Le Deuxième Château

For my second Château jacket, I chose a two-sided medium weight cotton purchased from Louise Cutting at the recent Atlanta Expo.

It's an interesting Japanese fabric that I initially thought was double cloth. I see now that it is simply printed differently on each side. It has a slightly painterly effect, with streaks and slubs. Even though the patterns are printed rather than woven into the design, the patterns are printed very precisely with the same repeat.

The Chateau has a simple but pretty shape that lends itself to great fabric - just right for this fabric. I got myself all twisted up, trying to make it reversible with functioning pockets on each side. I was almost successful.

My thought was to install a single welt pocket on one side without the pocket bag. Then, in my mind, I would create a patch pocket on the other side that would be stitched over the welt. I was unable to fully execute the idea, primarily because I failed to make samples.

Now would not that have been a good and fun idea?

Stubborn as I am, I finished the welt on one side and then realized that it really needed the pocket bag for support. Stitching the patch pocket on top was insufficient to support it. I found I had to stitch the top of the patch pocket closed in order to create enough support for the welt.

I could have created a kind-of facing for the welt to give it support, but decided against that as the fabric thicknesses would have been overwhelming.

It looks fairly reversible, though when I reverse it, the pockets are on the inside. The seams are faux felled to reduce the focus on the seams. Felled seams produce a very similar look on both sides of the garment.

The taupe side created a lovely binding, I think. This pattern is made for fabric that does not ravel and so there are no hem allowances on the sleeve hems, the jacket hem or neckline. It was well-suited for a bias binding of self-fabric.

Now don't you think this pattern is clever? Simple but interesting.