My first big sewing project

 It has been a year since I started sewing learning to sew. I made quite a few purses, but I haven't really moved on from that point for a while and with the beginning of the new school year I felt I should push on.
My goal was an over the top embellished faux leather jacket. Inspiration, Balmain spring 2011

Balmain S/S 2011 photo credit Glamour

The whole process was very long, it took me hours and hours of cutting, sewing, re-cutting, measuring, broken needles, running out of thread, running out of material, written and video tutorials, tutorials in Chinese on youtube, sleepless nights, a mess in my room, needles, pieces of thread and fabric all over the place, not letting my flatmates and my neighbors sleep, countless visits to the closest haberdasher's.

Building a jacket

Sleeveless, Harley, anyone??

 

  I started with Burda Style October 2009 leather jacket pattern because that's the only pattern I had (I bought it some years ago when I got a sewing machine (I told you about it here) but I didn't really like it so I changed most parts of it. I wanted the front part to be more like Larissa from Burda style (the mustardy jacket in the picture above).

I'm so proud of the hook

Sleeve zippers

  Once I did the lining the only thing missing were the embellishments. After I patiently waited for the goods to arrive from Hong Kong, I got my hands onto my Elvis jacket (it has wide shoulders and a huge collar).

Star studs around the pockets

When zipped up, you can't see any studs, perfect for any occasion

 I didn't embellish it as much as intended, but for now I'm good like this, I can always add some more studs in the future.
Sewing this jacket was a great experience for me, I learned so many things, and got more handy with my sewing machine, but to be honest, I don't know if it's really worth it. I would have spent way less money if I went to H&M or probably any other high street brand and got a jacket, and you can always add the studs, and not even to talk about time and nerves consumed in this project. On the other hand, how exciting it's gonna be when if someone ask me where I got it!!

xxx