Suit finished

Photo overload ;). I'm very happy to be able to say I have finished the jacket and the pair of trousers to go with it. Though if I'm honest, I'm not too sure I will wear it together much. It's a lot of green!

 

The label is one that I had laying around, no special meaning to it. It came in a package with several text options. Both the jacket and the trousers are lined with Venezia lining. A lining that I love as it feels very comfortable against your skin. 

I hope to make photos of me wearing the suit, but as that may take a while it's here on the dressform and hanger for now. 

The difference of a sleeve head

 

In the photo above you see the same sleeve! Can you imagine? I added a sleeve head and all the wrinkling was gone. I must say that, even though I know that it is a game-changer, I wondered whether it would be enough or that I would have to re-do the upper part of the sleeve. Not necessary. 

I used the method described by Ann Rowley. The link shows her Flickr album where she explains the method. 

Thank you for your comments. They are very much appreciated, though I do understand that there is no time to comment every time (Dorothé). When I was last active on this blog about two/three years ago I already experienced problems with replying to comments. That has not changed. Even though I'm logged in, I can often only comment anonymously. So I'm sorry I'm not replying, I keep trying!

 

Progress

The jacket of my green suit has seen progress this week, though it isn’t finished yet. The inner construction of the front is done, I added a shoulder placket for extra support as I do in most jackets I make. 

The sleeves are sewn in but they don’t have the sleeve head and (small) shoulder pad yet.

Getting there, it’s the sleeve inner details, hemming and the lining to be done. Hope to finish it in the next few days. If the work we need to do on our house goes as planned.  

An unusual start

 If you’ve followed my blog in the past, you will know that I often do things my way and don’t follow instructions. The same is true for the order of construction. This time I started with the sleeves instead of the body of the jacket. No logical sewing reason, just that I had limited sewing time and postponed working on the inner construction of the body. For that I want real dedicated time. 

For the jacket I chose the less complicated route. I’ll remember the petite jacket for another time and have chosen the May 2006 jacket:

For spring/summer jackets I like 3/4 sleeves. This pattern has those with this nice curved hemline. Buttons will be attached later. 

Some of the inner construction visible here. The facing is interfaced with a thin fusible interfacing. After applying that I marked the stitch lines with carbon tracing paper. 

The curve is trimmed with pinking scissors to make the curve smooth. 

I trim the corners to minimise bulk. 

Next step will be sewing the front with a shoulder shield/placket. 

Old Burda magazines, I love them

Thank you for the lovely comments and kind words on my blogging again. I can’t say how much it means to me that you read this after all the time I neglected this blog. 

The green suit I plan to make is not yet cut, I’m considering two jacket patterns and can’t decide yet. Let me share the options.

First the pattern that was my initial plan, until I realised that it was a ‘petite’ pattern for shorter women. It is from rhe February 2006 issue. I browsed all of my magazines (and I have a lot) to look for a similar shape for the sleeve but the only pattern that was close was a petite pattern too! 

  

If I would choose this pattern I must make changes I’m not too sure about. A muslin would be a first step. 

The other jacket is this one, from the May 2006 issue:

  

Both have 3/4 sleeves that I like but this one has a different style. It is in regular sizes. I know what to change for my figure on this one, Burda being consistent in drafting makes that easier. I love Burda patterns for that. And I love the older magazines better than the current ones, though there is improvement at the moment. There were so many repeat patterns and simple designs! 

This is my favourite trouser pattern right now, from a 2000 issue! I made it twice in the last month, adapting length and width a bit between the two. Will try to make photos of them and planning to use it for the green suit too  

A burgundy red suit

I realised that I have not published anything of what I've sewn in my sewing week in October. The coat plan was abandoned because I was so unsure of the pattern and didn't want to spend that precious sewing week and ending with a garment that I was not happy about. Well, we can always change our minds😀

So I worked on a suit instead. Burgundy red, quite uncommon for me but I have decided that this winter I would not only sew black ;). My winter wardrobe was getting a bit boring!

