The Cropped Jacket

It may have taken years, but I finally made a matching jacket for my pleated skirt.

While doing a bit of decluttering in the sewing room, I came across Simplicity 2841.  It was just the type of jacket design that I had thought would pair perfectly with my pleated skirt and it seemed like as good a time as any to make it.

The fabric matches a wing backed chair that lived in my Grandmother's home, although I am somewhat confused by the remaining and somewhat oddly sized pieces that were left.  This couldn't have been ripped from the chair itself as there is little to no wear on the textile, but it also doesn't have any stitched hemlines that I would associate with discarded curtains.  But no matter, it ended up in my hands, and I am very glad that it did.

I had thought about possible patterns for this fabric last year, but I knew that I was going to have to significantly alter the jacket pattern that I had in mind, and I am so pleased that I waited until I came across this vintage pattern.

The size of this particular pattern is larger than I usually use, but I was more concerned about making all of the pieces fit on the random fabric scraps that I had available to me. 

And while I technically was not able to fit all of my pieces on the fabric, it's not apparent from the outside of the garment, which is all that matters!

As is a common occurrence around these parts lately, I did not have a suitable lining fabric.  But I do have more of that striped silk . . . 

One bottle of Rit Dye later, and I had a (much brighter than expected) pink lining.

Although it is not marked on the pattern piece, the instructions mention adding a pleat to the upper edge of the bodice back lining, however, they push the piece off grain to accommodate the upper edge, but not the waist edge.  I thought this rather odd, so I just added about one inch of ease along the entire center back, and later pleated the upper neck edge and also the waistline for a couple of inches as I have seen done on at least a few coat patterns.

And while I was somewhat surprised by the dark color that didn't fade with rinsing, it does match extremely well to the darker pink shading in some of the flowers, so that was a happy accident!

The lining was hand stitched into place.

I do enjoy a bit of hand sewing, but also, if you have been around vintage clothing, it is common to have the lining fail when the rest of the garment is in great condition.  If that lining is hand stitched, it is SO much easier to remove and replace than if it is machine stitched.  I also find it somewhat irritating to machine stitch two very different types of fabric together (heavy upholstery and lightweight silk would be such a combo) so that's another reason that I prefer hand sewing the lining into place.

And finally, I hand worked an internal buttonhole.  I haven't done one of these in quite some time, and since it is hidden internally because of the double breasted situation, now seemed like the perfect time to get in some hand stitched buttonholes for practice.

As far as the finished product goes, I probably should have sized down slightly with proper drafting through the shoulders.

In the end, I took both side seams and all four darts in at the waistline to give a bit more shape to the jacket.

But the shoulders are a bit dropped for me.  Then again, the illustration does show that shoulder hanging off of the model's shoulder, so perhaps the fit isn't as far off as I imagine.

The good new is that I now have a matching top for my pleated skirt.

And I do think they look great together!

An Informal Full Length Gown

I took a chance that a 1980s vintage reproduction had enough 1940s style to feel like something I would want in my wardrobe.  Turns out, it worked!

I think that the rayon challis print plays nicely within a 1940s theme.

The bodice turned out a bit more drapey than I expected (probably shouldn't have sized up).

And the suggested shoulder pads were excluded from the final dress.

I initially expected to make the knee length version, but changed course when I realized that I had just enough yardage to go for the full length skirt option (minus about an inch).

Green and purple paired together is probably my favorite color combo, which has me wondering why I haven't been working with more purple for the past few years.

This dress has convinced me that I should get back to that stack of rayon challis that I have tucked away.  It may not be the most well mannered fabric in the world, but it is definitely worth any added aggravation.

And it is so much fun to wear.

It is now too cold for a single layer of rayon, but this dress will come in handy when the weather warms up again.

And I would not be surprised if I end up making another version with the shorter skirt as more of a day dress version at some point in the future.

