Jacket #2

The jacket is done. The only thing left is to cut open my buttonholes and give the whole thing a good pressing. Right now the jacket is pinned together, crooked, and left over right.

Something didn't turn out right with the collar. I don't know yet whether it was me or the pattern. It's supposed to meet closer together, but it doesn't. I used a straight size 18 neckhole and collar pieces with no changes (well, except to divide the undercollar in 2, add a seam allowance, and cut the pieces on the bias). The two neck edges should've fit together as designed but they didn't, which I didn't notice until it was too late.

And while the look of the collar on the envelope was one of my favorite things about this jacket, what I ended up with doesn't look bad and in reality, I'll probably wear it more like this anyway:



So, I won't stress about it, and I'll make a note for next time. At least I remembered to hand sew on the top button so there is no thread showing on the wrong side. Thankfully the brain was in gear today.

Here's the lining. My first *fully* lined jacket, sleeves and everything. All done by machine. The fiddly bit at the join of the facing and collar went much, much smoother this time. And now this blue fabric is out of the stash. It's definitely one of those "What was I thinking?" pieces. I bought it about 5-6 years ago, back when I first started sewing. It's been taking up stash space for a long time.



While at Joann's for buttons this morning, I flipped through the Butterick pattern catalog to look at two of the suggestions for copying my RTW dress (5206 and 4976), and instead came home with 5001.



All similar patterns I've looked at will need some sort of modification, but I think B5001 will need the least changes. The Hot Patterns Deco Vibe Cosmopolitan dress was tempting after seeing all the various makes of it on PatternReview and blogs, but I decided against that one too.

My actual dress is very similar to B5001, with the shirred outer wrap.


As you can see by the pattern pieces, cutting a separate contrast waistband from the skirt pieces will be easy. And this pattern is already a plus size pattern so it should start with a little extra room in the bust area. I'm hoping the knit I use will account for the remainder needed. We'll see. Making this dress isn't near the top of the list yet, so it will be a while since I'll soon be sewing around a job.



Parting Shot: What my sewing table looks like after I finish a project. Those are various muslins wadded up in the foreground. Two for the dress I'll get back to and one for the latest jacket, and probably another I'm forgetting. Time to straighten up and begin the next project.