The jacket slowly progresses

Without thinking too hard, I can come up with many excuses for why this jacket project was stalled most of today (head cold, new doggie playtime, reading some of my "new" sewing books which have been arriving for the past few days) but the main reason is because I was in a state of severe frustration with it and I needed time to work through in my head exactly how to proceed. Let me back up …

Problem #1: I didn't read the cutting chart closely enough when I was first cutting out. If I had, I would've noticed that the back yoke and peplum pieces were to be cut twice. Once as the garment and another time as a facing. Oops.

Problem #2: I was out of fabric. I mean down to tiny scraps. I had to get creative just to cut the 2 collar stands. I definitely didn't have enough for those "new" pieces. Plus, I really didn't want another layer of denim to sew through and even worse, this denim is flocked so I would have Velcro butt if the flocked side is worn against my backside.

Problem #3: I had already sewn the two stands to the two collar pieces, attached the undercollar unit to the jacket body, trimmed seam allowances, and topstitched when I later figured out that the Burda WOF instructions wanted me to sandwich one whole collar unit (top and undercollar) in between the facing and jacket. Too late! So the WOF method was out. As if it was ever actually in, seeing how my eyes cross every time I read those instructions.

So then I decided that maybe I'd just line the whole thing. I was already sewing it together in the way that you would for bagging a lining. Except …

Problem #4: The front facing pieces which incorporate the lapels are "all in one" and thus shaped very oddly and so it would be a big headache to redraft those pieces to match up with the front side panels that would be needed to fully line the jacket. Plus, like the collar pieces, they were already sewn, trimmed, etc. In the pic below, the jacket is turned inside out and you can see the shaping of the front facings.


So, many times today I went up to the sewing room, fiddled with the jacket pieces, thought about solutions (sneezed, coughed) and then left the room. My head was already stuffy with this cold and was too full to process this information. But I got my night-owl second wind a couple of hours ago and I think I've got a workable solution that not only should work but will look good on the inside too.

Below is a pic of the facing pieces the instructions want (right sides together, with the bottom facing just pinned into place to show this). Per Burda, the top facing hem would be turned and handstitched to the bottom seam allowance of the yoke and the peplum facing to the bottom seam allowance of the middle section. Stupid looking, isn't it?


So what I've come up with is this: I'm going to make a middle back section from the lining/facing fabric, quasi-bag the front facings and collar units (already done), and quasi-interline the back. When finished, the shoulder seams will be encased wrong sides together within the back yoke and front facings (like you would a shirt with a back yoke). The back "lining" seam allowances will be sandwiched between lining and garment (IOW wrong sides together), and I'll sew the back lining sideseams and armhole seams with the corresponding jacket seams, like an underlining. I think I'm also going to incorporate a pleat in the middle section of the back to allow for spread when wearing it. The peplum is semi-bias so it will have some give. It's too late to incorporate a pleat in the back yoke but my posture is pretty darn erect so I don't think that area will be a big problem. But if it is and it rips, I'll just deal with it later.

So there you have it. Progress, very little. ;-)