The finished jacket

Exactly two weeks after I bought the fabric for the jacket, it’s finished. Probably a record for me. It was sort of typical story buying the fabric too. I went to a plant/gardening market with a friend, we both had seen a stall where we wanted to buy something for our respective gardens. In the same village, even the same street, where the market was, is also a fabric store. What does a sewing girl do? Of course, visit the fabric store (the friend is a non sewing friend, she remained outside. The shop is one of those very rare shops that don’t accept payment by card, only cash. I confess paying mostly by card, so my cash was limited and I had just enough to buy this fabric. The cash points at the bank were empty too, probably because of the market, so much more people than normally in that village. I ended the day with fabric and not the garden ornament I was planning to buy, as the stall owner also only accepted cash. Well, what’s more important? A picture that a friend sent last week says it all (she found it on Instagram, I don’t know the origin):

 

 

To conclude the posts on this jacket a few pictures on cutting the lining. I did not make seperate pattern pieces for the lining, but made a few adaptions. This is a way of working that is explained in many books. The book High fashion sewing secrets by Claire Shaeffer describes this very well.

The lining is cut the same length as the jacket without seam allowance. Quite a bit of space is added to center back, to create a pleat that will give you moving space.

A little extra is added at the upper part of the side seam and the bottom of the armhole. Also the sleeves get a little extra at the bottom. Do you notice the pins sticking out? That’s to alert myself that I must not cut at the edge of the pattern piece.

I removed the area of the back facing from the lining after tracing the line.
Because I added shoulder pads I removed a bit (half the shoulder pad height) from the shoulder seam, I folded that away, tapering to nothing Of course it would be good to make separate pattern pieces, but for a jacket that’s just for me and I’m making it this works.

I bagged the lining (completely stitched in by machine) and left an opening center back to be able to turn the jacket. After I found this method  when I returned to sewing for myself about 10 years ago I was surprised how easy that method is. I might take photos of that process next time.

That’s it for this jacket, quite a few steps, a lot of photos to share. Thank you for reading, the kind comments and have a very nice weekend.