I’ve been working on this knit blazer one and off for the last couple of months.  This week I had a meeting in Melbourne and took the train down.  With six hours on the train, I finished all hand-stitching the trim and getting the button sew on.

The plan

The fabric I’m using is a bouclé knit that I’ve had in my stash for a couple of years – grey, camel, wisteria and seafoam on a black base. I bought it with the intent of making a Chanel style cardigan, with high round neckline and black binding. Something like this, but a higher neckline…

After procrastinating on which pattern to use for the jacket, I went back to Lekala 4466 which I made a cream version back in 2016.  I love this jacket as it is can be worn dressy, for work and also smart casual depending on what it is paired with.  The shawl collar looks much better on me that the wide, rounded neckline.

My plan was to bind the edges. Something like this…

Binding

So I had a bit of a play to see what binding would work.  Again lots of procrastination on finding the right solution. The image below shows some of the test samples.  I liked the fold-over grossgrain ribbon the best, but it didn’t have any stretch and I couldn’t quite get a tight enough curve for the bottom of the CF.

In the end, I used a strip of black knit mesh, folded double, and applied like normal bias binding.  The inside edge was hand-stitched.  Slow, and the cause of more procrastination, but gave a better finish than trying machine stitch it.

It has sat around for about two weeks waiting for the back of the hem to be finished, buttons added, and a decision on whether to bind the sleeve hem or leave it plain. With a long train trip to Melbourne and back, it was a good excuse to take a needle and thread with me to finish off the jacket.  As usual, there was the normal train delay, so I had an extra two hours waiting for the train home and a chance to try my hand at urban sketching. Notice the jacket cameo in the bottom LH corner 🙂

Now that I’ve finally, got around to finishing it off, I’ve found that it fits into my existing wardrobe quite well. I quite like the combination with the mid-blue linen jeans. It almost gives the blue in the jacket a bit of iridescence. One thing I did notice is that I don’t have a pair of blue work pants :-o. All my blues are more casual styles.

---

Lekala 4466 At a Glance:

Pattern	Lekala 4466
Fabric	Bouclé knit
Difficulty	2/5 – binding takes a bit of work
End Result	5/5 – love the final look
Cost	AU $40