Victoria, the love child between Suede and Indigo

I completed my first By Hand London pattern, and I'm absolutely in love! First of all the packaging is gorgeous, the instructions have a lot of humour in them (made me laugh out loud!) and the best thing.. You get an awesome label to sew into your garment!

Last week as I was taking the train on my way to work I had a great idea, what if I made the Victoria blazer out of suede? I had been hoarding two beautiful pieces of suede for over a year, I had bought them with the intention to make a jacket. You know how it goes, I got distracted and the jacket got put on hold.

This weekend we had dyed some fabrics and I knew that one of those pieces would make a great lining.

On tuesday evening I was working on my Belladone dress when I took a look at the By Hand London website. When I saw the Sew-A-Long I thought: What am I doing working on my Belladone? I need to make my suede Victoria Blazer! So on wednesday night I cut out my pieces and sewed my lining together. Yesterday night I worked very hard to put the rest together and I finished in time for the party! Yay!

All the layers of suede got quite thick at some points so my machine was having some issues now and then. I was sewing outside because of the warm weather and it was very enjoyable.

Working hard in warm weather

But with a nice glass of wine

I also lined the sleeves, because I don't really like the feel of suede on my skin. The sleeves are very beautiful by the way, I really like the fit at the shoulders. 

My sleeve cuffs were a bit too small, so I cut them out again, but then they were still too small, maybe it has something to do with the thickness of the suede?

Too small..

Worked out well in the end

I had some other troubles because of the weight differences with the two fabrics, the suede was pulling the lining to the outside. The pattern is designed for a flat transition (no idea how you would call it otherwise) from lining to outside fabric, so I decided to sew an extra line of stitches which help my lining stay inside. This does give you a line of visible stitches on the lining, which doesn't look as clean as I had hoped, but what can you do?

The only thing I'm afraid of, is that the lining will stretch over time and become visible on the outside.. Hmm we'll see what the future brings I guess...

Happy horse face

My boyfriend thought it would be a good idea to take pictures with some horses, since it has a kind of cowboy meets indian style he says.. I don't know, but I just like horses to I'm happy :)

 I'm already thinking of more blazers I can make, I have some great fabric which I got in Paris, which I can see being made up in a longer Victoria blazer.. Now if only I could get more labels..

Stashbusting count: 2.5/15