Purple Pleasant Jacket & The Floral Dress

The Reveal ~
I originally wrote the last post including this one but it was getting to long even for me. So I split them into two posts. Sorry for making you wait for the reveal, but believe me you didn't want to wade through a post twice this size!

Next I have to tell you that this dress is not the final dress for the dress/jacket combo!  It's the filler dress.  See my photographer can only fit me in every other Sunday and I almost missed the light this Sunday due to the nerve of someone wanting hair extensions!  I really wanted pics of the jacket because I put a lot of hard work into it. So I banged out a quick TNT dress in the purple floral doubleknit to wear with the jacket for photos.

Let's start with the jacket. Here's the post that discusses the idea for the dress and jacket.  

Stats ~
Pattern:
Vogue 8815 - top with long sleeves morphed into a jacket pattern

Fabric:
Wool blend with fusible knit interfacing already attached

Notions:
4 - 1" black buttons
aubergine rayon lining
1/4" shoulder pads

Construction ~
Pattern alterations were fully discussed in the first & second posts. All the construction info was in my last post. After trying the jacket on, I realized that my shoulders are not as square as Lulu's so I needed a little filler. I  rummaged around in my shoulder pad drawer and came up with two choices. The 1/4" shoulder pads worked best.

Conclusion ~
I like the jacket and I don't like many jackets these days.  It's a different look for me and I can wear a belt with it - which is my new thing these days!  Look Ma, a belt, haven't seen one of these since the 80's!  Guess that treadmill walking is paying off ~ or everything is falling below the Mason-Dixon line! *LOL*  I don't know if I would make this again as a jacket.  I think I would like to try it as a top with a pencil skirt under it.  We'll see though because I have ALOT of things on my sewing list!

The Dress

This is my TNT dress without all the bells and whistles.  This dress is unlined ~ I will wear a slip underneath it.  There are no facings or sleeves in it.  It is simply the fabric making it work.  The fabric arrived in a box while I was on my sewcation, sshhhhh, don't tell anyone okay, because it really was Linda's fault.  She showed this fabric on her blog and I just had to have some in both colorways!  Okay before you say it, I will just say it for you, yes, I know I'm a fabric piggy. *hanging head in shame*  But in my defense, this didn't even make it off the cutting table because it played so nice with the purple wool blend!

I did remember some of my "good" sewing techniques because there are two strips of ltwt. knit fusible interfacing down either side of the dress' center back so that the invisible zipper wouldn't ripple when inserted.  And I did add seam tape to the shoulder seams to help with stabilizing the shoulders.  Otherwise this is a cut, sew and wear dress.  The neckline, hemline and armholes were all pressed flat with a little stitch witchery added to them, then topstitched with a twin needle.  Done, done, done...I think it took me three hours from the first pin to the last stitch.

However, I really want to make a dress with the purple fabric as the skirt, y'know how I originally saw the dress & jacket.  I've got this great silk print to use as the top of the dress.  Here is the fabric combo...

I will be working on the dress this weekend...starting with my TNT dress pattern, of course.

A few more pics...

...as always more later!

Purple Pleasant Jacket & Dress ~ Part 3

Before we get into any more construction details...look what I found when I was cleaning off my camera...

Maybe this is why I can't find the Lord & Taylor ad.  I took a picture of it and probably threw it out afterwards knowing that I had photographic evidence. Seriously though, doesn't that jacket just make you think of V8815?!

First a disclaimer ~
I'm sure that those of you proficient at pattern drafting gave me the side eye on some of my pattern "alterations."  I'm also sure that there is some dart rotation thingy that I should have done to the front bodice piece instead of my makeshift pattern alterations.  Now if Craftsy could offer a class on pattern alterations, I might sign up for it but for right now, I'm going with what works for me.  

