This week, I received my September-October 2020 edition of La Maison Victor. And imagine my surprise to see my Divina dress in its beautiful Japanese fabric published in the Made by You section. It makes me very happy because it was with the help of La Maison Victor’s instructions that I sewed my first clothes. This publication allowed me to remember my beginnings in sewing and especially my first garments sewn with the help of my teacher. Among my first pieces is the Jazmin jacket, a jacket of the so-called "kimono" type.

As I am a purist/fan of Japan, I must make a side note. Indeed, calling this type of jacket a kimono is a misuse of the term. The Jazmin jacket is more inspired by the haori, which is a traditional Japanese jacket worn over the kimono. While the kimono, simply put, is a long robe with flared sleeves that closes with a wide belt called an Obi.
The misuse comes from the fact that kimono in the Japanese language also means clothing or rather refers to all the "things one wears".

But let’s get back to Jazmin, which was the first garment I chose to sew by myself. The first version was sewn in a polyester-type fabric with Japanese-style patterns.

Jazmin is a simple model intended for beginners and perfectly suited my sewing level at the time. Not too complicated but challenging enough!

This jacket is available from size 34 to size 54. You will need between 1.6m and 2m of fabric with a width of 140cm depending on your size.

Jazmin consists of:

• 2 front pieces
• 2 back pieces
• 2 sleeves
• 2 sleeve hem bands
• 2 front necklines and 2 back necklines.

So, 12 pieces to assemble.

Even though Jazmin is aimed at beginners, it includes some technical points such as:

• assembling the back neckline with a support seam
• making hems
• assembling the front neckline which requires a lot of precision
• assembling sleeves.

And I remember all that gave me quite a hard time back then ;-)

I even burned my polyester fabric while assembling the front facing and had to, almost in tears, recut a front piece to fix it all!

Eventually, I mastered the pattern and 3 versions were made. They all have very different looks. Indeed, the material (its drape) and the patterns greatly change the garment’s appearance.

The first version is the very soft polyester with Japanese-style patterns, the second is a white floral viscose, and the third was made from Japanese cotton with chrysanthemum and cat patterns. This version is a bit stiffer due to the fabric but also because I cut the back in one piece, which gives it a slight "parachute" effect.

I always enjoy taking them out of the closet and wearing them with pants or jeans. I much prefer them to cardigans and I think it shows in the photos ;-)

After telling you about them, I really want to cut a fourth version... my wishing list just keeps growing ;-)

It is possible to sew contrasting seams for the facings, which I did for the last two versions. Indeed, I used fuchsia thread for the white floral version and gold thread for the black version.