Asian Jacket is Done

Last night I finished the Asian Jacket! What a good feeling. I was so pleased that I sat and knitted for about an hour on a little cardigan.

This jacket is made from Lonni Rossi cotton fabrics, which are designed for quilters, but I really liked these prints. The main problem I had with this was that I planned to line the jacket, and it was not planned to be lined. I just assumed that I could throw in a regular lining, and it started out fine, but I soon realized that the hem was a narrow hem, turned twice and topstitched. Well, that wasn't going to be too great. What I finally did was do the top of the lining as usual, and did the bottom as a facing, and topstitched through the face fabric and the lining at the same time. It worked quite well, and I don't have any problem with lining dropping below the hemline. That was a relief. The jacket is supposed to have side vents, and I did them, but they wanted to stick out kind of funny. I finally stitched them up, as I think it would only have gotten worse after sitting in it, etc.

I wondered if I was going to want a closure for this jacket, even though it isn't meant to have one. I had thought perhaps a sash belt from the chrysanthemum print, but I decided on a very large button from a set I have. I did not want an equally large buttonhole, so I used a very large covered snap. You can see the two halves below.




I used gold Madeira rayon thread for the topstitching, and they had enough colors of gold that I was able to find one that matched the metallic print perfectly. You can see more photos and close ups here.