BAMBOO FELT JACKET

One of the first inspirations I had after viewing and fondling the 8 color samples of National Nonwoven's Xotic-Felt, was:  Hey....this would be great for a garment.  The 50/50 blend of bamboo/rayon provides a fairly lightweight fabric which drapes well.

Front

I decided to create a fairly unstructured jacket....unlined.....to be worn like a sweater.  I'm using a pattern (Class Act)  from my long time friend, Lorraine Torrence.  The edging treatment on her design calls for bias binding.  The thickness of the felt wouldn't be appropriate to use here....so I'm pondering how I want to finish the edges.  Of course they won't fray if left as is, but I think they'd benefit with a bit of stabilizing.

Back

The motifs were fused prior to the machine applique.  Since I'm not lining it.....the job of matching threads on the right and wrong side was time consuming, as was pulling all the thread ends to the wrong side, tying them off, and burying the ends between the layers.  Good construction methods are always worth the effort though.

The samples I received consisted of a yard of each color, obviously not enough to make an entire jacket from one single piece.  That led me to the color-blocking direction I took with this design. Originally I planned to use the bright blue fabric for the sleeves....but now that the body of the jacket was made, I realized matching the sleeve color to each of the front panels would be more suitable.

I'm preparing for another teaching trip on Wed. so my sewing time today will be limited.....however, today's goal is to get the jacket assembled so I can then figure out how to finish the edges.