I had about a metre and a half of Luella Doss’ Hot Flash – Juicy Blooms (HDLD01) fabric in my stash. I bought it 3-4 years ago and wasn’t sure what to do with it. From time to time I’d take it out and look at it, then put it back in the closet.

When I got back from San Francisco with the jean jacket pattern, I took the fabric out once again. I knew there wasn’t quite enough for the jacket pattern, but with a bit of contrasting twill (I decided to use black), I thought I could make it work.

The challenge was the way the fabric was printed – flowers along one side, black and white stripes along the other. Straight off I knew I’d have to cut the jacket with the grain line on the width if I was to get flowers on the bottom and stripes at the top.

I didn’t have enough flower fabric to do all of the sleeve detail – so I decided to “mix & match” using flowers, stripes and black. I could only get one side of the collar and the bottom band pieces in the flower fabric, the facings had to be cut from black.

I also had enough of a perfect piece of black printed silk fabric for the lining which I’d bought in New York – I’d bought it intending to use it for lining, this seemed to be the right garment!

So I cut the jacket out on Thursday, constructed the outside yesterday, built the lining (again with hidden zippered pockets in the lining), and put the whole together today.

The jacket is definitely one of a kind! It’ll be fun wearing it.