//LIBERTY SILK RIGEL BOMBER

Hello!

Here is my contribution to Rigel Bomber January!

Firstly, I need to say that I love this jacket! It’s probably in my top five self-made garments. 

I think the great thing about this pattern is that it works both with light-weight fabrics as well as heavier winter ones (as it says on the pattern description). I’m not one that would wear a varsity-style bomber jacket but I love the option of different styles that this pattern offers.

I made mine out of this Liberty of London printed silk satin, and lined it with navy silk habotai and used cotton ribbing, both from the Fabric Store.

The Liberty satin is gorgeous, and much better in real life than it looks on the Shaukat website. The line are incredibly fine and it's a colour scheme that's a bit different to most liberty prints.

I lined the pockets using a moss-coloured textured silk tissue I had lying around.

Changes to pattern

The only changes I made to the pattern were to line it and lengthen the ribbing on the sleeves.

I think this jacket really needs lining to hide the workings of the welt pockets. It’s a simple enough change to make but I think it gives a much more polished finish. If you’ve spent a bit of timing ensuring your welt pockets, zip etc. are perfect, I think it makes sense to carry that through to the inner of the jacket!

I followed a similar process as Katy and Laney, but machine instead of hand-sewed the bottom of the lining to the ribbing and turned it out through the sleeve gap.

Next time:

The length of the jacket is one designed to be worn with jeans and trousers I think. I don’t really wear trousers (I’m more of a dress girl) so with a thicker, less floaty fabric I’d crop the pattern so it looks better worn over a dress, with less bulk over the hips. I like the current length with this light, floaty-type of fabric though. 

Next time I might raise the neckline so it's more curved around the neck, but that depends on the fabric and look I'm after.

Sewing

There were no real issues sewing this. I was slightly apprehensive sewing such a slippery satin, but pins, pins and more pins and it came out fine!

I’d never sewn a welt pocket prior to this jacket, and was a bit nervous seeing as I didn’t have any spare fabric if I made a mistake. I just took it slow and after checking, and triple checking, the welt instructions I cautiously proceeded. The instructions were really clear and helpful though, and I needn’t have worried!

Yay vs Nay

Yay

• I love this jacket. I think the pattern is great and works really well in a slouchy version (which is probably more to my style than a fitted one). I love the fabric and need to find a way to use more Liberty satin!

Nay

• I probably could have made a smaller size and shortened it slightly for a snugger fit. I think the slouchy look suits this fabric, but for a thicker fabric I probably will change the fit of it.
• The ribbing I used is 100% cotton which is great, but it means that it hasn’t got much recovery and quickly loses its close fit.
• I regret not using the navy lining fabric for the welt pockets, as the fabric I used blends in too much. Navy pockets would have added a pop of contrast and been more effective.
• Wearing this zipped up really doesn't work with my body shape!

I can't wait to see the other Rigels that come out of this month!