Saturday, May 16, 2009

Pashmina Jacket

As a lover of textiles and intricate prints and patterns, I often am seduced by the beautiful Pashmina shawls for sale in midtown Manhattan. Over the years, I have purchased several of them which are beautiful, soft, warm and colorful.
Trouble is, I never wear them. In fact, I rarely ever wear shawls. Recently I was folding and admiring the pashmina shawls I have and an idea popped into my head: why not turn one into a jacket? My shawls are 27 inches wide and 72 inches ( 2 yards) long, excluding fringe.
I got out one of my favorite simple classic jacket patterns, Butterick 6474, and laid it out on a shawl which I folded in half:

If laid out this way, the fringe would be on the cuffs and front edges, but not on the back.
I cut out the pieces, and sewed them together using overlock stitch and french seaming when possible, as the weave is a bit loose and the wool is somewhat ravelly and delicate.
Here is my friend Sue Dennis ( www.suedennis.com) , visiting from Australia, modeling my jacket:



A comfortable, warm and light jacket! And Sue makes a great model.

5 comments:

Elizabeth Rosenberg said...

Wow, Jeri! What a great idea! And what a beautiful jacket, too. You are so creative! Say hi to Sue, and tell her that she is a very beautiful model.
Love to you,
E

Melody Johnson said...

OMG is that gorgeous!! I am so impressed. I have never seen a Pashmina in person, but I know I would much rather wear it as a jacket than as a shawl. Too beautiful.

Kay Koeper Sorensen said...

Wonderful creative use of the shawl. Love it.
K

Melly Testa said...

Really Good idea, Jeri!

Norma Schlager said...

Jeri, that looks great! What a good idea, I should go look in my closet.