Both garments were made with Burda patterns. The trousers are from the March 2019 issue, the jacket from the August 2019 issue. 

As always the inside got some extra interfacing, shoulder placket and sleeve head. 

A special lining is always fun! 

I've worn the suit a few times already. Thought it might be formal, but it doesn't feel that way. 

Jacket modeled on me

I have a few catch-up posts to do. Let me start with a post with only a few words. This is the jacket I finished a month ago but didn't yet show wearing it.
I'm very pleased with it and have worn it a few times already. The sewing details are in the previous post.

Jacket from Burda February 2020

Though the muslin of the Knip Mode jacket was a huge disappointment I was still in a jacket sewing mood. I spent an evening trying to draft that jacket myself but it was too complicated. I do have some pattern drafting skills, but this was out of my league.
Then February Burda came along with this pattern. Not as complicated but still lovely lines. Add to this my confidence in their consistent pattern drafting and I was on my way tracing this pattern.

I compared the traced pattern to my sloper and added a little bit to the hip area and made it up in the fashion fabric immediately. My fabric was 1.50 meter wide, a little wider than the fabric used in the magazine and I managed to cut this from only 1.55 meter of fabric. You can see that some pieces are rather close to each other, I defnitely did not use 5/8 inch seam allowances! The only change I had to do was cutting the center back facing with a seam instead of on the fold. Minor issue in my opinion.


 
This is the fabric I used, bought at Croft Mill Fabric.


Construction was pretty straightforward. As most of you know I construct my jackets with a bit more internal structure than instructions in general tell you. This jacket has a shoulder shield (see picture), sleeveheads and a thin shoulder pad. The last two I forgot to take a photo of.



This "belt" is a nice detail and waist accent. Found this lining that suited the jacket very well. Any plain lining would have been fine of course.




Partly unzipped. The zipper was taken from a skirt I made a couple of years ago. It was still in mint condition while the fabric of the skirt was turning from black to grey. It even has a bit more of a story, because I bought this Riri zipper when I was in New York and met Nancy K again. Quite a few years ago now, wish I could do it again. Wish I could find this more special zippers locally too but never found a source for them.



Now I'm working on an easy project, here's a sneak peek. A dress from Burda January 2019. I was just too tired to put the sleeves in tonight.



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For the record

For the record I'm publishing these photos. I know the design lines are difficult to see, especially in the front because I used a remnant piece of dark navy linen and because there was not enough of it a piece of muslin fabric in the back.  You can see that it's straight down at the front and back. By the size chart I'm a size 42 in the bus area and I used 40 because of my narrow back. My reason was that I could do an FBA easier than changing the width of the back. On the back it's still too wide and there's no need for an FBA.
Of course I graded out at the hip area. There's more than enough ease in this area, even though I'm the largest size in the middle set of hip circumferences (see my post from yesterday). Imagine this circumference at the hips for someone whose hip size is 12 centimeters smaller!





I'm still loving the design and despite this thinking of a way to make it work for me. Perhaps I have to draw it based on my sloper. Not this week though.

I don't have confidence in the "drafting adjusted to the size chart" from Knip mode. Back to Burda and Ottobre!

How fast do you sew?

The new issue of Knip mode has a pattern for a jacket that has my name written on it. One of my sewing friends posted the technical drawing in our whatsapp group yesterday and I bought the issue the same day when doing my grocery shopping. The fabric it's made of isn't showing it very well and on the model it looks a bit shapeless, but I love these lines.

It has an intriguing description: an outstanding jacket with special design lines. It needs advanced sewing skills and at least an afternoon of sewing.



In which world is this ever "an afternoon of sewing"????? Tracing and cutting will take up that afternoon (at least!). Putting it together, topstitching, single welt pockets, hook and eye closures, collar with stand.....

I'm planning to make a muslin this time, as Knip Mode has changed its sizing and now claims to be drafting to the size chart more exactly. Read: not as much ease as there used to be.
If it works out as I hope I will probably use zippers for the center front closing and pockets. I'll use a different type of fabric too.