I bought some lovely fake fur recently and at $80 a metre it was not a purchase considered lightly. Reminiscing over jackets I used to make twenty years ago in the nineties, and again ten years later for a Burning man adventure, ten years on again, the fur obsession has taken a hold of me again…the autumn air slowly encroaching into season and wrapping itself around Bondi has a chill more crisp than I remember in previous years, and find myself this month counting the hours of other work to get back to my fur obsession.
I have a rough pattern I used a few Mardi Gras seasons ago for a medium sized male Star Trek Lycra Top, which I used to loosely base my jacket on. Fur is rather forgiving, and requires less tailoring skills than a jacket made of other materials. I figured a medium sized male polar fleece pattern would sit loosely enough for a size 14 female fur coat.
Rough pattern
Over the years I’ve learnt, never to cut a project before defining the design beforehand. It pays to align the pattern pieces and match seam allowances before cutting all the pieces out…but for some reason I forwent this oft proved wisdom and whispered silently to myself “nah, she’ll be right” ..famous last words.
This was the result:
Fur jacket Grey jacket take 1
Why didn’t it look cool like my favourite jacket of 1998?
The next day my garage flooded. Forced to go through the contents and re-arrange, I happened to come across a photo of said 1998 jacket, modelled by my friend Ari:
Ube Love Fur coat 1998
No Wonder! The full sleeve is the same as the fluffy body. Can I be bothered unpicking and re styling the sleeve? Well, do I want to wear the jacket or not?.. I also added more volume to the back, incase I need to go horse riding (not likely in this life- why do these thoughts occur to me, and become important markers in the design process?)
I shortened the length of the top layer, remade the sleeves…but i didn’t have enough fur to do the full sleeve, hence a new design element was born.
it became this:
Fur Jacket take 2
“You need to fix the collar” my well meaning husband responded, it looks messy..so, I made a hood, and took in the excess of the back a little.
Because of my poor planning, a two day project became a five day project. Jeeze.
But here it is
Fur Grey Jacket take 2
I call it “Owly” because it looks like an owl.
Fur Jacket grey 2 side
“It looks like something out of Game of Thrones!” the lady at the coffee shop said this morning.
fur grey jacket take 2
“Oh? You know nothin’ Jon Snoh”
So I’m wearing this jacket now and noticing my core body temperature rise as I watch through the window a person cross the road in a T-shirt. Overkill much?
I’ll be in the mountains this Australian Yuletide, if for nothing more, making this jacket was worth it.
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