Garment Patterns
Closet Core Jasika Blazer in Raw Silk
The Closet Core Jasika Blazer (formerly Closet Case) is a REAL blazer pattern. Heather Lou and her team didn’t take any shortcuts. Our seamstress, Bonnie, LOVED the challenge of creating a true tailored jacket, and we think you will, too!
Fitting the Blazer
With all those pattern pieces, and all the steps involved in making this tailored blazer, your first step must be fitting. Our seamstress, Bonnie, made a muslin and altered the pattern pieces before she cut out the raw silk noil she used for the jacket. The lengthen/shorten line on the pattern is below the pockets, but Bonnie wanted to shorten her jacket at the waist, so she drew her own lengthen/shorten line, and shortened all the pieces 1.5 inches. She also shortened all the sleeve pieces 2 inches. She did the same with the corresponding lining pieces, and the lapels.
Fabric Choice
Bonnie decided to make her Jasika Blazer out of our Silk Noil in Dried Rose. But, because the fabric is so lightweight, she decided to use only lighter-weight interfacing, and not the horse hair canvas. We have great tailoring interfacings from Palmer/Pletsch in Sheer, Lightweight, Medium and Tailor-Weight.
Serious Skills
The Closet Core instructions for the Jasika Blazer are great, and they have a Blazer and Jacket Fitting e-Book, but this project is not for the faint-of-heart. As you can see from our guts photos, this jacket is a lot of work. This blazer has between 14 and 17 pattern pieces, depending on the view you choose, while the lining has between 8 and 11 pieces. Not to mention the 8 interfacing pattern pieces!
Well Worth the Effort
No doubt about it, this pattern is challenging, but the results speak for themselves. Bonnie looks so amazing in the finished product due, of course, to her own patience and skill, but also to Closet Core’s good instructions and careful drafting. We think it’s worth the effort. You’ll have a classic, well-fitting staple that will last forever and make you proud.
It would be great if Bonnie could teach a class on fitting. Maybe show how to fit a muslin garment and see how to change the pattern to fit.
My friend and I took a class there to make a blouse, but we both ended up with a blouse that didn’t fit. We picked up some valuable knowledge anyway so it was worth it but we thought there would be more instruction in fitting even though it was a loose blouse. One other person in the class ended up with a blouse that was too short.
Laurie,
Thank you so much for this feedback! Getting a garment to fit YOU just how you want to is a tricky element of sewing that can take quite a bit of time. When teaching a garment class, sometimes construction and basics get in the way of the big picture which is that the resulting hand-made garment should fit perfectly! A class which teaches basic tailoring and how to adjust a pattern to one’s specific needs is a great idea and we will definitely look into it! Can I also ask which blouse class you took? We want to make sure that, if we teach it again, we are making adjustments which improve the outcome. Again thank you for your comments!