Friday, October 25, 2019

A jacket - Burda August 2019

Change of plan, instead of showing recent makes, I'm documenting the making of a jacket, to share and for my own future reference.
The pattern is jacket number 113 from August Burda. A lovely design that I planned to make since I saw it. It's been quite a long time ago that I made a jacket and I really felt an urge to make one.



Pattern tracing and changes

  • I traced a size 40 at the upper body, grading out to size 44 at hip height.
  • Added 3 cm to the upper body pattern pieces (default change for me).
  • Sleeve length looks fine, no initial change. Decision will be taken later.
  • Did an FBA to the front and side panel.
  • Compared the pattern pieces to my sloper. Looks fine but a bit more ease might be better, so I cut with wider side seams.

Preparing the pattern pieces

As always, I'm not following Burda instructions and doing things my way. That is, the way I learned from several real life or online teachers and books over the years. 
  • The front pattern pieces were interfaced with a heavier fusible interfacing. The area for the pleat was cut out. I think it will make the pleat less stiff, but it's a "call of judgement" that I'm not sure of.
  • The side panel has an extra layer at the top.
  • The back pattern pieces have a light weight interfacing. Both the center back pattern as the side have extra interfacing at the top.
  • On the front I've added a shoulder shield, to prevent a dip of fabric in that area

You may notice there are pencil lines on all pattern pieces. Those are the seam lines and notches. In this fabric and with the interfacing on top these lines won't be visible on the outside. So I didn't bother with tracing paper or wash-away pens.  As always I prefer to work with actual seam lines over default seam allowances.


Shoulder shield

This article in Threads magazine discusses the (inner) construction of an Armani jacket. It might have been the first time I read about a shoulder shield. Later I saw it used in a Craftsy (now Bluprint) class by Alison Smith. I've used it in many jackets since. 
The canvas is cut without seam allowance and 2-3 mm inside the seam at the front/neckline in this case. A fusible interfacing is cut that is slightly larger at the shoulder seam, the armhole seam and front, but does not cover the whole canvas at the bottom. Fusing this over the canvas makes the canvas stay put.




This preparation took quite some time. I hope construction will go smoothly.

14 comments:

  1. Looking good. Of course you aren't following Burda's directions! We've both been sewing long enough to develop our favorite tailoring methods and what work best.

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    1. Fully agree. I don't expect a magazine like Burda to have detailed instructions for this. It would take many pages and become very expensive. And a lot of sewists would perhaps think it's impossible to make, but you can do it without all of this and get a beautiful jacket too.

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  2. That is a gorgeous jacket! It will be interesting to see how those pleats sit on a real body.

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    1. I'm very interested too to see how it looks on me ;)

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  3. Lovely pattern! I always find the preparation of coat and jacket pieces the hardest part. So many decisions for the inner works, Which type/brand of interfacing did you use for the front?

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    1. I used ECC22 Coat weight from the English Couture Company. I buy most of my interfacing there. I'm not too fond of the interfacing that's sold here (vlieseline)

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    2. Me neither! I buy from AC ter Kuile in Enschede, but they produce so many different types and weights that it can be challenging to pick the right one.

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    3. I checked their website (had never heard of them) and indeed, they have a lot. But looks like they are selling wholesale. What quantities do you buy?

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  4. Handig om dingen vast te leggen met beelden. Ik doe het ook vaak, maar kom dan niet tot bloggen. Je inspireert weer tot actie bij mij.

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    1. Zo herkenbaar. En je dan afvragen wat je ook alweer bedoelde met die foto die ergens op je telefoon staat ;).

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  6. This is looking great Sigrid. I just love following along your project journeys. Thank you for sharing them with us. Your photos and detailed descriptions are such fantastic teaching tools.

    It looks like you rough cut your fabric to approximate size and shape, then apply the interfacing and then lay the pattern over the piece and mark seamlines and notches?

    Gayle in Canada

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  7. Thank you Gayle. You got it exactly right, that’s the way I did it.

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