The Call of the Red Suede Wild!

When I last left you, my red suede for the leather version of the Islander Fast and Fabulous Jacket looked like this.

It now looks like this. Not yet completed, but well on its way.

Working with any type of skin, it can take a little finagling on the part of cutting out the pattern. 

I had 3 skins that totaled just about 28 square feet. That would seem like quite a bit, but skins are not rectangular pieces of fabric, and there are imperfections. 
In order to get the jacket out of the skins that I had, some changes needed to be made. I'll walk you through them. 

For shaping over the shoulder, the raglan sleeve has a neckline dart. Rather than sew in a dart, I split the sleeve down the center and turned the dart into a seam. A raglan sleeve is also quite large, so splitting it down the middle made pieces that are much easier to position on the suede. 

1/2" seam allowances were added to the sleeve seams. 

Once the seams were stitched, I then top stitched them  to hold them in place. 

The front jacket pattern was also cut apart to allow for better placement on the suede. I chose to make a diagonal seam from the sleeve notch to center front. 

1/2" seam allowance added. The seam was sewn and then top stitched in place.

The seam was left at center back and a coordinating diagonal line was drawn in to the back jacket.

As with the other pieces, a 1/2" seam allowance was added.

The center back seam as well as the diagonal seams were top stitched.

Once I have top stitched my side seams, I'll be ready to attach my lining and the facings.  

In my next post, I'll show you how I am constructing the lining. You just might be amazed by how easy it is to do!

I need to finish the blue jacket, but the red suede was calling out to me, so I just had to put the other jacket aside and get this one finished :) At least I'll be ready when the cool fall temperatures arrive.