My Brown Jacket -- FINISHED!

As promised last week, here is one of the garments I completed at my recent sewing retreat.  Now, let me just say that I sewed up this jacket five years ago and have been wearing it for all of that time but it never had a closure!  Here's the rest of the story:

I try to not wear black.  I don't succeed in that goal because black is just too convenient, especially for travel.  My leather jacket is black.  I wear black pants and shoes.  I even own a black dress or two.  But I really look better in navy blue or brown.  So a few years ago I decided that I needed a brown outerwear jacket to go with my ever-increasing brown wardrobe.  I found this piece of heavy wool coating at G Street Fabrics.  I bought the buttons there, too, unique wooden ones with a curved shape (they cost more collectively than the fabric did).  I used Louise Cutting's By Popular Demand pattern, a pattern I had used before, but cut a size larger for wearing over street clothes.  I used a satin coat lining with a flannel back for extra warmth.  I added interior pockets and changed the patch pockets from the pattern into a rounded shaped.  I laboriously topstitched every seam.  When it came time to make button holes I balked.  The fabric was much too thick at the center front for a machine-made button hole.  What to do?  Well, for several years I did nothing.  I simply wore the coat open.  I finally decided the answer was large snaps with the buttons sewn on top.  So this past weekend, while I was at my sewing retreat, I sewed on the snaps and buttons.  I like how the shape of the button is mimicked by the pocket.

What I was unprepared for was how warm this jacket is now that it is closeable!  We have been having some extremely cold weather here in DC and this jacket is the best!  I can't believe I waited 5 years before finding out what a useful jacket this is.  And stylish, too.  I'm happy.

Princess-line Jacket

This is the first of the garments I am presenting, a favorite jacket of mine.  I reviewed this jacket on PatternReview.com; below are some excerpts from that review.

Butterick: 4028 (Princess-line jacket) (out of print)

Pattern Description: Fitted, lined, hip-length jacket has princess seams, shoulder pads, and long two-piece sleeves.

Pattern Sizing: 6-22, I made a size 10.

This is a finely drafted pattern with very nice lines. I like that there is a center back seam.  The upper back seam is quite curved which, for me, is a nice surprise since I usually have to make a small adjustment here and I did not have to on this pattern. In fact, the seam is quite curved so this might be a good pattern for those with a significantly curved upper back. I loved the two-piece sleeve -- one of the best I've ever used and plan to keep it in reserve to use with other patterns. I also found the armhole to have good mobility. I found this pattern to run very small. I usually can wear a size 8 but made this up in a size 10 based on the finished measurements. I could not make the CF meet -- which was fine since I intended this to be a no-closure jacket -- but if I had wanted to put on a closure I would not have been able to.

Fabric Used: Cotton ikat which I purchased from Mekong River Textiles. This site has lovely cotton and silk ikats imported from Thailand by the owner. I am not associated with this business other than as a happy customer. I highly recommend her fabrics. The jacket used three different fabrics. The waterlily design is printed on the fabric. I lined the jacket with bemburg rayon.

I made no alterations to the pattern for fit but made several design changes. I designed a pocket that overlays the side front princess panels and trimmed the top in the red contrast fabric. I also used the red fabric to make bands at the bottom of the sleeves and piping along the front opening and around the neck edge. I reduced the height of the collar somewhat.

Conclusion A nicely fitted jacket with lovely lines and great sleeves. A real "sleeper" in the pattern world.

I hope you enjoyed reading about and seeing pictures of this jacket.  I will feature a different garment next week.  Enjoy the upcoming weekend.

Maia Jacket: A Journey

I had the most fabulous day yesterday; I got to spend it with Sarah Veblen.  My dear friend Joyce opened up her home to about 10 of us, all sewing fanatics, and we came together to learn from Sarah.  I have taken classes with Sarah in the past and have always left feeling renewed, inspired and a little more knowledgeable about my favorite pastime.  I haven’t had the chance to work with Sarah for several years now – I’ve been busy raising little boys – but this chance to was too fine to pass up.  The three-day event was more than I could commit to but I was able to spend an entire day with the group.

The project I wanted to work on was the fitting of a fairly complicated jacket pattern, the Maia Jacket, by La Fred.  I had attempted to fit this pattern myself a number of years ago but gave up.  I needed professional help.  Here I will outline the process I went through for completing a muslin, or mock up garment.  The construction of the jacket will have to wait for another time.

