More warm and cozy - boiled wool bolero-shrug.

WISDOM GAINED: Well I learned from previous lessons; if something is niggling away, then wait, don't be afraid to do something entirely different!

Looks kind of like a dinosaur neck?

Bonus news: Montreal daughter likes the quilted house-coat!

Boiled wool bolero-shrug

A little while ago my friend D had offered to lend me her pattern for the Berlin jacket; she had just finished it and was loving it. I thought maybe I could do it with the hunter green boiled wool length in my stash... but put the project on a back-burner.

Last week at school I realized I needed a jacket of some kind to leave at school for cooler days, and decided that it was time to try the Berlin jacket.

I traced the pattern, double so that I could lay it all out on one layer; I knew that I would be pushing it in terms of the length required. I laid it out and found I could get the front and back pieces, and the sleeves on. I would not be able to get the front facings on, nor the pockets. I might be able to fit the sleeve facings on.

Options:

• 

  Burgundy speckled duster

  shorten the coat;
• make the coat without the facing nor the pockets;
• take apart the burgundy & black speckled boiled wool duster which I  used to wear almost daily at school, but had decommissioned due to holes in the elbows;
• make a different project all together.

I felt that the Berlin jacket shortened would not be attractive, at all!

I was advised that the Berlin required the facing for structure;

I looked at the duster, and realized I was still attached to it; it was the first major pattern hack that I had done (merging two patterns), and maybe I could patch the elbows.

Original bolero-shrug with shorter sleeves.

This left option four. And lo and behold, I did have the perfect pattern. I had gone through a boiled wool phase about fifteen years ago when I lived in Germany and bought some lovely lengths. I believe that the current hunter green length was purchased at that time. But not sure!

I had made Simplicity 4428 view A, a bolero-shrug, in pumpkin-orange. It is cozy, and cute. But orange is not so practical, and the sleeves are too short - what is the point when one is going for warmth! That orange bolero gets worn at least once a year - at Hallowe'en.

I have also made view B out of a metallic purple flowy fabric.

I decided that the same bolero,  View A, with sleeves extended, in this more practical colour, could work as a wrap to keep at school.

You can almost see the basic rectangle shape here

It is a fairly straightforward make to sew; the main body is one piece (a modified rectangle really), there is a curved piece for the upper collar, and a curved piece for the lower 'peplum.'' (The attached photo shows the lack of tailoring).

It only took several hours, including tracing the pattern I ended up not using, and creating the sleeve extension. I used the walking foot, but did not use a knit needle. The longest part of the sewing is making the little pleats. Especially the nine extra ones I made because I cut out two, instead of one, lower piece!

Because this pattern is recommended for fleece, or other fabrics that don't fray, there is not much finishing needed. The seams are trimmed on one side, then topstitched to catch the trimmed seam, and look nice from the inside. 

I lengthened the sleeve, but because of the design, I could not just lengthen it on the pattern piece (the fabric is not wide enough), so I added an extension, that puts a seam just below my elbows. With the top stitching it looks like an intended design feature.

When I was in my boiled wool phase I picked up a cute embellishment - a rose in relief using the trimmings, sewn around and around. I have put these on the right hand sleeve; with this particular pattern, it helps me put the garment on top side up (it is not easy to tell which is the top and which is the bottom!).

The collar is not sitting quite right, but I have been wearing it this afternoon, and it is cozy. I am also not delighted with my little pleats; they were hard to get just right. In the previous model, the orange version, the pleats were more delicate than they ended up here.