out, although I am never convinced that fusible will stay put in the long run.

And look, we have the beginnings of a jacket!

The lining went together easily.

The most aggravating part of the project was attaching the lining to the velveteen . . . which makes sense, the cotton velvet grips itself, but the slick rayon lining wants to fight the velvet.  But in the end, I got it done.

And covered buttons were an obvious choice, so I pulled out two of those.

A bit of hand sewing later . . .

And I have a new cozy coverup.

Now the only question is, how did I make it this long without a cropped red velveteen jacket in my wardrobe?!