My Minoru

(Since the pattern designer is Canadian, I'll do this post in English. In case she happens to come across it...)

My Minuro jacket is done, as part of a sew-along online. I had the pattern from Sewaholic for a while before I got started, looking around for the perfect fabric for it. When I at last found a fabric I wanted to use, the shop didn't have enough, and they recommended this for me instead. It turned out to be just the right fabric for me and my jacket - light weight, windproof and a lovely brown colour!

Photo from Kreativ (pppp.no)

Last year my mum brought me back some lovely Aboriginal fabrics from Australia, and I'd been trying to come up with a project for some of them. I like them very much, but they were perhaps a bit too much for a dress (which I often end up making). This dark fabric matches very well with the outer fabric of the jacket, so I decided to use it as the lining. I have used regular lining fabric in the sleeves, to prevent my jumper from getting stuck inside the jacket.

I first did a simple muslin/ toile with cheap muslin fabric from IKEA, and I'm glad I did. The muslin was a size 8, and I ended up taking off about 2,5 cms of the length of the jacket and the sleeves, and I added about 1 - 2 cm with because it was a little tight across my shoulders. I took the length off above the waist, as I have a short back (or maybe I'm just short).

So I got gutting and sewing, and it took me most of November to get it done. Not because sewing the Minuro jacket was particularly difficult or anything, the instructions in the booklet and online make it quite easy, but there were just so many operations included in making a jacket! I like to be thorough when doing something I haven't done before, and also I don't have much time set aside for sewing, so the weeks flew by. Also little things like deciding to put in side seam pockets AFTER sewing, overlocking and topstitching the side seams will set you back an hour or two... But I like the pockets! (tutorial here)

Dec 1 was the deadline for entering the voting in the sewalong, and there's nothing like a potential prize to motivate me! I got it done just in time, and posted my photos pretty much on the deadline.

So far I've only got these two photos to show for all my hard work, but I'll try and get some more shortly.
The jacket is a spring/ autumn (fall) jacket, and will be keeping comfortable in the cupboard/ closet during the cold and wet winter.

Looking rather pleased with myself ;)

One other alteration I did was to add another placket behind the zip to make it windproof. I live in western Norway, and there is always wind. If we by chance have a day without wind, we usually don't need a jacket either.