I have had an itch to sew myself a wide sleeved open jacket ever since I started sewing again and stumbled across an old pattern from my mum’s 70s-80s collection:
It’s by a brand called ‘Woman’ and gives fairly scant instructions. The jacket was simply constructed though and didn’t take long to sew. I used some linen I bought off eBay, thinking I had ordered grey it came out in a purple-stone sort of colour. Whenever I look at it now I just see purple, and while the shade is pleasant, I wanted a light grey so that I could throw it on with anything and it would go... So it has still left a hole in my wardrobe for a grey one...
At a wedding I went to recently, I desperately wanted to wear a cool-co-ordinated-trousers-jacket-but-didn’t-have-one, since then I’ve been wanting to sew myself some pairs. I love the option with separates to wear them apart for everyday-wear or put them together for more formal settings.
On a trip to my local fabric store I found this checked fabric by chance, I have a soft spot for checks and grids... It was very cheap at £4 a metre so I bought some and made a co-ord using the same Woman pattern and a modified Butterick trousers pattern. I have sewn rather a lot of these trousers in different fabrics (the black trousers above are the same pattern made in linen, and the black trousers I'm wearing with the windowpane Kochi are in a pleated, synthetic fabric from my local) as I find jeans are way too tight to sit down in all day- but l live in trousers so find an elasticated waistband and wide cropped style perfect for comfort.
The overall effect of the grid is quite out there for me and somehow reminds me of hospitals… but I like how different the pattern is. I am yet to wear them out together, but am building up to it.
Kochi Jacket, Papercut Patterns
When I stumbled across Papercut Pattern’s Kochi in December last year my dreams were answered, it's the right shape and length and I love the option to add ties. I have now made five kochi, 3 variation 1, and 2 variation 1 without the ties and instead a thicker tie that goes round the whole waist. I have kept them all to size XXS, the New Zealand sizes seem to be much smaller than UK ones, I'm normally an 8-10 but I wear a lot of baggy clothes.
The first one I made was in December with this beautiful smoked truffle mohair blend from Fabworks, a medium-heavy fabric which challenged my sewing machine like never before. I had to spend a lot of time unpicking and re-doing due to machine tantrums.
My second is made of a gorgeous 'thinnish' wool called hazy black and taupe check, Fabworks, It has a smooth finish and is barely itchy to wear (I'm quite sensitive to wool), almost like it is felted. I had made myself a pair of winter trousers out of this wool earlier in the year and the fabric was crying out to be made into a matching jacket. The third was made with linen in another fabulous check pattern (midnight windowpane check, Fabworks).
These last two jackets were much easier to sew up, being thinner, and the construction of the Kochi is not difficult. The one problem I have found is that the neck band is not long enough, I have found this each time and should have lengthened it but decided to just put my faith in the pattern. It means that when you go to sew up the ends of the band at the hem there isn't enough fabric to turn over. I had to add extra at the bottom to the linen Kochi, while with the woollen one I just about managed to fold it under and sew over it. Next time I am definitely making the band longer!
Evolving Kochi
I was dying to make some Kochis with an around the waist tie. I'm undergoing a bit of a 'waist tie' phase right now that extends to tops, dresses and jumpsuits. I love that it changes Kochi's silhouette dramatically and I had seen some beautiful instagram makes that inspired me.
I had this linen-cotton blend leftover from cutting out a pair of Persephone trousers and shorts (I bought 3 metres) and I was going through what I could make out of the scraps and I thought this would finally fill the grey coloured hole in my wardrobe. More motivation (little do I need it) came from wearing my Kochis a lot to work recently so I have been intending to make some more to go with more things.
It is described as medium, but I would say it is fairly light (for medium), sturdy and strong with a stiff drape which means it keeps its shape. You can see this in the photos; I really like the way it gives the Kochi more structure than my previous versions and emphasises the sleeves.
To inject a bit of fun into the familiar sewing process I bias bound the inside seams with some lovely floral bias I bought in France (luckily only just had enough).
I machine stitch my bias onto inside seams as I just don't have the patience to hand sew all of it, I also actually like the look of the stitches if they are neatly done and you can play around with contrasting colours because you're not hiding the stitches.
I always have gripes when it comes to the intersection of the sleeve and side seams... I made it look neat inside joining the bias together smoothly and made sure I clipped the seams before hand to reduce bulk, but evidently it was not clipped enough because the outside showed those nasty bunched-up folds. I undid the bias around the crossroads of seams and snipped in further then sewed the bias so that the side seam bias did not attach to the arm seams bias, and finished the bias ends off to try to make the area as neat as possible. This definitely helped with the bunching problem, connecting the bias as I did before had restricted the movement so the sleeve corner could not lie flat. I'm left with a bit of annoying raw edge fraying, but it's that or bunchy armpits.
I have two more Kochis cut out and ready for me to sew... One in a (different) wool check from Fabworks, another in a gorgeous Cotton Ikat I bought from an Indian Etsy store. I have recently made a patchwork Kochi out of recycled denim, will be blogging about it soon.
Suki Robe, Helen's Closet
Not jacket-ed out yet, I wanted a longer one to wear as a morning/dressing gown and Helen's Closet's Suki was perfect for this (I made a size S) .
I made my first try to practise back in November '17 out of a very thin cotton voile check I had bought off Minerva Crafts as it was heavily reduced. It was an absolute pain to sew becuase it's so thin and holey. It took me ages to make because I kept on putting it off, I also painstakingly tried to pattern match which is obviously the downside to my love of checks. It worked in places, and
didn't in others, but I don't think it matters that much.
Because of the kind of fabric I chose it definitely fits the term dressing gown rather than the more glamorous 'morning gown'. As it's winter, I haven't worn it as it's just too cold in the house! I have started to wear it as dress with tights over a top, however it feels a little insecure as it's just wrap around. I think this would work better as a dress if I had chosen the next size up, giving me more room around my hips. I have seen that Helen has added a hack to make Suki into a dress and I am desperate to try it.
I have just cut out another Suki in some blue chambray which I'm hoping will make more of the throw-on cover-up I had in mind that I can wear in summer mornings and poolside. I also have plans for a grey linen version that I am going to stamp with some Indian wood blocks.
Patterns:
Kochi Jacket, Papercut Patterns
Suki Robe, Helen's Closet
Supplies:
The grey linen-cotton blend is no longer available from Fabworks.
Fusible interfacing.