Speaking of sewing friends, I had an unbelievably productive and fun weekend away at the sewing retreat that was organised by Sharon who blogs at Petite and Sewing. Thirty-eight or so ladies in one big room sewing, chatting, laughing punctuated by meals and sleeping of course but uninterrupted by cute but demanding children is my idea of a great weekend away. Plus I managed to get so much done: two shirts, a skirt and a dressing gown for Anna. Now I'm in the rare position of having finished projects that I need to catch up on my photo shoots.
But to use that old cliche - here's one I prepared earlier! The lovely Gabrielle of Up Sew Late graciously met me at lunch time today outside my office to take a photo of jacket I finally finished early last week, many weeks after I started it. And the good news is that I love it so much that I've already worn it twice.
This is the jacket pattern with the funny sleeve caps that I spent a fair bit of time fitting back in February before getting so sick of doing muslins that I didn't go on to make it in the 'good' fabric, although the last version in a lovely cream linen is a wearable muslin. It's jacket #115 from the 2/2014 issue:
This time I left off the sleeve caps not because I didn't like them - in the end I thought they suited the style of the jacket- but mainly because the fabric I chose was very busy and the details would not only have been lost but probably would have disrupted the pattern. The fabric is cotton duck in a black and gold chevron print bought from Spotlight:
I tried really, really hard during cutting out and sewing to match up those chevrons which not only made my eyes go funny but seriously tested my patience which is why it took so long to finish. With two piece raglan sleeves, a waist line seam and princess seams it was impossible to match the seams perfectly, and once I accepted that I was able to quickly finish sewing it and get over myself and my crazy perfectionist ways! I managed to get the seams down my right hand side of the sleeves perfectly matched:
but not so the other arm or back seams, although they aren't too bad to look at:
Like the cream linen version I used a lightweight open ended zipper at the centre front instead of hook and eye tape because it is much easier to wear - no snagging or falling open. But unlike the cream linen version I finished this jacket properly and lined it with bemsilk lining which makes it more comfortable to wear because it slides over the clothes underneath much easier.
As I said on the post for the previous version of this jacket, the pattern drafting is really good and the fitting changes I needed to do were mainly caused by my narrow shoulders and non existent bust line. The only issue I have with this jacket is that the neckline is quite low on the front and back, and a lot of my dresses didn't go with this jacket because they peeked out a little bit at the neckline. I think it would look good with either a roll neck top deliberately poking out of the top or something that has a low neckline so that it stays hidden underneath to make it look clean at the neckline.
And even though I'm not doing me-made-May (because I'm too lazy to take photos each day, not because I don't wear something hand made every day), today I wore with this jacket a handmade dress made from Vogue 8280, the Roland Mouret galaxy dress knock off that I don't seem to have blogged so I must have made it so long ago, but still looks good. But to all of you doing me-made-May you have my congratulations because taking a photo each day let alone thinking of outfits to wear must be a huge undertaking!
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