Thursday, May 18, 2017

Otomi Jacket

It was a little more than a year ago when I posted about my Otomi Pillow Project (links within for more Otomi posts). I figured I should try to come up with another project to use up the wonderful panels I found (one of my favorite thrift shop finds)! The biggest trend lately that I've been loving has been embellished jackets - whether embroidered or patched - denim or green cargo. Not that I need another jacket, but I had this great idea to sew one of the panels onto the back of a jean jacket.
After holding it up to see if it would fit, I set about planning the project. I am not a sewer and I do not own a sewing machine, so everything I do has to be by hand. When I did the pillows, I just stitched them on around the edge. For the jacket though, I wanted to keep the fabric in place so I bought an iron on bonding material to adhere the square to the jacket. Then I went around the edges with a hand stitch.
The front seemed a little plain, so I experimented with a few things to decorate it up. The only problem with these tests, was that I had to sacrifice cutting into a panel. At first, I cut actual shapes out (a flower and a bird) but somehow they didn't look right without the white background around them. So I decided to "fill in" areas between the seams of the jacket with the full pattern cut to size. I did the skinny area leading up to the pocket on one side, and then the pocket square on the other side. I used the same technique - ironing on these small pieces before stitching around them. 
I am very happy with how it turned out! So far, I'm planning to pair it with bright solid colors like this orange dress. But maybe I will get into some pattern mixing. I think wearing it with my Otomi dress will be too much! I didn't wear any necklaces because I didn't want to make it too busy.
Dress is from Old Navy. I got the jacket at Kohl's. Favorite sandals from Payless and sunglasses from TJ Maxx.



Linking up with Fashion Should Be Fun

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