Finished Project: Spring Jacket

Finally here are some shots of the jacket – worn as I’ve been doing for the past couple weeks. I can’t get enough of it!

Looking at the pictures, I do find it a little boxy, but really I just love wearing it. I think what I love most is the length of the sleeves – I’m so used to sleeves ending an inch from my wrist re: my freakishly long arms and all, so this is just awesome…

This was not a difficult project, even with the addition of the lining.

I do remember getting really (REALLY) frustrated with myself on one occurrence: It was a Sunday afternoon and I was as usual trying to get the most out of my 4-hour sewing window before the week-end was over and I had to go through another work week before being able to sew again. While pinning together the sleeve pieces, I noticed one was longer than the other…so I cut it…only to realize later that that was a mistake (DUH!!) which I would have noticed if I’d properly matched the notches in the first place. So I had to unpick (including the zipper), recut the piece…and shout at B not to talk to me right now!! (sorry B)…I even got up early on the following Monday just to finish putting together that %$&# sleeve before the week started…

 

Aside from that, the rest went together quite easily.

Now, at the risk of sounding vain, while this dress for example still gets me compliments everywhere and everytime I wear it, I still have to get one single comment about this jacket. Not that I care that much but you all know how gratifying it feels to get a spontaneous compliment about a self-made item. And since I’m not the kind to brag  (“what do you think of this jacket? Do you like it? Can you believe I MADE this??“), so it shall remain a little secret I share with only myself (“you all have no idea but I actually made this!”)…

I know, silly sewing pride….

It really is an easy jacket to wear, and since it’s a neutral I can play around and wear any color of scarf. This one is a recent gift from B’s mom and I really love it, it’s so colorful and therefore goes great with the jacket.

I could show you pictures (if i had any) of all the different outfits I've worn this jacket over in the past couple weeks and call it Me-Made-may...but that would be cheating now, wouldn't it. Thinking back though, I actually have been wearing a lot of me-made garments this month. I might try to officially participate in Self-Stitch-September, although the hardest part would probably be the blogging as opposed to the wearing...

Next up: working on the perfect fit for this shirt, of which i already see at least two versions, plus still fantasizing over linen pants AND the dress that will perfectly showcase this amazing print (which I finally received last week). Suggestions anyone?

Sneak Peek: Last Year's Spring Jacket

The jacket is done, woo hoo!!
The twill tape I ordered from Masterstroke eventually came in (they source it in Japan so it took a few weeks to arrive), and I was able to finalize this jacket, which had been waiting for about 6 months...
No biggie, it was intended as a spring jacket and guess what...it's spring! (well, according to the calendar anyway).

I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to do a proper shoot so in the meantime here's a little sneak peek:

The fabric is a medium weight cotton twill from Fabricland. I've only been there once and I wasn't impressed by the selection - a lot of it was loud polyesters. But I did find this fabric and it was exactly what I needed for the jacket.
The pattern is model 121 from the April 2010 issue of Burda magazine.

Because the fabric frayed so much, and because I like and neater finish, I added a lining for the bodice. It also makes it a little warmer which is good as I,m quite sensitive to cold and temperatures drop easily here in Vancouver. I didn't line the sleeves except for the cuffs because they are meant to be folded over. 

I made a few adjustments to the pattern:

-the sleeves were made narrower by about 2 cm (3/4")

-I raised the armhole by .8 cm (3/8")

-lengthenned the sleeve about 1.5 cm (5/8")

-I widened the wrists by about .8cm 

-Lenghtenned the body about 2xm (even though it is a "tall size" already)

-Added a lining with a pleat at center back for ease.

- I think the neckline on mine is a bit higher than the original as I added 5/8" seam allowances which the tape is now covering.

-And i just realized, looking at the Burda picture, that I didn't do any of the topstitching on the neckline. Oh well...

The lining is a stetch cotton. I finished the sleeves/shoulder allowances with white bias tape

 

And here you can kind of see the twill tape over the neckline and zipper. I can't believe it was such an ordeal to find the right color, but in the end I did and I am quite happy with the result.

 

Making Progress.

I'm so happy to be making some progress on my WIP garments, I wanted to share!

