Jacket Vogue 1439

Over a month ago I showed this jacket in a nearly finished state. Took me two weeks to finish it for real and took another two weeks to get pictures.  The fabric doesn’t behave very well in pictures but I’m happy with the spring vibe it has. Having worn one of my self drafted jackets today and seeing these pictures now I can see that this jacket is too wide in the shoulder area and could have been a little better fitting in general. Sometimes I just don’t want to do all the drafting, but for jackets I really should take the trouble of drafting or make a muslin. This time it was the collar part that I was unsure of and wanted to start and use a pattern. I’ll wear this, it’s just a little moaning amongst sewing friends that it could have been better.

The upper part of the back is too wide as well, the lower part is fitting well.

For those who have the pattern and might want to sew it: the pattern pieces and instructions for this were a little strange in my opinion. There’s a separate facing for the inside that extends further than the part that’s on the outside. It makes for a more difficult way of construction as also the lining then has a more difficult corner. I didn’t see the need to construct it like this and thought it would be enough if I just cut the outerpart as a facing too. Worked very well and was so much easier in sewing it together. I used the other front pattern pieces for the lining as well, and only used the separate back pattern piece.

The pattern has a sleeve with a vent and buttons/buttonholes. I omitted those.

One caution on the collar: if you sew on autopilot, you can very easily sew the collar the wrong way! That’s what I did in any case. I did sew the two collar parts together as if it was a lapel collar and closed and trimmed the wrong side. I was lucky to have enough fabric to cut it again.
I’ve lengthened the body and sleeves significantly. 5 cm in the body, 3 cm in the sleeves (I like longer sleeves anyhow).

This pattern is out of print, but very current I think. I’ve seen this style of collar/neckline a lot in patterns recently.

Welt pocket with angled seams

It was fun to read your answers to the post with the picture of the strange pattern piece. Very good those of you who were close or knew the answer!

The welt is also called “origami welt”, I believe Kenneth D. King calls it that. Its main feature is that the seams are not at the sides of the welt, but as you saw in my previous post, on the back. It makes for a welt with less bulk.

Below the steps I took to make the pattern piece for it:

This is the original pattern piece, with foldline and straight of grain indicated.

On the part that will be the back of the welt, two lines are drawn where the seam lines will be. To clarify I’ve marked the seams with line notches.

The seam lines are cut and added to the front part of the welt

The final pattern piece, in paper and in fabric as shown in my “riddle” post. The fabric one is the mirror image, with seams added.

Sew the seams, matching the notches (I added 1cm seams to the pattern piece and made the edge match)

Trim to the points and press.

Turn the welt and press.

Two welts, ready to be inserted in the garment.

The answer is …

A welt for a pocket! It makes for bulk free edges. I’ll write a post on how I did this later.

A riddle

To do something different I have a picture for you of a pattern piece, cut out in fabric.

Without further information, can you guess what this is?

Production sewing

Well, despite all good intentions my jacket is still unlined. I made some progress, the lining is cut, pinned together to sew as much seams at once as I can. It isn’t that much fun to sew lining, don’t you think? In the meantime I felt an urgency to update my spring/summer wardrobe. I’m absolutely lacking linen pants and could use a few new tops as well. Summer dresses too, but well, it isn’t summer yet.

So I made a plan to get my closet updated. Which means more not too interesting sewing. I’ve sewn a light grey pair of linen pants and a dark blue t-shirt to go with the jacket.

Last weekend I’ve cut 5 garments, marked and interfaced where necessary and just started sewing. The pair of pants below is the first garment of those 5 that’s finished. The pattern of the pants below is the same as the one above. I just changed the shape of the pockets, made the waistband smaller and added more topstitching and belt loops. Different weave of the fabric makes for a different look too.

In 2016 I used this Burda pattern and was quite happy with the fit. Only the angled pockets are not good on my figure and the legs were very wide. I still have the pair that I made and concluded that it was good to use if I only changed those features. The result is a pattern I can use many times.

In my sewing queue is another pair of linen pants, two skirts and a blouse. I’m challenging myself to finish those within 2 weeks. Might be a bit ambitious.