Iro Jacket Knock-Off: Part 1

Iro jacket

I’m working on a knock-off of this jacket by Iro.   Part of the appeal was the waffle fabric.  The fabric I am going to use is hand-woven, a honeycomb weave, to have a similar texture to the original, but not as bulky.
The first jacket I tried weaving fabric for, I ended throwing out because my weaving wasn’t even. It was an expensive mistake so I’m taking a lot more care with this one ( and using much cheaper yarn)

Weaving the samples

The weave I chose was a basic 4-shaft honeycomb.  I played around a bit with different block sizes, outline thread thicknesses and weft density.   The fun part was taking the samples off the loom and watching the fabric go from flat to dimpled ( or not, as was the case in some of the samples).

Honeycomb samples

In the end I went for this setup:

• Yarn: 4ply acrylic that I picked up at a local mill ($10 for 10kg).  Outline yarn was 3 strands together
• Warp sett: 380 ends x4m long @ 12epi for approx 86cm width in the reed including selvage threads
• Plain weave: 50cm at 12ppi
• Honeycomb: 2.2m at 16ppi  Block size was 4 warp threads x 6 weft threads.  Pattern repeat was 1″

Winding the warp

Weaving the fabric

The original jacket is quite bulky so I’ve decided to make the facings in a plain weave and use the honeycomb for the outer parts of the jacket.  I wove 50cm of plain weave and 2.2m of honeycomb.

Weaving! Changing from plain weave to honeycomb

Since I stuffed up the last jacket, I was super careful about keeping the weave density the same throughout the fabric.  I have a tendency to beat harder at the start of a weaving session — too many Wheaties!

Another tool I used was a temple, or stretcher bar, to make sure the selvages were even.  I discovered that the name for the spikes on the end of the temple were called tenterhooks.  I  found myself literally “being on tenterhooks” a couple of times and can say that they are incredibly sharp!

tenterhooks!

Anyway, after about 5 weeks, the fabric is off the loom and washed.  The texture is amazing and lovely to touch.

before washing

after washing (colour change is because of the camera flash)

The pattern

I’m planning to use Butterick 5958, view C, to make the jacket.  I’m hoping to do the test fitting over the weekend and make a few changes to the pattern.  Mainly adding the pockets, centre back seam & possibly using a 2-peice sleeve.

Butterick 5958