Just a little understated piece I whipped up in an afternoon…just kidding! It is loud and proud and took 3 out of the 6 weeks of the PR contest to complete. My first lined, bagged jacket! I am walking around like a peacock in this!
The floral fabric is from Jo-Ann’s, a stretch woven that is fairly thin. I bought it with pants in mind, so I only got a yard and a half. I made it work by adding white quilted sleeves, which I hope toned down the LOUD floral and added a bit of texture. That quilted fabric was a thrift store find. Zipper from a Wawak zipper grab bag that was the best kind of surprise. Now I own 24 more lovely jacket zippers of all different colors and lengths. The lengths don’t matter a bit because it is a cinch to shorten a metal zipper. That means I can make 24 more moto jackets!
I followed the excellent Sew-Along for the Butterick 6169 at www.sewlisette.com. It was very helpful and I learned quite a bit, like how to make a sleeve head and shoulder pads. I made, placed then removed my shoulder pads; they ended up being too much, but it is great to know how to do that now. A word about this pattern — the shoulders were plenty wide for me, which is not usually the case, so they may be a bit wider than average. The sleeve heads work very well to keep my sleeve shape, though!
One really important modification I made was to cut down the entire neckline by half an inch. It felt very tight and claustrophobic, in addition to the shoulders being too wide and the fit too wide. But when I just sewed the entire neckline down a half inch it fixed those issues and made the entire thing sit correctly. I admit that I did shape the sides at the waist by half an inch, too. But I did not lengthen it, and I like the length actually.
As directed, I interfaced the front pieces, but then as I was assembling everything I noticed my stretch sateen was quite limp. So I went back and interfaced the rest of the front and the back. It worked out fine, it might not have been totally necessary since the lining gives it more structure also, but I had to make a judgement call. The result is a jacket that can nearly stand up on its own.
When I got to the lining, I slowed down quite a bit. I’ve never lined a jacket, so I was nervous. And assembling lining is a bit boring after the excitement of the fashion fabric. But just a week or two ago I saw Sew Crafty Chemist advised making the lining first to maintain momentum during the project. Isn’t that clever? I will certainly remember to do that next time.
Aaaaand, I bagged it! Yeah! Bagging the lining was terrifying, I was so certain I was doing it wrong, but then it all turned out and I was so pleased! It is a very cool trick and I feel very accomplished to have made a fully lined jacket. It was on my sewing goal list for the year.
I plan on making at least 2 more of these. I love the shape and the style and I need one in every color, since I wear jackets all the time in our fickle weather. I am going to try to go down a size next time and make it in a less structured fabric (or without interfacing, I guess). This one will go with all the new items I have made for my PR wardrobe (go vote for your favorites!), but I especially look forward to wearing it with blue jeans because I love pink and blue together. And I’m sure I will be spotted in a crowd in this bright, spring jacket!
