Recreating an iconic Levi Liberty Denim Jacket

LET’S MEET EVE

Eve has been attending my courses for a few years starting out as a Beginner and then onto Intermediate level. Eve travels from the North Coast every week and I am delighted she sees the value in travelling an hour to attend my courses.  

Eve’s first make as a Beginner was a bias cut silver satin skirt which was a challenge for a first ever make, but she handled it perfectly and went on to recreate it in a navy satin.

Progressing onto the Intermediate level, Eve has made a stretchy red dress, a black dogstooth print jersey dress (from cloning her favourite dress) on her Brother overlocker. She has also made a white linen shirt, a bag for her friend and I am sure I have left something out as she has made so much since learning to sew at Colour and Cloth.

This season Eve brought in a very special garment with a colourful history.  She was given a gift of a classic Levi denim jacket linen in Liberty print back in the 80’s.  She no longer wears the oversized original but recognised its place in design and fashion history and decided to recreate it for today.

She bought a denim jacket from M&S and purchased the original print fabric.  She created her own paper pattern from tracing the M&S jacket and set out cutting the cloth.

The IANTHE print required pattern matching both horizontaly and vertically. It also needed to be ‘centred’ for inside ‘hanger appeal’.  Ensuring the pattern would match the whole way around the jacket and also be symmetrical at the front required patience. I guided Eve through this process and taught her ‘thread tracing’ and making a pattern without seam allowance to make pattern matching easier.  These are techniques I learnt when making costumes for Game of Thrones. Eve used both her sewing machine and hand sewing to attach the lining into the jacket.