The skirt is nearing the end. Construction is finished. I now have to hand sew the skirt and lining hems, plus finish the topstitching on the button placket and finally add buttonholes and buttons.
Buttonholes were my biggest worry as my machine doesn't seem to be able to sew two clean buttonholes in a row. The first one will come out right but there's a 70% chance the next one will be all messed up...I was even considering taking my skirt to a professionnal seamstress to get the buttonholes made.

Then, a couple weeks ago I joined the Vancouver sewing Meet-up at Spool of Thread. It was nice to meet other local home-sewers and get advice from them. I also took the opportunity to try the lounge's machine's buttonhole foot.
Well, I liked it. A Lot. Take a look:

I love how neat and finished this (fake) pocket flap looks, with the topstitching and buttonhole. I haven't openned the hole yet but I'm so happy this solution is working out. I will most definitely go back to Spool of Thread to make the other 6 or 8 buttonholes in the front of the skirt.

On the jacket front, I'm also have progress to report!
I recently contacted the people at Masterstroke Canada, after finding out that they had quite a nice online selection of ribbons and trims (plus ordering in Canada makes a big difference in shipping cost). I had decided that I actually needed twill tape to finish my jacket, as the texture and aspect will best match my fabric.
They have a good color selection but dont'offer the option of purchasing swatch cards as other on-line store would. So I emailed them about it and they offered to send me swatches of the colors I was interested in - free of charge!
That's what I did and look what I got in the mail today:

How nice! I love that it is hand written, and that they took the time to do it (thank you Steven!). I'm feeling pretty good about #38 (I will have to look at it in natural light), although I could probably go with a couple more options here for more contrast. We'll see.
But after searching for the right ribbon quite extensively locally and on-line, and not finding anything, I'm really excited about this. This jacket will be ready for spring!

I have traced the pattern for my Furryliscious vest but haven't had the courage to cut the fabric yet, which makes me think it might not get worn until next winter...oh well.

And finally, I've just started a "knit-along" with a friend of mine. We're both making this sweater, in similar colors (I'm using Lion Brand Yarn Wool-Ease Thick and Quick in Oatmeal and she's using the same yarn in Wheat).
This week-end we're going on a ski trip and I'm almost more excited about getting some knitting/chatting time with my friend than about the skiing...

Simplicity 6580: Muslin #2

This is Muslin #2 of my Simplicity Jacket.

I was pretty bummed out after muslin #1 and wasn't sure what to do to improve the fit. But after much researching and a little help from fellow sewists (thanks to all of you who gave me their advice on this blog, the Bursdastyle discussion group AND the Pattern Review message board !) I've now come to this second version.
It still needs quite a few adjustments, but I feel like I'm definitely on the right track. When I put this second muslin on, it felt right away much better than the first one, and it gives me hope for the next muslin, which hopefully will be the last.

So here's what I did:

First I corrected the back width by doing a narrow back adjustment.

I drew two lines perpendicular to the grainline: one 1"below the armhole and one in the middle of the armhole. Then I drew a line parallel to the grainline and starting at the middle of the shoulder seam. I cut out the piece...

...and slid it closer to the CB seam, overlaping by 5/8".

Then I redrafted the armhole seam while shortening the shoulder seam ( I actually went back to the original pattern length, which I'd mistakingly lengthened before), and recut the seam allowances.

After I modified the back pattern, I altered the pieces of muslin #1 the same way and reattached the front and back together to see the difference. I added a 1/2" shoulder pad on the right side and a 3/8" on the left, as my right shoulder tends to slope more. Right away it made a huge difference with the way the front hung.

Then I modified the front pattern:
My main issue was to get rid of the excess fabric at the bust. I didn't want to do a sba, because I didn't want to shorten the bust, I actually needed to lengthen it instead. Someone suggested that I do a "narrow bust" adjustment in the front, which is pretty much the same technique as for the back. So I removed 5/8" of width that way.

Then I lengthened the upper bust by adding 1" below the armhole.
At first I wasn't sure about this modification, as I couldn't find an actual example of a pattern alteration like this in any book/website I read. And the "shorten/lengthen" line on the pattern seem to usually be below the bust, not above. But I eventually ended up on this post, where a reader had apparently modified an empire waistline being too high by adding length to the upper part of the bust. So that's what I did, and of course I altered the back the same way.

