Mad March Minoru

I am back after a short holiday with The Management in Gran Canaria to recharge my batteries with some long needed sunshine. Not only sunshine, I also managed three days scuba diving – heaven.

I’m in there somewhere….

Anyway, once back I set to work on another Sewaholic Minoru Jacket which I cut out before I left. The warm, waterproof version has become my ‘go to’ jacket so another was clearly a good idea.

This version was to provide an alternative to the ‘warm’ Minoru’ for Spring (ever the optimist) and is made in a showerproof navy fabric which has been in the stash for too long to remember any details about it. It might be polyester but it feels a bit more natural so is probably a blend. I haven’t done a burn test as it was so obviously right for the circumstances it really didn’t matter what it is made from.The lining is also from stash – a very thick, densely woven polyester which meant that this was going to perform exactly as required without any additional interlining.

Minoru Front

The only changes I made were to the cuff of the sleeve (as I mentioned in the last Minoru post this was the only thing I wasn’t really happy with), and used a two way zipper rather than just a separating zipper. This will help if I want to wear this in any seated position to prevent any ‘pull’ on the zipper bottom.

To change the sleeve I just drew the fold line more obviously on the cuff pattern piece and pinned that at the bottom of the sleeve piece to give the sleeve length required (don’t forget to allow the sleeve head seam allowance if you do this). The sides of the sleeve obviously wont match the cuff piece now so all I did was draw in a line from the cuff to the underarm and cut on that.When I sewed the sleeve I left a gap in the seam to insert the elastic, turned the cuff up from the fold line, sewed an edge seam to finish the edge better before making another seam to give the elastic casing. I did sew the lining to the cuff turn before I put the elastic into place as I thought that made it easier. I prefer this cuff to the original as I feel it is less bulky, but that is just personal choice and no criticism of the pattern.

Cuff changes

And just for Rhonda (and anyone else really) …. a flash of the lining.

A lining flasher!

I am counting this as my garment for March as I expect to be very busy for the rest of the month doing sewing to raise funds for my darling daughter who is running in the years London marathon  on behalf of Rockinghorse Childrens Charity (her running blog here). Not so long ago I thought I had ages. All of a sudden it is nearly here….  aargh!

I will show what I am making as I do it. Apologies if I vanish for a while again….

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