Waver Jacket - My Cosy Named Clothing Waver Jacket
Anyone who follows me on Instagram may well remember this jacket I made last winter, after all, it became quite a project under our 'share your sewing' hashtag! Lots of followers were so helpful and inspired me with this make. I never got around to blogging it, probably because I spent the second half of Winter trying to finish it! By Spring I'd progressed onto other things, ha, maybe I'd had enough!!!
These are the photographs I took, back then, so it's nice to revisit it now. This Waver Jacket PDF sewing pattern by Papercut Patterns is a very popular make and I like it's simple 'utilitarian' style.
This jacket did become one of those projects that was quite complicated, not so much in the sewing, but in terms of finding all the bits, it was painful! I'm not so lucky that I have a haberdashers on my doorstep or even in Sheffield for that matter. I didn't half faff about sending off for samples and ordering buttons online - plus by the time I'd bought this US cotton canvas fabric, I could have gone out and purchased myself quite a nice coat - but we'll not go there!
I thought I'd start from the beginning and show you where my inspiration came from. I had it in my head that I wanted a proper tan outdoorsy fabric jacket, like this Carhartt one! I sent off for so many swatches from UK fabric shops but all I could find was brown, beige or khaki types of shades. Nothing resembling this true American worker wear tan I was after, hence searching further afield into the US and importing some 10oz cotton duck canvas complete with hefty duties and Royal Mail fees!
To make this coat cosy, I was then looking for a sherpa style liner, like a lamby fleece. This would have been fine if I'd wanted ivory or beige but no, I'd set my heart on black and couldn't find anything in this cuddly style. So I had a brain wave and came up with the teddy throw blanket idea! I guess you can imagine how fun this was to sew and how my sewing room looked after the event! For the sleeves I chose a black quilted satin so that this cosy coat just slides on, awesome!
Finally, with the buttons and trim, again this was quite an affair involving sending off for so many bits, then not being happy and ordering something else, it really did go on! I can't tell you how long I looked at this to die for haberdashers shop MacCulloch and Wallis at how many different types of cord available (be warned if you go there, procrastination at it's finest). The problem was I had too many fixed ideas in my head with this jacket but I'm really happy with the outcome now. For everytime I posted my progress on social media, you guys just got it! This spurred me on... I could have very easily lost interest, as I'm not really that patient.
Finally, after finishing the shoot, I came up with one extra idea of making a Faberwood badge. My husband Brian Trevaskiss made me this little embossed leather patch which I sewed onto the arm, result! Well, you know how much we like our badges : )
