It finally fits.

Well, I tackled the beast and am so glad I did. Now I have a jacket I know I will love and wear. I didn't quite know what I needed to do until I tore it apart.

The first thing I did was remove the seambinding from the under part of the armscye. this opened up the arm by almost 1/2 inch! The sleeves were too tight, so since I had started and ended the braid in the back arm seam, this is the seam I took apart. I had left a generous seam allowance here so I was able to go with a 1/4" seam there and that opened up the arm by about 1" I was able to loosen up some of the stitching in the armscye, so I didn't need to lower or cut it at all. Now the sleeve and the armscye fit nicely, but the lining was too tight.

I opened up the underarm seam on the sleeve all the way from armscye to sleeve hem. I cut a 1-1/2 strip of lining fabric about 2" longer than I needed and sewed it in with 1/4" seams. This added 1" to the sleeve. I left the additional 2" at the armscye because I figured I would have to make a gusset or something to accomodate the new sleeve side. I took out the armscye seam for about 2" on either side of the sleeve seam I had just increased. Surprisingly, by releasing some of the stitching on that curve, I was able to "stretch" the body so that it all fit together without adding anything! I got it all sewed back together and re-hemmed the bottom and finished the sleeve hems. I worked for about an hour or more on the beading and got about half way done.
This afternoon I made the buttonholes and sewed on the buttons. I plan to finish the beading tonight, take a picture, and post my finished jacket tomorrow!