Marfy coat - Mistakes!

My Marfy coat is now nearly finished, the vent in the back and the lining still to be done. But it were a couple of difficult days for me, with quite a few mistakes.

It started with the cuff. I knew the sleeve length was fine on the muslin, so I thought to make the cuff before inserting the sleeves would be easier.

1. I cut the cuffs of fabric, stitched them and they were too small! The sleeve width was definitely larger than the cuff width. What happened? I widened the sleeves, as I widened the whole pattern after making my muslin. I widened the cuff too. But I forgot that there were two seams in the sleeve, thus two times made the sleeve wider, but the cuff only once. There was just enough fabric left to cut new cuffs, which I then drew to the pattern of the sleeves, while Marfy made them just straight.
2. I used the method described in Sandra Betzina's book "Power Sewing" to insert the cuffs. Worked great. But then I realised that the lining should be there first. This was not described in the book, as in the example there were serged seams. I should have thought it through a bit more.


And then (I'm ashamed to tell this, this is by no means my first jacket!) I set in the sleeves wrong. Right sleeve in left armhole and the other way round. Made a lot of work of setting in the sleeves, doing it "by the book" and the sleeve head was really perfect. But the drape of the sleeve was not good. I spent hours yesterday ripping part of the seams and trying to make it work. No good, and I didn't see what happened.









Today my mother was here and we looked at it together. At a certain moment I said that I was going to take it out and redraw the pattern. When the first sleeve was completely ripped out, I at once saw what really happened and what I did not see before.

I'm going to blame the cold I'm struggling with. That's some excuse (though a lame one).