Sheep Show 2019 - Part 2

Here’s the second part of this year’s Sheep Show report with the details of my jacket for all those who want to know a bit more about it.

I wrote earlier this year about making a pattern from a jacket.  I bought the original jacket years ago in the US.  It was made in a very drapey polyester georgette, and has been a wardrobe favourite, great to wear over something sleeveless when it's hot. I thought the shape had possibilities for other fabrics, especially handwoven ones.

I traced a pattern off the first jacket and made it in much stiffer upholstery fabric. 

The latest woollen version is actually a better balance between body and drape

I had taken Nancye Whitman’s workshop on Iridescent Weaving at the Guild’s Summer School, and with some information from Heddlecraft May 2018, the 4-colour Echo weave issue, and Bertha Grey Hayes Jitterbug draft as a design line, I came up with a draft.  I had to search to find 4 colours that I thought could work together and added a strand of silk or viscose to the wool yarns to give a bit of extra shine.

Here are the colours for the warp

The warp itself

Weaving, with a black weft, in progress, 

helped somewhat by a few days off work with laryngitis. The echo weave is really starting to show here (thank goodness!)

I based the bands  on a weft face weave I’d used for glasses cases but  if I were doing it again, I would look at a different glasses case draft to give softer stripes in the band. 

I calculated carefully and used 2 repeats so that the band would have stripes inside as well as outside, see picture of inside below.

I finished weaving and wet-finished the two fabrics. I didn’t even have enough time for my usual trick of rolling it onto a cardboard tube to make me think the fabric is ‘store bought’ but I did make sure I measured everything at least twice, if not more, before cutting it.

I’d made the jacket before so the construction went smoothly and the jacket was completed and delivered to the pick- up point at the Guild with at least 45 minutes to spare. 

I showed a couple of the runway shots in the last post but here are a couple posed on Polly, my model, with the 'oil on a wet road' effect of the Echo weave showing up well, especially on the larger area of the back.

Here's the inside. I managed to find some silk/viscose fabric, probably meant to be a garment in its own right, but it was just the right weight and colour to make a great lining and it feels very luxurious

I should probably start designing something for next year now - maybe I can deliver it to the Guild with more than 45 minutes to spare.  I see in the catalogue that the theme for 2020 is 'Vision'. I can probably come up with a few ideas for that one.

Helen