I began by tracing off the necessary pieces of the pattern, twelve pieces in all.  I then cut these pieces out of an inexpensive twill fabric.  I had decided to use a fabric with a bit more weight than muslin to simulate the heavier fabrics this jacket would be constructed in.  I used a Sharpie marker to label all of the pieces and draw the necessary lines and markings.  Here are all of the pieces on my cutting table.

The next step was to construct the jacket.  I sewed the bodice pieces together and took the time to construct the pockets and the cuffs, which, though not necessary for fitting, were fairly complex pieces, and I felt I would benefit from going through the process a couple of times before actually sewing my garment.  Here are a couple of shots of the first completed bodice.

Now it was Sarah’s turn to work her magic.  She began by pinning the jacket closed along the center front and then pinned out the various folds that indicate a garment isn’t correctly fitted.  My bust point is quite low and she had to pin out quite a bit of fabric on the side front piece to make it fit correctly.  In addition, I have a very forward shoulder so the shoulder seam line needed to be moved forward.  She curved the upper part of the center back seam to fit my upper back a bit better and drew in the neckline and armhole seams where they should fall on me.  After she had all of the pins in it was my job to mark the pins and transfer those changes to my paper pattern.  Here you can see the pieces which have been separated and laid out with their various markings.

Once all of these changes were made on my paper pattern it was then time to cut out and construct muslin #2.  Sarah made several additional changes to this muslin as well, moving the shoulder seam back in the original direction a little bit and pinning out some length in the front bodice.  She also pinned the sleeve in place on this muslin and added a little extra room across the center back for ease of arm movement.  Once again I used the pins to mark the fabric and then transfered these changes to my paper pattern.  Sarah felt that at this point the pattern was close enough to make up in real fabric, what she calls a “wearable mock up”.  She recommends that you not use your best fabric in case there are changes that still need to be made.  Here is a picture of the second muslin with the sleeve pinned in waiting to have the changes marked.

I am fortunate – my body shape is not that different than most commercial patterns so I can usually get by with one or two muslins for fitting.  Some of my friends know they have “5 muslin bodies” and have just come to terms with the fact that that is what it will take to have clothes that fit them.  But there is nothing better than a custom made garment which fits perfectly.  In my opinion it is worth the effort.  I am not great at fitting; it is definitely not my strong suit.  I am very grateful to have someone like Sarah to work with who is a true expert.

As if the day wasn’t perfect enough already it got even better.  I went back to Joyce’s house last evening for a presentation by Sarah and a trunk show of her beautiful garments.  There were about 30 of my sewing friends there, and we had a wonderful time eating, drinking and watching Sarah spin her magic.  She began by telling us something I have heard time and again but have yet to embrace:  spend the time to fit a basic pattern and then sew it again and again with simple changes that give each garment a unique look.  This makes so much sense when you think of what it took to get my one jacket pattern fitted.  If I have to do this with each garment that I make I am wasting valuable time that I could be using to create.  Sarah showed us jacket after jacket that were made from the same pattern but with a unique look to each one.  She changes the fabric, collar, cuffs and trims to make a one-of-a-kind garment.  I fell in love with each one and couldn’t take notes fast enough.  Then she showed us how to create dozens of looks with a yoked skirt.  She begins by fitting a yoke made from a knit fabric which is very comfortable to wear.  The skirt portion which hangs from this yoke can take on numerous looks.  She used velvet, wool plaid, novelty knits, wovens and also varied the design and shape of the skirt to give lots of unique looks.  In addition she shared with us a number of her knit garments and some special occasion pieces.  Some of Sarah’s past students also shared the garments they had made.  All were truly inspiring and wonderful to see.  I left at the end of the evening with my head full of ideas and a commitment to try out some of them that had been shared with me.

I highly recommend that you consider taking a class with Sarah.  She is a very kind and nurturing teacher who will help you every step of the way.  She can help fit patterns or brainstorm the best use of a special piece of fabric.  Or help you with any other sewing related project you might dream up.  She offers classes in her hometown of Sparks, MD and will travel to teach classes where there is enough interest (our American Sewing Guild Chapter had her come and do a two-day workshop for us a few years ago).  She also teaches online at PatternReview.com and writes extensively for Threads magazine.