The Amelia jacket was the pattern that came with issue six of Lisa Comfort magazine. Sadly the magazine is out of print and no longer available but you can now buy the Amelia pattern separately on the Sew Over It website here. The jacket was named after the pilot, Amelia Earhart and is a take on the classic bomber jacket with a cropped style and nipped in waist. The pattern appealed to me because it’s a relatively straight forward shape and so I thought it would be a great introduction to sewing jackets as I hadn’t sewn one before. I also liked the short length and the silhouette that it creates. I’m writing this review retrospectively now that I have my blog, having made two versions of the jacket last year.
FABRIC:
My first version was made from a cotton twill fabric and the second was made in a brown tweed wool. Both were easy to work with and worked well for the pattern. I used a pink lining fabric on the first from Stone Fabrics and a satin remnant from Sewisfaction as the lining on the second. Other fabric recommendations on the pattern envelope include boucle, corduroy and crepe.
FITTING:
I cut out a size 10 for Amelia. The finished garment measurements indicated that I might have got away with a size 8 but my experience with other Sew Over It patterns pushed me in the direction of a 10. Before cutting out my fabric I shortened the sleeves by two inches but then went ahead with the pattern as is. My cotton twill version was basically a toile and once I made it up I realised that the bodice needed to be lengthened by one to two inches. In my second version, I lengthened the bodice by one inch and I’m happier with where the bottom of the jacket sits – just on my waistline. Having previously shortened the sleeves, I felt with this version that they could actually do with an extra inch of length because when I stretch out my arms, or I’m driving, they feel a tad short. But nothing that is going to stop me wearing it.
SEWING:
In terms of sewing, Amelia has 54 steps so it’s a relatively long sew, I didn’t time myself but would estimate it would take a couple of days in total. (I’m quite a slow sewer, so someone speedier would probably get it done quicker than that!). There is nothing too complicated to contend with and all the steps are explained clearly in the instructions. Something new for me was inserting an open-ended zip. I’d only worked with concealed and ‘normal’ zips before this jacket, so it was good to learn something a bit new. This included the fact that its possible to remove teeth from the zip to shorten it! You just need a pair of pliers and some elbow grease! The only part of the construction of Amelia that I found challenging was finishing the seam where the waistband meets the facing on the inside. My first version still has raw edges showing but I managed to work out how to fix that in the second.
STYLE:
Style wise, I do really like this jacket. Its perfect for spring when the weather is getting a bit warmer and we are starting to pull out more lightweight clothes but still need a coat of some sort. I would say that it comes out really quite short, so you do need to be wearing either an all-in-one piece underneath or something quite high waisted to avoid any gaps! But that is the intended style and I think it suits me being fairly short in height anyway! Have you made Amelia? What were your thoughts?
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