Style Arc Palermo Jacket Take Two - The Red Plaid

My wardrobe has been in need of a red cardigan for some time as I mislaid my red knitted shrug and the long Fjord Cardigan I made in early 2019 was donated due to the scratchy fabric. Enter the Style Arc Palermo knit jacket and a smallish cut of a red plaid woven wool/alpaca coating weight fabric. The idea came to me as I was nodding off to sleep on Friday and by Sunday evening the jacket was made. It then took me five weeks to write this blog post. In my defence it is Christmas and there is a lot going on!!

The finished garment

Here is the weekend version of the Palermo Red Plaid jacket worn with WORLD Cut Make Trim Mayrose tee, Andrea Moore Boyfriend jeans and P448 Skate Pailettes Stroil Sneakers. Loved it so much I coordinated my Saturday outfit to go with it, even after wearing it all week.

Having no stretch in the fabric does make it a bit less mobile than the first version but I don't find it bothersome and am really happy with how this turned out. Especially as despite not being able to do any plaid matching it came out in a very pleasing way - no jarring points to make the sewist's eye twitch.

With its red silk lining it feels super luxurious and no scratchiness from the wool fabric. The bottom picture shows the small box pleat added to the lining for ease of movement.

The fabric

This fabric was bought for a different pattern the Diane Ericson French Fold Shrug but the making never quite happened. Then I thought it would be a Papercut Patterns Fjord Cardi but I couldn't get the lines of the plaid to match and had very little fabric to play with having only purchased 1.2 metres so the project was abandoned. Third time lucky was the idea of making the Style Arc Palermo Knit Jacket.

The red plaid is a wool alpaca blend coating fabric and the lining is a lovely silk twill (allegedly a Marc Jacobs fabric). Both were from The Fabric Store last Winter.

The pattern

Style Arc describe the pattern as "perfect if you are taking it easy and looking for ultimate comfort without sacrificing your style. The Palermo Jacket features interesting design lines, that are surprisingly created with only two pattern pieces! The relaxed look contours the neck and sits just below the waist. A shrug style jacket featuring long sleeves, neck hugging collar and interesting design lines."

Suggested fabrics are: sweater knit or any fabric with slight stretch and drape. The wool alpaca mix woven coating fabric chosen for this version has nice drape but no stretch. The combination of the coating fabric and lining do make this more jacket like than shrug.

The pattern card

The pattern alterations

There were two improvements that I identified after making the first Palermo jacket: (1) the sleeves at the hem were a bit tight; (2) for a 1" hem some extra fabric was needed at the side seam hem edge in order to have enough fabric to lay flat when turned up.

For the sleeves I looked at the original pattern and decided to curve the sleeves out from the size 6 at marking B to size 12 at the hem. This gave me an extra ½" on both sides. As I was using a 1" hem I ensured the sleeve seam was the same width for 2" up from the hem. Altering the sleeve curve was easy laying the French curve next to the pattern at point B and at the size 12 point 2" up from the hem.

Back pattern piece with sleeves curved out to size 12 at the hem

To get the extra width at the hem on the front side seam I measured out 1" at the hem edge and laid the French curve on the pattern at the side seam and curved out to the extended hem edge. The curve makes the addition measure 1" at the side seam. If I had done a diagonal line it would have been more than 1" and the front and back side seams wouldn't have matched.

Front pattern piece with extra 1" at side seam hem cut edge

As I used a wool alpaca coating the jacket needed to be lined. For the back lining I used the same pattern piece as for the back jacket but with the pattern centre back fold 1" in from the folded edge of the fabric providing an extra 2" of fabric for a box pleat. For the front I cut a new lining piece removing the facing (minus seam allowance)

The sewing

As mentioned the first time I made this as long as you carefully mark the A, B, C notations (with snips in the fabric) Style Arc's assessment of this jacket as an easy make is appropriate. As I was intending to line the jacket all seams were sewn with a straight stitch on the Bernina 830. As an aside having owned the Bernina 830 since January 2012 I think I am finally comfortable with it. At long last I understand how to thread the bobbin and even the recent bit of machine embroidery I did turned out better than it ever has before.

I still used the Style Arc instructions with their informative little diagrams to make sure the right bits were being sewn together. As ever with a pattern with interesting shapes it is easy to confuse which bit is what and not sew the correct parts together.

Once again there were three instances where I didn't follow the instructions:

• After the side seam was sewn I sewed the centre back collar seam together. Then I folded the sleeves in half and sewed from the right sleeve hem up the arm, round the back neck edge down the left arm to the hem in one continuous seam.
• When I attached the shawl collar to the back neck edge I didn't sew in the outer fabric facing. The entire facing (front opening and collar) were sewn to the lining at the end.
• Hem depth was increased to 1" for sleeves and garment body

To sew the facing to the garment body at the hem, the seam allowance on the facing was folded in, then with right sides of the fabric together the facing was sewn to the garment body with a 1 inch seam allowance to match the hem depth. The garment was then turned right sides out without trimming the seam allowance. I was first introduced to this idea by Louise Cutting who advocates this as the way to get a sharp square corner (which I did).

