Hello and Happy New Years! Today's post will be about the creation of a pastel faux fur bomber jacket using McCall's 7257. It was a worthwhile project to make, and although faux fur can be a little daunting, it wasn't too hard.
I had been eyeballing this pastel striped faux fur from JoAnn's for some time, and I finally decided to snatch it up during Black Friday sales.
It's a lovely fabric, but keep in mind the underside of the bolt may be very squished when first cut. I spent some time heating it with a blow dryer and combing the kinks out. This method isn't perfect, but works reasonably well, and I found most of the major bends weren't visible in the final result.
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| Sorry for the difference in lighting! |
Once I had the fabric, I knew I wanted to make a jacket, but wasn't sure what type. I drew inspiration from the following jackets.
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| Left Jacket: MSGM Faux Fur Bomber Jacket; Center Jacket: Cotton Candy Faux Fur Jacket ; Right Jacket: Armani Exchange Faux Fur Bomber Jacket |
In the end, I decided on a cropped, long sleeve, hooded jacket with rib knit cuffs and lower band with a separating front zipper. To do this, I slightly modified the McCall's 7257 Fur Jacket pattern.
I used the hood from C, the cropped bodice from A, and cut slightly longer sleeves than B. I then drafted some rib cuff and lower band pieces. For a final two inch wide ribbed cuff, the pattern piece was a rectangle measuring 5.25 inches by 9.5 inches, accounting for the fold and for 5/8" seam allowances. Similarly, the lower band was a rectangle measuring 5.25 inches by 31.75 inches. The length measurement should be altered to your preferred cuff and waist fit.
Because my local JoAnn Fabrics didn't have any colorful ribbing, and I didn't want to wait for an online order to arrive, I decided to dye the white rib knit fabric they had to a purple color. I used the Rit liquid dye color violet for this project. This was my first time using dye in many years, and I was stunned at how vibrant the color was. I expected a more pastel shade, but ended up really liking the fuschia that resulted. After dyeing the rib knit fabric, I realized that Rit has specific dye formulas on their website. In the future, I will definitely consult the site.
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| Oops, just realized I photographed the wrong side of this material! Fore reference, the white rib knit fabric was 95% cotton and 5% spandex. |
As far as as sewing goes, I changed the order of construction in comparison to the pattern. I first sewed the entire outer jacket and zipper. Then I sewed the entire lining. Rather than wait to attach the sleeves, I left an opening in the front of the jacket (by the zipper) to pull the entire jacket through. If you're unfamiliar with how to sew the lining with the sleeves attached, I would refer to another pattern for a bomber jacket. I found Simplicity 8418 to be very helpful for sewing the lower band.
By far the hardest part of sewing the fur were the areas where the ribbing is attached to the jacket. The fur naturally was brushed downwards, so I found it easier to pin the fur the opposite direction to keep it out of the seam allowances.
Here's the final result!
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| So elated to have matching shoes! |
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| I decided not to topstitch the zipper to keep it from being visible from the front. The white color was the only zipper they had in the correct length! |
Overall, this project wasn't really too difficult. Dealing with faux fur took some extra time, but I would definitely recommend McCall's 7257. Thanks for stopping by! Stay tuned for some future plans with this faux fur.
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