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.

The difference a shoulderpad makes

I’m working on a spring jacket. This time I’m not using many tailoring techniques I wanted to make a “quick” jacket, to be combined with a few other items, still to be sewn.
The pattern is Vogue 1439. Out of print but still sold at Vogue patterns.

This picture from the Vogue website shows the jacket worn with a cowl neck top, not a good choice for this style jacket. Not a very flattering photo.
My fabric is totally different and not showing the design lines as well. I will go into more details on the pattern and what I changed in another post but wanted to show you the difference a shoulderpad makes.
In the first picture the sleeve on the right hand side (picture left) has a shoulderpad pinned to it, the other not.

A few minutes later, the other shoulderpad is pinned too. Can you see that it lifts a bit and als stabilizes the front? I interfaced the front pattern pieces, but did not make a shoulder shield as I mostly do in jackets. But I did add sleeveheads and shoulderpads as I think it hugely improves the appearance of a jacket.

It’s a rather close fitting jacket on me, only suitable to wear with a simple t-shirt or camisole, but that’s fine. I hope to finish this jacket very soon.