For the jacket lining I created a box pleat at centre back (sewn for a couple of inches at the neck edge and hem) for ease of movement.

The outer jacket and lining were both made in their entirety, apart from sewing the facing and hems. The hems (sleeve and body) of the jacket outer were turned up and pressed in place before the lining was attached, as it is easier to do at this stage than after the lining has been sewn in. 

The lining was pinned to the garment body at the facing but before sewing it I sewed the bottom hems of the outer and lining together for a couple of inches using a ⅜" seam allowance. Then I could sew the lining to the facing by machine without any hand stitching.

The lining arm was stuffed down the outer arm and pinned at the seam. This ensures that the arm is not twisted when the hems are sewn together. Turn sleeves wrong side out through the hem opening, pull the sleeves apart so they are facing each other - joined at the seam by the pin. Remove the pin, roll lining so wrong side is out and re-pin just to make sure you are not twisting the sleeve as you line up the raw edges of jacket and lining sleeve hems. Sew with a ⅜" seam allowance. Pull the jacket outer sleeve sight sides out and the lining will follow. Because the sleeve hem had already been pressed in place the sleeves are now finished.

Turn the jacket outer and lining body right sides together and pin together at the hem. The sleeves will be inside between the right sides of the outer jacket and lining body. Sew together with a ⅜" seam allowance, leaving an opening at centre back large enough for the jacket to be pulled through to turn right side out. That small opening at centre back is the only bit of the jacket that needs to be hand sewn (with a fell stitch). I didn't need to stitch the garment hem to the body as you normally would, it stays in place just sewn to the lining.

Once the jacket and lining were turned right sides out I sewed them together at the back neck edge. The seams of the back neck edge were carefully aligned (outer and lining) and then sewn together by stitching in the ditch of the back neck seam with the jacket outer up and the lining against the feed dogs. As the seams were carefully aligned the stitches cannot be seen on either the jacket outer or lining. The back neck edge is the only place (apart from the hems and facing) that the lining and garment are attached.

The pattern alterations for this worked well as all the pieces sewed together really easily.

The week of outfits 1

The Palermo Red Plaid jacket so met my vision of what I wanted that it had to be worn immediately. My work outfits for the week were chosen on the basis that they went with my new jacket. I felt really good in what I wore all week.

Monday: Megan Nielsen Flint Prince of Wales Check trousers with WORLD Friendship T (a purchased tee made from Diane von Furstenberg deadstock - China Vine pattern silk viscose knit)

Tuesday: Vogue 1250 DKNY dress in an ITY knit from Silhouette Patterns
Wednesday: Vogue 9243 Twirling Rebecca Taylor dress (fabric also from Silhouette Patterns) and Suzi Roher belt
Thursday: Megan Nielsen Flint Prince of Wales Check trousers with WORLD Make it Right Black T

Shoes: United Nude Lucid Molten Mid Lilac ankle boots

Special thanks to the photographer who had better things to do with his Sunday afternoon but waited patiently whilst I changed my outfits in order to recreate the looks from the week at work.

The week of outfits 2 - the Christmas edition

As it took me so long to write this blog post there is a second week of work outfits - Christmas themed in celebration of the season and my last week at work in 2020. Could also be labelled the week of the dress!

Monday: Vogue 1410 Lynn Mizono Winter Floral Dress

Tuesday: Style Arc Gertrude House of Gifts Christmas Dress

Wednesday: Moochi red silk dress (complete with outtake - many photographs are taken to get one with my eyes open and sometimes the multiple photos are still being taken when I move!)
Thursday: Silhouette Traditional Peppermint Patty dress

Friday: Silhouette Traditional Red Flower dress (even being worn again with my Christmas Pandora bracelet)

Shoes: Katy Perry Stephanie Mulberry mule

Inspiring Bernina Christmas Stars

Making a Christmas themed decoration to hold chocolate treats has been an annual event since 2007. Quite a few of the chocolatiers in New Zealand make a Christmas themed chocolate and they are an ideal little Christmas thank you to friends and family far and wide.

Mere Kirihimete me nga mihi o te tau hou ki a koutou katoa
Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you all

I have blogged about this little escapade of mine twice before in 2016 and 2017. No sweetie stockings were made in 2018 and 2019 as life got in the way. I thought the same thing would happen in 2020 until I saw the pattern for the stars - just the inspiration I was needing for the sewing machine to rev into high gear. The big difference this year is very few (five to be exact) travelled overseas due to the postal challenges that 2020 and its little virus have brought. I still managed to make 95 - four to the United States, 1 to Canada and 90 for friends and family around New Zealand.

It must be making the extra 28 for UK friends and family that tip me over the edge as the making this year was surprisingly relaxed and achieved on the weekends at home. No mammoth sewing hours in my hotel room in Wellington this year.

The finished item

Metallic pleather is hard to photograph and Christmas stars are even more elusive as they are given away before I remember to take a picture. The fabric from my 2019 Christmas dress made an ideal photographic back drop for the few that hadn't found a new home when I remembered the need for blog pictures.

