Waiting For It To Rain!

Okay, not really but when it does I now have the perfect jacket for the job.  My lack of a jacket that is actually waterproof but is not going to make me pass out with heat exhaustion was made obvious when on holiday in Queensland earlier in the year.  The jacket I took with me which had served it's purpose in the Christchurch rain proved to be woefully inadequate after 5 mins in a tropical downpour.  We obviously stood out as Kiwis because we were actually wearing jackets, because it appears that Queenslanders would rather just get soaked to the skin and let the sun do it's job on it's return.  Soggy clothing just isn't my bag so I made my mind up then and there to replace my sad excuse for a rain coat. 

 The fabric I chose was a gortex fabric similar to what my winter Kathmandu jacket is made of .  I bought a couple of shopping bag loads of the stuff from a lady through Trademe, 7 or so years ago, to make nappy covers for my youngest child.  She had pieces cut to 1-2 metre lengths and said it was what was used to make wet weather clothing for the police force....well that explains the blue but not the 4 or so other colours I also had in my stash. The fabric I chose is fantastic and too good to make into swimming bags even though I think it would do a fantastic job.  It is a really nice weight, and purple which I am quite partial to as a clothing colour at the moment and has a breathable rubber laminate backing.  I used a lot of the non laminate variety for waterproof pants for the snow for the kids and it also made fantastic overalls for my youngest when he used to play outside in the winter. 

I was a little worried about how my overlocker and sewing machine would take to the rubber backing but found, even on my commercial overlocker, that if I sewed slowly enough the feed dogs did not rip up the rubber.  The pattern I used was Simplicity 2153, which is part of the northern hemisphere autumn collection so I had to buy it online.  It wasn't designed to be lined but I was a little concerned that the rubber would get damaged so found some leftover taffeta lining in my stash to protect the rubber surface without adding extra thickness and therefore make the jacket any warmer than it needed to be.  I also needed the jacket to pack up small for daytrips and holidays.

I really like the style of this jacket as, unlike traditional outdoor wear, this jacket will function as a hiking jacket but also look stylish enough to wear with a skirt if need be.