Ikat Blazer (How's That For a Creative Title?)

Well, I'm still trying to sew from my stash when I can, but what can I say?  Sometimes a girl's gotta buy a little fabric (especially when said fabric is 20% off) and that's just what I did a couple weeks ago. I've been meaning to try out the blazer pattern from Simplicity 2250 for a couple months now but I wanted to be able to pick out the fabric for it in person to make sure that the weight would be right and with life being crazy right now it took a while to find time to make it to a real fabric store.  But I'm so glad that I waited because I love this fabric with the design of the blazer.  The fabric is a cotton twill with a little bit a stretch to it so it'll be easy to wash (something that I always appreciate) without looking overly casual.

When I told Ben what I was planning on making with the fabric he looked at me like that was the worst idea that he's ever heard.  It's possible that he just didn't like the fabric, but it's more likely that he was thinking of all the things that can go wrong in sewing a blazer.  Fortunately this is the simplest jacket/blazer you can image.  There is a facing for the front panels so that it looks nice when open but the rest of the jacket is unlined.

Because it's unlined I got all fancy and did french seams on the inside seams that aren't covered by the facing and I eliminated the back seam, but that was mostly because I didn't want anything breaking up the ikat pattern on the back.

As for the size, I cut out a straight size 10 but I slimmed the waist line a tiny bit to give the blazer a bit more definition in the waistline.  I also sewed all the bias binding on by hand to give the jacket a cleaner finish (plus, I kind of suck at sewing binding on with the machine).  I have to say that the length of this blazer is perfect (which is a miracle since I was super-lazy and I didn't make a muslin) but I wish that I had made the sleeves full length rather than 3/4 length.  Oh well.  Perhaps having my wrists cold will just motivate me to make another one of these suckers!