I’m never sure whether to share repeat makes with you guys on the blog. It’s fine if I’m using a significantly different fabric or I changed something up, then I feel that maybe I have something new to share.

But when I make a pattern which is almost the same as something I’ve already shared, I sometimes wonder what I’m adding to the sewing world by talking about a project again!

So I thought I would strike a balance between my desire to share new projects and my desire to make meaningful contributions by sharing two new, but repeat, projects, together in one blog post.

What do you guys think? Is it still useful to share projects on the blog even if there aren’t any significant modifications from other times I’ve sewn them?

Jasika Blazer by Closet Core Patterns

Let’s kick it off with my new Jasika Blazer from Closet Core Patterns.

The first one I made is one of the sewing projects that I feel the proudest of. I wrote a really extensive blog post about the Jasika blazer the first time around.

Now I haven’t worn that blazer as much as I would have liked as I discovered that the cashmere wool blend I used is a bit too warm for the kinds of conditions in which I’m most likely to want to wear a blazer. Not too mention that COVID-19 has drastically reduced the number of blazer wearing days currently in my life.

I still have the yellow one and hope it will see more wear again once I back in the office inn person more regularly.

But, for more than a year, I’ve had this pale blue linen in my stash that I have had earmarked for a lighter weight Jasika Blazer.

Then I binge watched the French TV show Dix pour cent on Netflix (I think it’s called Call My Agent in English) and I was totally smitten by all the chic Parisian clothes, especially the sleek perfectly fitted blazers.

And so I decided that the time of my second Jasika Blazer had arrived!

The fabric is a mid to heavy weight linen from Meter Meter, which I ordered a long time ago and don’t think is available anymore. It has a really textured feel, almost as though it is made up of little bumps. I received it as a sample from them and it was quite unlike any linen I had seen or touched before. I instantly thought of making a blazer out it and I think it’s turned out to be a great fabric-pattern combination.

The lining is a two-tone striped tencel, also from Meter Meter.

Do you re-cut patterns you already have cut out?

Now, while I can still just squeeze into my first Jasika Blazer, it’s definitely no longer as comfortable as it should be, so I needed to sew a larger size.

However, not only is the Jasika Blazer A LOT of pattern pieces, if you read the original post, you will see that I made what felt like a million muslins and made soooo many tweaks to fit the blazer to my body. The idea of starting that fitting project entirely afresh in a new size made me want to cry.

Luckily, with the benefit of having my first Jasika Blazer still around, I could try it on and see how it was still fitting and where it was that I really needed the extra room.

Based on that assessment, I decided to stick to my original pattern pieces, but I split the side piece in half and added an extra inch of width (on each side) at the centre of the side piece. I measured the new length of bottom part of the armscye and then slashed and spread the bottom sleeve piece to add in a bit more room to ensure that they would match up.

It was a pretty slap dash method. And, no, I didn’t mock up the modified pattern to check if it was going to work.

Buuut, I think it turned out pretty well.

And, frankly, if I had had to start again from scratch, I don’t think this Jasika Blazer would ever have been made!

Sewing the Jasika Blazer the second time

I’m please to report that I found sewing the Jasika Blazer just as enjoyable to sew the second time around.

I repeatedly find myself a bit of a reluctant to start sewing more “intense” projects, but once I start, I always really enjoy the process!

I found myself re-watching a couple of videos from the Closet Core Patterns Speed Tailoring workshop as they were great for jogging memory and putting me in the right mindset for this project.

I can share a couple of things I found when sewing the Jasika Blazer in a fabric which is more lightweight than my original wool one. First, is that I had some interfacing woes and this fabric was tricky to get interfacing to stick well too without bubbling! Could also be that I had a limited choice of interfacing available and I chose the only one which had the right weight, but maybe it just wasn’t of a particularly good quality. I have to say that, apart from the really cheap, paper-like stuff, I can find it challenging to distinguish between good quality and bad quality fusible interfacing.

The second thing is that, this time around, I absolutely found the use of shoulder pads and sleeveheads to be a magical moment of the process. In my first Jasika blazer, they were important, but not transformative, as the fabric itself was already quite supportive.

In a lighter fabric, installing those “scaffolds” of internal shoulder support, really gave the entire blazer a structure that just hadn’t been there before.

I put those babies in there and thought “damn, now that is a blazer”.

I also decided to be a little more forgiving of myself on the welt pockets this time around. The first time around, I had wanted to have visible double welt pockets like this one, but I lost confidence in the quality of my welts so added the flaps to cover it up a bit. This time, I’ve kept those double welts in, in all their slightly wonky glory!

After all, no-one notices this kind of shit but us!

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Burnside Bibs

The totally unrelated second repeat-sew I thought I would share with you today are these Burnside Bibs (pattern by Sew House Seven) made in a cotton ikat from Blackbird Fabrics (again, purchased a while ago and no longer available!).

This is the third time I’ve sewn the Burnside Bibs and I continue to adore the pattern and all aspects of making it.

Everything to do with sizing and making it are unchanged from my previous versions – if you want details you can read about my first or second pairs.

The only change I made was to try out the slightly curved top of the bib for these ones, whereas my previous pairs had used the straight finish.

The only tips I would share on this one is that this fabric is definitely the most lightweight fabric I have used for the Burnside Bibs and it may have been better if I had lined the bib with something slightly more sturdy (I self-lined) in order to give a more more shape and prevent the top of the bib from curving outwards a bit when worn.

The only other issue is that my overlocker was going insane and kept finishing my seams in a manner which has pulled and twisted and distorted the side seams at the leg somewhat.

So the finishing on these isn’t exactly my greatest work, but I’ve only got myself (and that damn beast of a cheap useless overlocker) to blame for that!

Notwithstanding some slight self-induced wonkiness, the Burnside Bibs have, once again, not let me down, and I adore pair number three just as much as the previous two!

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If you want to see more of my sewing adventures, you can find me on Instagram here.