Dress & Belt:  Made by me, Butterick 7036
Shoes:  Remix "Miranda"
Earrings:  Nicky Butler

A Charming Coat

I had high hopes for this Charm Pattern.  And while I did end up with a wearable garment that looks pretty good, this project gave me a lot of grief.  Considering that it is a fairly simple design, that was not something that I was expecting when I first chose the project.

I had enough wool yardage leftover from making this skirt for a short jacket, and a swing coat seemed like the perfect silhouette.  It would also accommodate many of the dresses that I wear with a petticoat, so it was an obvious and useful choice.

The wool is rather thick, so I pulled out my clapper to help with pressing.  That, and a lot of steam is the way to go with wool.

And I can't resist a patch pocket!  I find it much easier to hand baste pieces like this in place, especially when I will be machine sewing them into place.

As an added bit of stability, a length of fusible interfacing was added to the area at the top of the pocket placement on the wrong side of the fabric.  This gives some extra oomph to those corners that tend to see wear/pulling.

And so far I was liking the way this was going together.

The sleeve went in without too much grief, although I probably could have removed a bit of the sleeve head excess.

This design has the option of adding some rather theatrical cuffs.  And since I had enough fabric, why would I not?!  They are substantial, and I believe added to my aggravation later in the process.

The facing was interfaced with a fusible, just standard construction stuff.

And, of course, I went for a bound buttonhole.  Because of the bulk of my wool, I used a coordinating piece of cotton to create a window in the facing side of the buttonhole as I didn't think turning in a narrow fold of bulky wool would look good or lay flat enough.

Lining is in short supply around these parts, but I do have a roll of striped silk that I found at a garage sale years ago and it definitely comes in handy.  I dug around to see what color dye I had on hand, and thought that a blue would contrast nicely with the bright green wool.

The lining went together without any issue.

And I did remember to switch needles, since the wool is so much thicker than the silk.  No silk was pulled or snagged in the sewing of this lining!  Microtex needles are pretty phenomenal.

I didn't have quite as much of a hem as I would have liked. but it still works.

Next is a bit of hand sewing.

At this point, the garment is usually finished.  But in this case, there were some issues that cropped up and were too much to ignore.

Those cuffs, however fabulous, are quite heavy.  The pattern piece is essentially a rectangle, but it should be shaped as they want to restrict the sleeves when folded into place (the fold of the cuff should be wider than where it is stitched to the sleeve to create a larger circumference that doesn't push the sleeve in).  But the major problem is that the lining is no match for the heavy wool and the lining has no choice but to pull on the sleeve.  This creates huge drag lines.  This is the fault of the instructions, in my opinion, and unfortunately, the sleeve lining is cut to have a 5/8" seam allowance which means there is no extra length to work with.  If you are to follow the instructions, the edge of the cuff is stitched directly to the sleeve lining.  A properly drafted coat lining includes extra length at the hem and sleeve hem edges to create an extra fold of lining so that nothing pulls or drags.  The fact that the lining is significantly less weighty than the wool (especially multiple layers of wool cuff) exacerbates this issue.  I suspect that leaving the cuff off would produce a slightly better result . . . but it would still be an issue.

I had dyed a limited amount of silk for my lining, so there was no way to cut out two extra sleeves.  And I really didn't feel like redoing my lining at this point.  My only other option was to add a strip of extra fabric along the lining sleeve edge.

It's not an elegant solution, but it works.  And I was so disgusted with the project at this point that I didn't even bother to take pictures after I had corrected the issue.  You can see how the wool sleeve bags at the point where it meets the cuff.  Essentially, the lining is too short and is restricting the wool sleeve from hanging naturally.

Now that the coat has been in a time-out for almost a year, I have decided to forgive it and myself.  What really aggravates me is that I knew this was going to be an issue as soon as I read through the directions.  But did I trust my gut?  No, of course not!  I won't be making that mistake with a coat lining again, that's for sure!  In the end, I have a very wearable wool coat, and I am thankful for that.  I just thought that this was going to be a drama free and easy project to stitch together, and it was definitely not that!