Would you fake it or make it real? (Really long post)

I like Kim Hargreaves's designs and have made 2 of them. My experience is that they are in general well-written except ... there is always something missing. Little things. Like instructions for the armhole bands in Faye. Or what to do with the pocket linings in Bomber. If you are a savvy sewer, I think you won't find it difficult. But for me, I don't even know how to operate a sewing machine (despite the fact thay my mother was a seamstress!), so it is understandable that I have waited until the last moment to tackle this. Even though, I have to say, I have spent quite a lot of time thinking about how to do it. At some point, I think I considered not doing anything, just let the pockets be dummy ones. Yet, it is always nice to have pockets, even really small ones, in a jacket for petty things like keychain, a packet of tissue paper or coins. So, with the zipper installed, I started working on making the pockets real.

After measuring the size of the pocket lining, I cut out the fabrics, with about 3/4" around for the hems:


Yeah, you see it right ... I used orange fabrics for the milky white jacket! Husband was not really impressed with my choice, but hey, I have the fabrics right at home ready for use ... and isn't it a pleasant surprise to find autumn leaves inside your jacket pockets? To make the seaming of the hems easier, I steam-ironed the positions.


The hems are important here because the edges of cut fabrics would fray. I don't know the name of the stitch method I used, but you can see how I seamed the hems in Picture 1. When I was done with all four sides, I positioned the fabrics to the pocket lining, with the wrong side facing me (Picture 2). Then I started joining them together. I hate when the pockets of my jackets break ... so I used double sewing thread and just wrapped around the edges of the 2 parts in very closely-packed stitches (Picture 3). You can see a close up of the stitched edge of the pocket here:


Inside the circle, you can see I used a crochet cotton thread to attach the 2 loose corners of the pockets to the jacket. I learned this from one of my store-bought jackets.

So, dear friends, I have finally done all the finishing for Bomber. And I have to tell you that the result is surprising good. The size is right and it fits well.

See, rare outdoor shots! A storm is coming here tonight but the weather was extremely warm during the day. So, I made use of the beautiful sunlight to bring you these pictures. The colour appears to be whiter in the pictures. In real life, the jacket is more milky white.

Details:
Pattern and Modifications: Bomber designed by Kim Hargreaves from Denim People
I made the M size. I didn't have the nerves to do any modifications on this pattern. Actually, I was not even sure it would turn out right because of the uncertainty of washing (even though I did swatch). But there are 2 features of the design that I like very much.

The first one is the armhole shaping. Instead of just decreasing on both ends, which would interrupt the ribbing pattern, KH's design keeps the outermost rib continue and decreased on the second and third ribs:


I think this is a very intelligent design detail.

The second one is the collar shaping:



Yarn: Naturelle 8/8 cotton yarn in cone (74% Recycled Cotton; 24% Acrylic; 2% Unknown Fibres) Col: 700 Milk
When I ordered this from Elann, there was only one colour left. I read on some knitting blogs that there were lots of other colours. Too bad I was late and this boat has sailed already! This yarn makes some very good between-seasons garments.

Gauge and Needles:
Before washing: 20 st x 28 rows = 10cm x 10.5cm using US5
After washing, the measurements became 10cm x 9cm