We are so excited to offer you this double-faced cotton jacquard fabric! Fit for Art sold bundles of this beloved japanese black and tan fabric years ago. We rediscovered it last summer at a wholesale textiles show and finally have it in hand to sell to you. Rae and Carrie have loved wearing their reversible garments made from this fabric – the cotton is soft, light weight, drapey, and looks just fine without ironing. Creating two garments in one with a dark and light side is a huge plus for a travel wardrobe!
Techniques for Double Faced Fabric
In this post we are going to review the special techniques employed in Double the Orient and Reversible Jacquard Vest to take advantage of both the dark and light face of this special fabric. The key to a successful reversible garment is to take time to sketch out a plan for both the dark and light side, or the “right side” and “wrong side,” and to work out the finishes before you get started. Whether or not you choose to make your creation reversible, these techniques may be used to add design interest and to produce a beautifully finished and durable garment.
- Contrast: Take advantage of the contrast between the light and dark sides of the fabric to add design interest to one side or the other, as we did at the hems of both samples and the armhole binding on the vest.
- Selvages: This fabric has very useable selvages with a decorative short fringe. Incorporate the selvage by cutting some pattern pieces on the cross grain, as we did with the jacket hem and vest band. Or cut strips of selvage to insert between seams as seen in the jacket’s lantern cuff.
- Closures: Plan carefully so the closures are posittioned to use from either side. The jacket utilizes in-seam buttonholes and the vest utilizes loops for buttons. Snaps and Ties can also give you the flexibility to close a garment from either side.
- Enclose Seams: Finish seam allowances neatly and securely with a French Seam or Bound seam. The side seams of both the jacket and vest were sewn with French Seams, completely enclosing the raw edges. The loose edge of the French seam was then stitched down by machine. For a contrasting seam finish, use a seam binding that wraps around the raw edges of the seam allowances and then is hand stitched to the garment, as was done at the vest armholes. Find directions for both seam finishing techniques in our free download, Seam Finishes.
- Facings: In places where a facing is called for, a contrast facing can be used as the second right side. In the jacket, the lantern cuff and band facings became the right side for the jacket’s reverse. For the vest, a second back yoke was cut and applied like a facing to enclose the seam allowances at the shoulders and at the yoke-lower back seam. This yoke technique, which also provides extra support to the shoulders, is illustrated in the post Cozy Flannel Shirt.
- Pleat: The pleat in the lower back of the vest is a box pleat on the dark side and an inverted pleat on the light side. What other design extras can you think of that will work on both sides of a garment?
Read a more detailed description of the decisions and techniques used to craft this reversible jacket and vest in the blog posts Japanese Double Faced Jacket Part One and Part Two and It’s Vest Season! For another approach to making a reversible garment with double sided fabric, check out the Reversible Fur Vest and Silly Vest Sewing.
Order Your Bundle Now!
The new 3-yard bundles include two yards of a primary (showy floral) fabric and one yard of a secondary (subtler graphic) fabric, with the option to add an extra 1/2 yard of the secondary. This is high quality fabric imported from Japan, some traditional and some more modern designs. The three primary and two secondary choices:
Look at photos of the 5 different fabric designs in various combinations in the product gallery for Japanese Cotton Jacquard Bundles to help you select your favorite combination. Don’t take too long to decide, though, because we have a limited supply of each design.
If you made a garment with one of the similar bundles we sold several years ago, we would love to see it and inspire other sewists in our community! Please post your photos to Instagram or Facebook with the tags #fitforartpatterns and #japanesecottonjacquard. Not a social media maven? Send your photos to carrie@fitforartpatterns.com and we’ll post them for you. Check out the Guest Post by our friend Val who has a terrific version made with one of our original bundles.
Carrie is hoping there will be a few pieces left to sew a deliciously soft Carpe Diem top with these fabrics. We can’t wait to see what you create with these beautiful bundles!
Thank you. So many ways to add zing to make your clothes interesting and high quality.