Two jackets for a Yorkshire Summer

I love Yorkshire. I wouldn't choose to live anywhere else. But realistically summer can be a little unpredictable. And so, behold, two jackets. One suited to the cooler days, and one for the warmer ones.

First up, the Lettuce Coat from Wendy Bernard's Custom Knits. I knit this in two strands of double knitting to make a bulky weight. I will admit, I had gone off both yarns and they had lingered in the stash staring at me every time I went in there. The plain King Cole Merino had been made into a sweater that looked too much like my old school sweater for comfort and had been ripped out. The Freedom Spirit is rather scratchy and knits up a bit stripier than I really liked on its own. However, together, they look rather good and make a very warm and cosy coat.

I made a major error. The coat skirt and cuffs are supposed to be knit in Brioche rib. I found this difficult to knit and made more so by having to wrangle two strands, and two balls of yarn. I thought it would be clever to knit a normal 2x2 rib. Which then drew up, as rib is supposed to do, into a tail coat effect. I pinned it out on the dress form initially to stretch it out to my measurements. Which improved things but not enough. So I had to iron the rib flat in the end. Not recommended when one of the yarns is very, very feltable but I seem to have got away with it.

I love the look of this coat and am pleased with the overall outcome. I even had buttons in stash that worked perfectly. It didn't take long to knit either since its knit on 7mm needles.

And then, for the warmer weather (or with one of my favourite, and numerous, black tops underneath) Marfy 1625, which I have amended to make it more summery (and to avoid having to tailor a notched collar in cotton twill).

This is the same pattern as my black wool jacket from last year which I made in my tailoring class. Changes include: leaving off the collar, using the one piece sleeve from Marfy 1756 in place of the two piece sleeve this comes with, closing the jacket with one decorative button with a large snap underneath, leaving off the pockets and making it unlined with bound seams. I have been keen to try bound seams for ages and this was an ideal opportunity. All the seams are bound, including the armholes, with purchased satin bias tape to match the jacket colour. I only just had enough binding for the body part and had to serge the sleeve seams. The belt portion has a self fabric lining on the inside which I sewed on by hand. This covers all the horizontal seam allowances in this area plus the interfacing on the belt itself.

The peplum is made double and I drafted a neck facing. The facings were constructed into a circle and then applied all the way around the jacket in one pass. This required the front facing piece to be cut short so that the inner peplum could be added to it. This finishes the hems at the same time as adding the front facing and neck facing, making the whole finishing process simpler.

And here it is. If it stops raining here, I might even get to wear it to work tomorrow.