Sewing in Denial: Parties I Never Went To Anyway

 Another iteration of New Look 6120, this time with a fabric I knew might cause messy regret

That's the length of iridescent-to-holographic flip sequin ($29.99/yard in JoAnn) I thrifted in 2018, in the form of a "blanket," roughly 30" by 2 yards, with polyester fleece on one side and this on the other, for about $3.  I had no idea what I'd do with it, but, for that price (even minus the labor cost of cutting the stitches holding it to the fleece), I couldn't resist.  I eventually thought...maybe a jacket?  

And now: yes, a jacket.

The sequin fabric wasn't as awful to sew as I expected--that said, I still didn't hold myself to a high standard on this, due to my complete inexperience with sewing sequins like this (I had originally written "sequins of any kind," but I have sew a few items of doll clothes from various lighter-weight sequined fabrics.)

Things were fairly straightforward.  I did cut all the ribbing pieces a bit longer than the pattern pieces, both because this sparkly purple (which I have used in a similar situation before) is not super stretchy, and also because I didn't think the sequined fabric would behave well if it had been asked to squish down as much as the pattern wanted.

The lining is also thrifted--on the bolt to boot, labeled "Sankei Sunline / Amethyst / 100% Polyester / Made in Japan/ $2.99/yard."  I don't remember if I even paid $2.99 for the entire bolt, and there's still about 10 yards left.  I should use it more often.  What?  No, of course I didn't iron it.

I did top stitch along the zipper, because I feel like that helps stabilize and reinforce the zipper installation.  I used a heavy needle to flip the sequins out of the way as I top stitched, so the line of stitching is not obvious on the sequined section.

And at the same time, the line of top stitching is quite satisfactorily visible on the band.

The cuffs are...really loose

I did cut the shell sleeves 90° from the grain, because that was the only way they could fit on thee odd bit of fabric.  The base of the sequin fabric is a knit, and it's...slumping down around the cuffs due to the weight of the sequins.  I don't consider that a big enough problem to call this project a failure.

I thought the project would be a failure after I realized that I cut the wrong sleeve size.  This is one of those patterns with half the sizes on one sleeve pattern piece and half on a different piece, and I only realized that I had cut the sequins in the 10/11 size (instead of in the 12/13 size that I usually use) when I was pinning the pattern piece to the Sankei Sunline in Amethyst.

But!  As much as I have touted the well-fitting sleeve cap on this pattern, it turned out that cutting one size smaller worked even better, at least with this sequin stuff.  No ease needed at all. 

I did have to cut the back in two pieces.  I decided it would be...fun? to have the sequins flipping in opposite directions on either side of that seam (and on either side of the zipper.) 

It's not really obvious how the sequin directions align--not sure if I'd call it "subtle," though, because there's nothing "subtle" about a jacket made of flip sequins and sparkly ribbing.

I did *gasp* skip pockets.  In retrospect, they wouldn't've been too hard, but I just...didn't want to create more cut edges to shed sequins.

(Husband asked if this was going to shed sequins whenever I wore it.  I told him probably not.)

I used another of the 14" "natural" heavy nylon coil zippers ordered from Wawak.  The way this pattern is drafted, the small sizes have a waist level that ends up with a 14" front opening, while the larger sizes require a 16" zipper.  I folded the waist edge of the pattern up at the small size line, both to save fabric and to be able to use this zipper.

This time I folded the ends of the zipper tapes forward, so they would be mostly hidden by the rest of the zipper tape.  My lines of stitching are not beautiful, but, again, I thought the sequin fabric would fight me more, so they're still better than I expected.

Will I ever wear this?  Mmm...depends on how the world goes.  Out grocery shopping where someone may breath bad things onto it?  Probably not.  When things open up and I go to the library again?  Probably.

But not on a sunny day.

I don't want to sear anyone's retinas.