Silk Metallic Brocade Bomber

A couple of years ago, my daughter made a Papercut Rigel Bomber Jacket in a lovely metallic silk brocade from The Fabric Store.  She chose the style and the pattern and I remember thinking at the time, that it was quite a flamboyant fabric for someone who tends to stick to the more subdued fabrics.  When it was finished though, I absolutely loved it, to the point, that I would have taken it for myself if that was an option.  Fast forward a couple of months, and the fabric she had chosen came on sale and she offered to pick some up for me.  Who was I to argue!  Since then, I have had full intentions of making it up but it always seemed to get bumped down the queue.  Although not strictly animal print, it certainly has that vibe about it so I decided to make it up while animal print is still everywhere.

I ordered my zip from Aliexpress last winter, thinking I would have the jacket ready for spring but Aliexpress can often be a little hit and miss in the shipping department and this particular order was more miss than hit and took about 4 months to arrive.  That was the end of my spring deadline and Christmas was fast approaching so once again the project was shoved on the back burner.

With a new season approaching I decided that this jacket was going to form part of my autumn  wardrobe so a couple of weeks back before lockdown, I visited Fabric Vision in search of some lining while their sale was on.  Their sale tables are always a good resource for lining.  I initially thought black but I was more concerned with the actual crease factor because this jacket would not be able to be ironed.  I found a lovely piece of soft drapey satin type of fabric that doesn't exactly match but tones in nicely.  With black ribbing that was already in my stash, I now had all the supplied I needed to put my plans into place.

The Rigel Bomber pattern does not come with lining pieces so I made my own by simply cutting the outer pieces and adding a bit of length for bagging.  I also added a center back pleat to ensure no pulling across the shoulders and back.

I have to say, the silk brocade was not easy to work with and I did end up with metallic threads all over my charcoal carpet, which took some removing, but by overlocking all of the pieces, I kept this to as minimum.  I also found, that hand sewing the lining in, gave a better finish than machine sewing.  I was using my vintage Bernina at the time while my Juki was in the shop, so persevering when things were not working for me with a machine I was less familiar with was not in my best interests.  Also, hand sewing in front of the tv, I find, is quite therapeutic.

I am really pleased with how the resulting jacket turned out.  If I was to be completely picky, my zip was a fraction too long and it doesn't line up perfectly at the neck band but since I am very unlikely to zip it up, I am really not going to notice that.  I am also going to have to make sure that I don't wear it at the same time as my daughter wears hers!

My new jacket had it's maiden outing last weekend.  It was the first weekend we were allowed to socialize since lock down began.  I had a week in Bali booked with my friend who was having a milestone birthday and since that couldn't happen, it was lovely to be able to catch up with her for a drink in real life.

Silk Brocade Rigel Bomber
Fabric $24.00
Pattern (used before) $0.00
Zip $3.74
Lining $9.00
Total $36.74