Then I recut new back and upper front pieces ( I didn't make any alterations to the lower front piece), and put muslin #2 together with the shoulder pads.

Here is what it looks like now:

I am much happier with the front. At first I found the bust to be a tad bit too long, but I corrected it by taking in at the shoulder seams to raise the bust line just enough. The left side is still drooping a bit so I will probably do a minor sloping shoulder alteration on that side as well.
The bottom part of the jacket looks fine. I actually like the length as it is now, unhemmed, so I will add another 1" to 1-1/2" below the bust to keep it that way.

There is still some excess fabric at the bust, so I will probably make another "narrow bust" alteration of an additional 5/8" or so. Plus I think I will get rid of some of the gathering and take in at the side seam instead.

The bottom back looks fine, but the upper back is still too wide, so same as for the front, I will do a "narrower" back alteration.
On the profile picture you can also see that there is too much ease for the "round of the back". I read somewhere you can solve that by taking in at the CB seam and tapering down.
Here's what it looks like if I pin out the excess:

There's probably a middle ground to be found between this and the narrow back alteration.

So, I still have a lot of work on this, but to be honnest, I am actually enjoying this whole process. It's the first time that I have had to make that many alterations to a garment and though it is quite a long process, it's actually quite interesting and I'm learning a lot.

I haven't done anything to the sleeves yet, I want to get the bodice perfect first and then I'll try and make the perfect sleeves for it. Did I mention I also intend to line this jacket ?

Work in Progress: A muslin for Simplicity 6580

I cut out and assembled the pieces of the muslin for my Simplicity 6580 jacket.

Well, let's just say that it needs quite a few fitting adjustments, unfortunately I'm not at all sure how to proceed.

Let's start with the pattern. It came in two sizes: 7JP and 9JP. I'm not really familiar with these sizes. Is it the equivalent of a Burda "petite" size ? Not sure.
The chart on the envelope allows you to compare the standard measurements to the "Misses" sizes. the 9JP is closest to the Misses size 10 (which is closest to my measurements), when it comes to standard measurements anyway, so that's what I decided to cut.

You'll notice that while waist measurement is the same for 9JP and 10, bust measurment is 1/2" bigger in the "junior Petite" size, while hip measurement in 1/2" bigger in Misses size. The back neck-to-waist size is considerably shorter in the petite size, which makes sense...

Before I cut the muslin fabric, I added 1" to the total length, as well as 1/2" to the shoulder length, as, based on my own measurements, it seamed like the pattern would be a bit tight. I also added a center seam in the back, instead of cutting the piece on the fold, to facilitate additional fitting adjustments.

So once the pieces were sewn together, this is what it looks like:

Yuk, not quite the nice fitted look of the envelope. It's too big, obviously, and still a bit short I think. The added shoulder length was a mistake, but it's easy to cut back out. I'll probably have to make a narrow back adjustment, and maybe take in on the sides while reducing the back darts.

The sleeve is obviously too short (which is often my case, with my freakishly long arms...), but thanks to the elbow mark and shortening/lenghtening lines on the pattern, I should be able to fix that. I might reduce the curve of the shoulder top, it is very puffy as it is (it doesn't really show on the photos), but this may be due to the shoulder seam being too long and the sleeve cap sitting too low...

As for the front, I'm not sure what to do. There are no apex mark to help figure out how to improve the bust fitting, and since I'm not dealing with darts or princess seams, I'm kind of lost. Should I diminish the gathers and take in on the sides ? If I do, won't that move the neck yoke seam to the sides to much (over the apex)? The neckline seams a bit too wide as well, plus you'll notice my uneven shoulders (my right shoulder slops more than my left) which I might just adjust with the proper shoulder-padding.

In fact this has me wondering if I should have gone with the smaller size, while just adding more overall length (1" isn't enough I think) and adjusting the sleeves...

So far I haven't had a project with that much adjustment needed, I have my trusty "Fit for Real People", and I also got "the Perfect Fit" from the library, so these should help me figure some of it out...But I'll also take any advice anyone might have !