I have had the Wiksten Haori on my make list for quite some time and this half finished blog post in my drafts for way to long as well. When the weather turned cool a few months ago it was time to bring it to the top of the list. I have been following the hashtag on Instagram for a while to really get a good feel for the jacket and the look and feel I wanted to achieve for mine. It has been my most worn item this winter. It is perfect for curling up on the couch.
I have purchased a piece of quilted cotton from Merchant and Mills that was a rather expensive fabric purchase for me. I had this piece of fabric ear marked for this jacket but want to be 100% sure the finished fit was what I wanted. I’m a big believer in testing patterns before I make them in my final selection fabric especially when I have high hopes for the finished garment. The let down of a finished garment in expensive fabric that’s just not working is real!
A few weeks ago I went all beige with our bedroom linen and decided our old bedspread would make the perfect toiling fabric for this project. The quilted bed spread has two sides, both of which I love equally so it made sense to not line may jacket and bind all the seams so I could wear the jacket either way. To keep with the re purposing feel I unpicked all the bind from the bed spread edge to finish all the seams of my jacket.
I am loving oversized long line jackets at the moment and decide to cut the M size jacket with was 2 sizes bigger than what the pattern recommended for my body measurements. I really want the donor jacket feel and something that I could rug up in on the couch at night.
It was a fairly simple sew given my jacket wasn’t lined but did take a little longer due to the binding of the seams. I also bound the pocket edges to keep the finish of the garment consistent. The bind from the bed spread edge was the perfect width to cover the seams. I overlocked the seams prior to binding them to reduce the thickness of the seams.
I did run out of bind for the bottom hem and the white bind that I could find was quite stark in comparison. I tea stained the new bind to reduce the brightness of the white. It’s not perfect but it’s ok. And with some wash and wear it will age with the rest of the garment.
Conclusion….. I love that this jacket is made from something old and special. It is so warm (for Queensland weather anyway). I love that is reversible and ridiculous oversized. Will I use this pattern to sew my Merchant & Mills fabric? Absolutely! It’s cut out and ready to sew today. I am not going to line my second version either as our winters in Queensland, Australia are not that cold and it will be wearable into Autumn and Spring.
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