So here is the disclaimer...just because I did this and it worked, doesn't mean that this is the proper way to achieve these results.  I would hate to lead you, the reader, down the wrong path.  I kinda sew intuitively and I knew that the changes I made would work but for the right way, I would suggest that you check out a good patternmaking book like "Patternmaking for Fashion Design" by Helen Joseph-Armstrong.

Okay some more construction details...

The Lining ~

• I used an aubergine lining from my collection for this jacket.  
• All of the pieces were cut out and then serge finished.
• I sewed the lining pieces for the bodice together and then applied them to the  front facing.
• The peplum lining pieces were stitched at the hemline and then the side seams sewn together
• The peplum was sewn to the bodice at the waistline.  
• The lining was folded down 5/8" and then handstitched to cover the bodice/peplum seamline.

The Sleeves ~
The sleeves were inserted into the jacket.  I left them unlined. I went back and forth over whether they should be lined. But I left them unlined because I made changes to the sleeves while I was sewing them to get them to work and I have no way of recreating those changes. Also, I was scared that if I took them apart I wouldn't get them to work in the jacket again. I will also admit that I want to wear the jacket more than I want to figure out how I did it. *sigh*  That's sad isn't it?! But the truth will set you free! *LOL*

So I get the first sleeve in and I have a few puckers.  The kind that you can usually press out.  I use to press my sleeve caps on my ham but a couple of months ago, I bought this shoulder stand after seeing it on Ann's blog. 

OMG, this is a lifesaver!  It pressed my sleeve in perfectly...so very, very glad that I added it to my pressing tools.

Finishing the neckline ~
Of course in my make the lining work insertion, I probably should have sewn the lining down at the neckline and the front neck facing and flipped it into the jacket. But I didn't do that. Didn't even think of it until after I'd sewn the binding onto the neckline and turned it down. Probably if I'd taken more time to really think it out, I would have come to that conclusion but I put finishing the neckline off until I'd worked out all the other challenges. It's not the most "professional" finish but it works.  

Here's what I did...

• I cut a 2" bias strip from my scraps.  
• I seamed it and matched the seam at the center back of the jacket.  
• Stitched the binding to the jacket using a 5/8" seam allowance.
• Trimmed the seam in half.
• Pressed the binding over the trim seam and folded it in half.
• Pressed it flat again.
• Then handstitched it into the jacket.

Lastly here are the buttons that I chose to go on the jacket.  Originally I was going to use gold buttons...even had them picked out.  However, the other day when I was in WalMart browsing the fabric dept that has reappeared in all of my local WalMarts, I found these buttons...

I actually liked them on the jacket front so I'm going to use them.  Now you will notice that the inspiration jacket has no buttons just a belt.  I do have a black skinny belt that I'm going to wear with the jacket but I need buttons or some sort of closure to hold the jacket together underneath my winter coat.  So 4 of these will go on the bodice front of the jacket - not the peplum - it will hang free.

I leave you with the jacket on Lulu which I'm amazed to realize is a little tighter on her than me!  Wow!  

The dress is up next and because I banged it out Sunday morning, I'll leave you with a sneak peek...

...as always more later!

Pleasant Purple Jacket - Vogue 8815

This post is all about the jacket's construction.  Since I decided not to make a muslin, I thought I would baste the jacket together to check for fit.  So here is the jacket basted together on Lulu...

Since the wool was already backed with a fusible interfacing, I didn't bother serge finishing the pieces.  I plan on lining the jacket and the fabric wasn't going to ravel so I skipped that step.  I sewed the pieces together using a 4.0 stitch on my Janome 6600P and I pressed all the seams open.  I just couldn't help myself!  I didn't think I would get as good an idea about the fit if the seams weren't pressed open.

Here are a few changes I made as I basted the pieces together...

*The 5/8" seam allowance that I added to the front peplum was removed.  It wasn't needed so it was easy to slice off.
*There was a 1/4" seam allowance removed from the sides so that it would match up with the back piece.

There were major changes made to the sleeves.  I'd already made adjustments to the sleeves but they were way too tight with a sleeve cap that was too high.  First I made adjustments to the sleeve cap by cutting it down from a size 24 to a size 20 merging it in on the sides.

