I missed jumping on the initial By Hand London bandwagon, but my patterns have finally made it around the world to me and I am running to catch up and jump on!
The Victoria Blazer sewalong was held in July while I was on the road with Martha, so I wasn't able to join in, but I was thinking about their cool and casual blazer constantly and admiring others' versions as they popped up on ye olde interwebs (this one and this one and this one and this one...
I die.). Since I couldn't get the blazer off of my mind, while in
Ubud, Bali, Martha and I picked out these two pieces of gorgeous
hand-woven Balinese ikat fabric specifically for the Victoria (as well as a shit ton of ikat for
other purposes!). A beautiful patterned ikat for the outside and a
coordinating "solid" for the lining, lapel, collar and cuffs. I say
"solid" because the fabric is woven from at least 10 different colors,
giving it a slightly stripey appearance and picking up all the colors of
the pattern on the shell fabric.
I love my new blazer! It's the perfect blend of slouchy and stylin'- I think it will look equally good with jeans or to work with a pencil skirt. It's definitely got a little bit of an '80s vibe to it that I dig. I also adore the permanently turned up sleeves. The fabric works well for this pattern, I think- it's super light and airy, perfect for sweaty southeast Asia days. I love how the pattern on the ikat jived with the Victoria: I
centered the pattern down the center of the back, down each
side front and down each arm. Looks pretty badass if I do say so
myself!:
My version came together really quickly- it was so easy! I've never made anything even remotely blazer-esque and yet this process was totally smooth sailing (it helps that there are no closures and not any significant tailoring). I can't wait to make more!
And finally: please excuse these photos... there are several things going on here that make them kooky:
- It's 7 am, which turns out to be the only daylight hour that I am awake with someone to take my photo since the sun sets at 6 predictably every night on the equator. Hence the sunglasses to cover my sleepy eyes. But it kinda goes with the Miami Vice shape of the blazer, no?
- I just got my hair cut the day before, which explains the too-short bangs and weird waves, since my hair dresser insisted on styling it with the big curly waves favored by the wealthy Indonesians. But anywho...