Sew Sooz: Gertie Gets Shearling-ed!

I have been home from work for weeks (5, I think) with a very bad post-op infection and in between feeling very lethargic I have had little pockets of energy here and there and so have used that time to finally get around to making myself a new 'Gertie' jacket - the one from Gerties New Book for Better Sewing. I have made this jacket a couple of times for other people and the first ever tailored jacket I made was with Gertie on her Craftsy course - The Starlet Suit Jacket , sadly that jacket is now much too big for me!

I wanted a jacket with a peplum but didn't have the energy to tailor a jacket and so whilst at Spotlight checking out the new season fabrics I came across this beautiful blue shearling and since it was 30% off fabric store wide just for that day I thought I better nab me some right then and there! (Original price $25.00 per metre - so worth getting - right???)

I bought 2.5 metres and have enough left to make a second jacket - yay!

The Jacket came together very quickly because there is no lining required!The shearling was easier than I thought it would be to sew with. I did shear (lol) down the darts to make them easierto get under the presser foot. I considered using my walking foot but after a practice run decided I didn't need to.

Once I had the jacket made I had to then think about how to create fastenings (I did this while resting for about a week and half - I was seriously sick!)

So I did a few trials for button holes deciding I wanted to use big silver-ish buttons from my stash! (Leave a comment below if you want me to add pics of my trials.) I decided on bound button holes made from 'sheared' shearling. After shearing the fabric I carefully marked the hole with a sharpie making sure it did not bleed through the fabric. (The markings look uneven in this pic but there not!)

I then sheared the area on the jacket front where the buttons would be sewn to make it easier to get under the presser foot - just like I did for the darts

After sewing all the buttons in one long strip carefully secured with LOTS of pins I cut through each piece and turned them through.

I spent several convalescing hours manipulating each button hole into place before hand sewing the bound edges down.

That's one done - three to go!

Once all were secured I turned my attention to attempting to neaten up the inside - a downfall of no lining is nowhere to hide those 'otherwise' messy bits!