its time to sing in happiness

I am really excited, I have finally after a whole month of work finished my jacket. I really have learned lots about shaping and moulding a garment. They say pictures say a thousand words, so lets get started.

I intend for this to be my dress up and down jacket. So here it is styled with jeans.

its taken some doing, but that princess seam is no long so high and mighty. It is now virtually unrumpled.

I am really proud of the back, it fits me perfectly and is really flattering.

showing off the lining, which is if I may say so my show stopper

and finally some more detail….

detail of the pocket and ribbon stitching. My zipper foot was a great aid in stitching so close to the edge in a neat line.

the lining on display in all its glory

the back of the lining

hemming and hawing

the clock is ticking

it’s crunch time for my little jacket. Tomorrow is the deadline for the contest I have been working towards entering on Patternreview.com and I have to get it finished by tomorrow evening. It still needs to have the lining hemmed, and the lining sleeves need hemming too.

Apart from that I am pleased to say everything else is done!! I am so pleased with how it has turned out after lots of little modifications. I have changed my mind about the ribbon colour, and decided (on advice of a friend) to use dark navy as a slight contrast instead of the original black.

Tomorrow will be the big reveal with photos of the finished piece, in good day light hopefully. Today has been truly dismal, it has rained and rained, and now it is really cold.

One thing is for sure, it is amazing how much I have managed to change my trouser weight fabric after adding interfacing, interlining, lining, batting, shoulder pads and copious amounts of hot steam. It has eventually knuckled under and become a very nice structured jacket. Who says stubborness gets you nowhere?…..

getting all aligned, inside and out

I’ve got my lining finished, just the sleeves to attach, finally. There has been some restitching, some muttered annoyances, and yet further dislike of the front princess seams. I really dont like the straight line joining to very curved line combination.

I digress. I have discovered that adding shoulder pads Really Helps with the overall effect and also has improved some of the drag lines. I’ve decided to add sleeve heads (still to do).

So, before attaching the lining its time to do a fit check. When showing my creation off proudly to my mother she tsks over the fit and thinks I need to take it in at some places. I dont want to over fit. I know the the shoulder pads and sleeve heads will help the upper area and shoulders, but there is some extra fabric around the hip. Even after taking it down to a size 14. Is this just the design, or should I take out even more at the side seams? She thinks the back is too loose as well!

Photos below of lining, overlocking and different perspectives to show excess fabric. The jacket is shown with shoulder pads (can you spot them pinned flapping off inside out?) and over the lining.

should I use my (sleeve) head?

I’ve been busy working on getting through the rest of my jacket pattern instructions. The lining is nearly finished (I love that silk! it is so nice to sew) and just needs the front attaching to the back, add the sleeves, and overlocking of seams.

The sleeves of my main fashion fabric (also interlined) have been finished and basted on to the jacket to check fit and overall look. Which leads me to my next problem. Do I add sleeve heads? I don’t want to add too much bulk, as they are fairly narrow sleeves to start with after adding the interlining. My research says they could help create a crisper finish. Any thoughts to help me out?

One last note, the sleeves have made everything fit better. It’s great, in that the bust area is looking better now the sleeves are pulling the gathered princess seam fullness out and just makes it all look more as it should. Lesson learned, always add the sleeves before making final adjustment decisions.

As always, here are the photos:

it all seams to be going well!

I finally feel like I actually making progress, instead of literally sitting still preparing everything. My jacket bodice is now sewn together, the sleeves are ready to be inserted and the fit isn’t too bad.

I think I may need to take the sides in a bit from the waist down. I cut a size 16 (my waist measurement) from this point onwards, but my hips are a size 14. Any comments on this are appreciated! I’m not used to wearing jackets which only have one closure at the top (in this case by ribbon).

Although the interfacing and interlining have resulted in a fair bit of trimming (this was suggested by someone to reduce bulk at the seams) work I feel overall it has achieved the effect I was looking for. So I am pleased!

Now, the bit you will no doubt wish to see, some photos of progress made:

all lined up and ready to go – now I’m really ready to sew!

all fired up and ready to go!

I have been itching all this week to actually do some SEWING. I have basted, I have tailor tacked, I have pinned, measured, lengthened, done pretty much everything BUT sew.

I have now finally cut out my lining and checked everything is properly marked up with notches and tailor tacks. All 26 pieces, if you include the interlining. Accept I won’t be using quite all of them, keep reading as to why.

I speak of interlining. I have been debating about what to do with the front piece, as it dawned on me after adding the nice sturdy waistband weight interfacing I might be overdoing things a bit. With the interfacing this poor little piece of fabric was going to be 5 layers thick. Not really required, or suited (pardon the pun), for an indoor jacket.

I’ve ditched the fashion fabric facing, and replaced it with a lining fabric version. Minus two thick layers, now replaced with one light one. I’m still thinking about the interfacing I’ve used and if I should go with something lighter. Debating, debating, hopefully a visit to a sewing friend tomorrow will help me decide!

this fabric rocks, literally!

So I was hunting for some lining fabric to go with the chanel jacket I am making. Seeing as it is going to take a certain amount of time to make, I thought I’d try and get something extra special, rather than the acetate I normally go for.

On first glance my chosen choice does not look particularly of interest. A pretty floral blue in silk. Nice, but why the special fanfair? Look closer, this fabric is called “Elvis”. Can you see why? it will be my little secret when I wear it…

basting lines (it feels like wasting time!)

my many basted pattern pieces. The grey shows the interlining side.

I’ve started work on my vogue chanel jacket (7975). As usual I like to make things interesting for myself – I say this with sarcasm – as I wanted to use some fabric which I used to make some trousers. For those who have visited here before you’ll know this fabric well, as I used it for the trousers during my dress making course.

Of course, fabric well suited to wide legged trousers does not translate in to instant jacket material. A little bit of assistance is required. So my Saturday has been dedicated to busily basting an interlining which will also I hope have underlining qualities. This extra layer is a nice grey wool tweed which gives the whole jacket, hopefully, more body and warmth.

I at least saved myself cutting out a whole extra pattern set by carefully pinning the grey wool underneath my main fabric so it all lined up. My poor scissors grumped at being asked to cut through 4 layers, but just about managed.

There are 4 pieces left to baste but it is time for bed. They can wait until tomorrow. I have also been exceptionally good compared to my usual self, and pressed everything before and after basting. This better be all worth it, as I still have the lining to cut out!

A small teaser on the lining, I have bought some “Elvis” silk fabric which actually has (if you look very closely) guitars and the word Elvis woven in to it, from a distance it just looks like floral fabric. More photos of that later when I have proper day light.