This year the chocolate of choice was a Van H small Christmas pudding. It is a dark chocolate with a Bailey's cream centre and decorated with white, green and red to resemble a traditional Christmas pudding (but much nicer!)

Photo courtesy of Van Heiningen Chocolates

Van H are a local Christchurch chocolatier that have been making European styled chocolates since 1985.

The fabric

I thought it would be difficult to find metallic pleather suitable for star making and was wondering about making them in glittery felt. I did a bit of online research and found metallic pleather at Spotlight so off I set on my fabric buying adventure. Before heading off to Spotlight I needed some real fabric for a clothes sewing project and popped into The Fabric Store. Lo and behold they also had the most amazing soft supple metallic pleather in two different colours a pale gold and a silver. The sewing fairies were really helping me along with this project, especially as it meant I didn't need to go to Spotlight (the Australia/New Zealand equivalent of JoAnn).

In these two pictures it is hard to tell them apart. The top picture is the silver and the bottom the pale gold. The silver pleather was purportedly a Marc Jacobs fabric but I am sure he didn't make little Christmas stars with it.

Not knowing quite how many stars I would be making I only bought 0.5 metre of each of the two fabrics which was enough for just over 60 stars. This turned out to be not enough and I went back for some more. The pale gold was still available but the silver had sold out. Instead I found some silver rainwear fabric which didn't fray so seemed an ideal substitute. Unfortunately there is no picture of the silver rainwear fabric or the stars made from it. 

The pattern

In a departure from previous years the stars are made from a commercial pattern. Normally I take a clip art image of a shape that inspires me and enlarge to the size I want, creating a front and a back, with the decorations essentially being 2D.

The 2020 stars came from issue 75 (Autumn/Winter 2019) of the Bernina Inspiration magazine. I have been collecting issues of this magazine for at least ten years and this is the first pattern I have ever used from it. There have been patterns of interest in the past but like many things they never saw the light of day. This issue of the magazine is still available to purchase here if anyone is keen to make 2021 a star year!

Bernina describes pattern 7536 Lucky Stars as "a beautiful decoration idea for New Year's Eve and at the same time a small gift for guests. In the stars the gift recipient will find a nice motto or a wish for the New Year."

I thought they were ideal for housing little Christmas chocolate treats.

There are two parts to the Bernina star (pattern pieces 81 and 82). Using only pattern piece 82 suited my needs, photocopied and glued to a piece of cardboard. I save a few cereal packets to be used for this type of project, as they are just sturdy enough to make a good pattern template.

The pattern alterations

Aside from just using pattern piece 82 my stars are essentially the same as the original. The difference is in how I chose to sew them.

The sewing

Before starting to sew the stars I made:

• embroidered name tags on cream felt with gold polyester embroidery thread using the Bernina 830 embroidery module, cutting them out with a pinking rotary cutting blade.
• several metres of hanging loop cord using the rolled hem setting on the overlocker and three threads. The cord for the silver stars was two cream Metler Metrosene sewing threads and a Madeira Supertwist pearl metallic thread. For the pale gold stars there was one cream and one ochre Metler Metrosene sewing thread with a Madeira Supertwist golden linen metallic thread.

The stars were cut out and sewn production line fashion, in batches of 30.   

Step 1 - for each star the opening on one side was sewn closed (wrong sides together) and the opening on the other side sewn closed at the outer edge for roughly ⅝". 

Step 2 - for both sides clip into the seam allowance of the V. For the opening side glue down the seam allowance on each side of the opening. For the rainwear fabric the glue didn't work and I ended up ironing ¼" Steam a Seam 2 tape (cut in half) to the seam allowance. This was especially tricky because the rainwear fabric didn't take kindly to being ironed (I tested a piece first before ironing a star) but with my Clover mini iron and silk organza pressing cloth no stars were injured in the process.

Step 3 - sew the two halves of the star wrong sides together using the pattern cutting line as the stitching line. The hanging loop was sandwiched between the two halves at the opening star point.

Step 4 - trim the seam allowances and clip into the V at the base of each star point; then turn each star right way out using the Clover point turner for the star points.

Step 5 - sew on the name tag.

A pile of stars on the kitchen bench after chocolate stuffing

Step 6 - stuff with the chocolate treat!

Another sweet treat

And because it is Christmas we indulged in a delicious Christmas themed cake from Sweet Soul Patisserie.

There were many spectacular creations to choose from but I decided to stick with the Christmas theme with the Pinecone (made of milk chocolate mousse, roasted pine nuts & almonds, caramel and chocolate caramel sponge cake) and the mini Croquembouche Christmas tree (choux pastries filled with Orange blossom cream and raspberry with a shortcrust base).

They were quite difficult to photograph and get the full spectacular impact so above is the picture of the pinecone from the Sweet Soul Patisserie website. If you are in Christchurch I thoroughly recommend this as an afternoon tea venue.

The cakes really are as delicious as they look.