Then I placed my short sleeve dress pattern under the newly adjusted sleeve pattern, to use it to add additional width at the biceps.

Here is the redrawn sleeve...

Now the sleeves fit my bodacious biceps.

I worked on the jacket and still something was wrong with it.  The sleeve didn't hang quite right and I was starting to get discouraged.  Finally I decided to recut the front and back pieces again. To the front piece, I added about 1.5 inches above the dart.  I did this because the front and back pieces weren't matching that amount.  But recutting those pieces meant that I couldn't make the dress.  The potential of the jacket made me go for it. I could find another way to make the dress work with the fabric I had left.

So I basted everything back together and as you can see from above it works...and not just on Lulu but on me too.   Now I have to make lining pieces for the front/back and peplum pieces and attach them to the fashion fabric.  This is where I'm at...guess that means there will be one more update post before the reveal...hope you don't mind!?! I do need to keep a record for myself so that if I get the crazy idea to make this jacket again (don't really think that's happening...but nevah say nevah!) I will have a record of what I did.

...as always more later!

Pleasant Purple Dress & Jacket - The Idea

This inspired my next piece...

www.Macys.com

I originally saw it in a Lord & Taylor ad.  Of course I cut out the ad and of course I also misplaced it.  The original ad was well photographed and immediately made me think of Vogue 8815.  You know that top that just everyone is making...there's already 28 reviews of it at Patternreview.  It's one of those patterns that looks good on all body types so of course I added it to my must sew list.

I had all intentions of making it as a top but seeing this jacket/dress combo, I knew V8815 would work for this project.  So I'm using an eggplant wool blend that came with the interfacing attached.

Fabric backed with a tricot interfacing

Front view of the fabric

Of course to turn it into the garment I wanted, I made several pattern alterations to morph it from a top into a jacket pattern.

Pattern Alterations:

The front bodice piece ~

• The front top had a side dart added to it by using my dress front as a basis to change the dart.
• The space for the front dart was incorporated into the piece.  The bottom of the pattern piece was straightened out.
• Then 2" plus the 5/8" seam allowance was added to the front so that I would have a button front closure.

The front peplum ~
Added 3.5"to the center front of the peplum to accommodate the dart that was removed from the hemline.

Then added another 2" to the front for the button closure and 5/8" for the seam allowance.

The two pattern pieces together...

Back piece ~ 
The dart was left as part of the pattern and I used the center back seam for shaping.  No other changes at all were made to this piece.

The back peplum ~
1.5" added to the back of the peplum pattern piece that will be cut on the fold. Ooops once I typed that I realized that I don't want a center back seam on the back peplum so I removed 5/8" from the center back for the seam since I'm cutting it on the fold.

Now here's the conundrum...
I hate making muslins.  At this point, a sane sewist would not cut her good fabric but would find a comparable fabric and make a muslin.  To be honest, I've gone back and forth over whether I should make one...and I really believe that if I did so, that I would never make the final jacket.  I'm just not built to make 2 or 3 unwearable pieces to get the proper fit on a pattern.  It's why I use a pattern so many times.  I'm constantly adjusting the fit with each new garment.  This is not the common wisdom of these sewing times and I realize that I'm bucking against that trend.  But I know me.  I know how I like to sew...and after 43 years of practicing my craft, I'm gonna go with works for me.

Okay so that's where I'm at, taking a deep breathe and taking my shears to the fabric, hoping for the best!  However, I do have extra fabric so if I need to recut or scrap the idea totally, I can still make the dress. I'm fine with whichever way it goes because sewing is always an adventure right?

This may be strange but I'm actually finding that I'm enjoying sewing more when I make one of these involved pieces...and this sewcation has been all about the involved piece.  Probably why my output has been so low but instead of the frustration I felt during my last sewcation, this one has been creatively fulfilling.

...as always more later!