A jacket for my elegant cousin

Saturday evening, I got a call from my aunt. She was in town with her daughter and wanted to take us out for brunch Sunday morning. I am well enough brought up that it isn't nice to show up empty handed. So I looked around to see what I could make for my aunt and my cousin.

My cousin has a wardrobe that I seriously envy. This is not something that I say lightly, either. My cousin has a wonderful wardrobe of craft show jackets and scarves. Her prefered colors are black and grey with the occasional touch of red. She chooses garments are are tasteful and quiet, but as you take a good look, just how wonderful and deeply interesting they truly are, begin to reveal themselves. ( Actually, this is probably a pretty accurate description of my cousin's personality as well.) Most of what she chooses is distinguished by it's fabulous texture.

I haven't posted in about a week because my house has been full to the rafters with guests. It was hard to sew with my dining room table filled with folks working away on laptops, as my work space, is the dining room.


I had a bit of pent of sewing built up, so when my eye fell on the funky textured black mystery fabric from Kaballa Man. I knew that it wanted to be a dolman sleeved jacket for my cousin. ( A dolman sleeved jacket is just about the easiest garment to make. ) My cousin and I are roughly the same size, but not exactly the same shape. So I felt comfortable making the jacket work for my body, and assuming that it would work for my cousin as well. At my first attempt, the jacket hit at the tops of my thighs and it looked dowdy on me, so I cut off several inches and hemmed it at the waist. It looked cute on me. I used a strip of silver crinkled mystery fabric, purchased on the same shopping adventure from Kaballa Man as the collar. The rest of the silver fabric is now a tank top and skirt that I wear fairly regularly to synagogue under a boucle jacket.

The jacket came together quickly. The odd, spongy textured tabric is fun to sew. ( Don't worry, I didn't neglect my aunt, she got a silver and black metal and silk scarf. )

When my cousin tried on the jacket it looked great, but it was too short on her. My cousin is actually several inches shorter than I am, but given how her body is constructed, the jacket didn't flatter her in it's shorter incarnation.

I took the jacket back, and this morning, I added a skirt and also made a deep box pleat both in the original jacket and in the skirt to help shape the jacket a bit and to add a bit of interest to the back. I'm liking how it looks. I hope that it will look good on my cousin. She leaves town tomorrow and I hope we can get together before she leaves so she can take it with her.