McCalls 5941 Jacket

This all started with these pants that I made last week. I had plenty of fabric left over, so I wanted to make a jacket to go with it. I decided I would make the Textile Studios Capri Jacket, but after searching through all of my patterns, I could not find it. I decided to order the LH Garbo Jacket from Pattern Review. It only took a couple of days to get here, so I got right on it. I cut the top of the jacket using my upper bust measurement and then did a FBA. Well, it fit perfectly over the bust, but was too tight in the shoulders. I was disappointed, because there really wasn't any way that I could fix it, and although it is wearable, it doesn't look very good. Fortunately, I still had almost 2 yards of fabric left over, so I decided to try something different. I had been wanting this McCalls pattern,5941, so I went to my local Walmart and bought it. I cut it out and practically made the whole thing in one evening. I did finish it up the next day, and wore it to work today.

I really like the jacket, but I need to move the snap because it does not hang straight in the front. I did cover the snaps with a scrap of ambiance

I am really anxious to try two new patterns that I just ordered. Both of them are pants patterns from Loes Hinse. These are not new patterns, but I really want something super comfortable to wear to work and on weekends. I always wear my tops out, and especially in the winter, I usually have on a sweater or jacket, so why not try some elastic waist pants that are quick to sew and comfortable to wear? I am trying the cruise pant and the Oxford pant. Both of these pants have gotten good reviews on PR, so I'm going to give them a try.
























Cruise pant on the left and Oxford on the right.

I am also thinking about joining the SWAP on Stitcher's Guild. I had a lot of plans for what I wanted to make, and then I realized I needed something totally different. The contest ends somewhere around March, and I'm planning another trip to Uganda in late March. I am so excited to have the opportunity to return there and teach women how to sew. This time we have a much better plan, and will be teaching women to make skirts, since this is mostly what they wear. As plans for the trip develop, I will keep you posted. Anyway, I'm going to be needing clothes for the trip. Last year I made quite a few things and then gave them to the people in the last village we worked with. I will probably do something similar this time. Now I know that bright, colorful clothing is what I need, so I am working on a plan!

V8522 jacket finished!

This would have been finished a week ago, but I didn't have any big snaps. Well, actually I do have big snaps, but they are not black and I can't find them. Story of my life - I can never find things when I want them. I try to be organized, but I'm like that ADD kid and don't always pay attention to what I'm doing, so half the time, I don't remember where I put things, even though it makes perfect sense to me at the time I put them away. sigh.....









Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the jacket. It does have a problem with the lining wanting to roll out to the front. The jacket is lined to the edge, meaning there are no facings. It doesn't seem to be a problem in the sleeves or even at the hem, but where the lining meets the collar - that's another story. I added an additional snap to keep the front from fold ing back, but if that doesn't stop the lining from rolling out, I'll probably have to stitch it down from underneath the collar. I did understitch the lining under the length of the collar, but that's not doing the trick. I may have to actually stitch part of the collar to the jacket to hold it in place. We'll see what happens after the first time I wear it. Which, actually is why I did not hurry to finish this - it's just to hot to wear a jacket. It is still in the high 90's here - but I'm not complaining. Although I am ready for fall, I love the warm weather and could live in it all year long. Even though it is sometimes too hot to sleep at night (I think part of that is just that I'm having my own personal summer in addition to the one outside), I still love the feeling of the sun on me because I am usually too cold.


Last weekend I went on a women's retreat with the women from our church and roomed with a good friend. We had a great time and it was nice to meet some of the women and talk to others that I really only know by name but had never talked to. It was about a 3-1/2 hour drive to get there, but I think it took us more than 4 to get there. We went to a place called Lopez Canyon. It is near the coast. There were some really cool rock formations and examples of plate tectonics and folding there

Taking a Break

I'm taking a little break from working on my FSG 1945 jacket. It is coming along fine, but it's hard to be motivated to work on a jacket when it's been over 100 degrees every day. Here's my progress so far. I'm ready to cut out and sew the lining. That will also help the collar to roll more nicely than it looks here on the dress form.












I don't know what has happened to my dress form, but she is having a serious posture problem. This is a vintage dress form and you adjust the measurements from a series of bars with screws and wing nuts on the inside. I have all of the proportions right, but she is leaning forward and her butt is sticking out. It's kind of hard to tell how anything will fit or hang with her standing like this. I'm not really sure how to fix her. I've tried, but this seems to be the best I can get.















There are still so many things I want to make to wear NOW. I got some linen the other day from Fabric Store and decided to put it to use. I bought McCalls 5664 a while ago and it looked like it would be a good match for the fabric. I am doing it in all white (no colored bow) so that it will go with more colors. This also is taking a little longer than I thought it would.








This time I was smart and looked at the other reviews on Pattern review. Because of what I had read, I decided to go ahead and add an inch and a half to the front to make it longer. Well, when I got to the point to try that on, I realized that it was still a couple of inches shorter in the front than it was on the sides! There are wide gussets on the sides, so I used my curved ruler and took about 3" off the side seam, curving down to the hem at the front of the gusset. I also ended up taking another inch or so off the back, because since there are no darts in the front, added length is needed there, even if you just want it to hang evenly all around.

This blouse has a placket in the front and I am pleased with how mine turned out. I think the key to making a good placket is to mark carefully. This one didn't turn out perfectly, but unless you are examining it (which you will, when I put up a picture!) it looks just fine.

I've got the collar sewn on and just need to slip stitch the inside of the collar band. Hopefully I can get the sleeves and hem done tomorrow and I will be finished! I could get it finished tonight, but DH needs me to run a few errands with him. My back is protesting anyway from too much sewing today!

1945 progress - sleeve

I've been working on my jacket little bits at a time. You can see here that I have all of the pieces of the shell sewn together except for the sleeves. At this point, I realized that my pocket was too large and would be running into the seam between the facing and the front, so I cut that down smaller. As you can see, there are a lot of seams in this jacket! But, that's the great thing about it, because you can really get the fit right - which always seems to be my nemesis!






I really like to use my tailor's board when making a jacket or shirt. You can really get into those tight spots and press everything well. People at my work always say that my clothes don't look homemade (thank goodness). I tell them it's because I spend more time at the ironing board than the sewing machine! Good pressing really makes a huge difference.













OK, so now the fit issue. I started this jacket by cutting 12 in the shoulder and then tapered to a 14 at the hip. I could tell that the upper bodice was too big, so I cut the pieces down to a size 10 above the bust and resewed them. I then removed 3/4" from the shoulder and tapered it down to the original seamline at the bottom of the armscye. I still have too much fullness above the bust, so I am going to need to take some more off the front bodice above the bust. Also, I think I need to take the sleeve in a little bit, since I orignially cut it as a 12 and I probably need to cut it down to an 8. I am trying this on over jeans, but I can see that I'm going to also need to take it out a little in the hip area.

1945 Progress

I got to do a little sewing tonight. Last night I sewed the center back seam, and the plaid did not match at all. It took me forever to rip out black thread on this black background boucle! So tonight, I basted the back pieces(4), side seams, and shoulder seams together with yellow thread! I was expecting to have to make a lot of fit adjustments, but this seems to fit nicely across the back as it is.

I'm not sure how much room I need to leave here for the sleeves, but it seems like the armscye's are too big. Maybe I need to move the shoulder point in a bit?

Also, it seems like there may be some excess fabric just above the bust at the armscye. I usually have this problem and always feel like things would fit better if I took a dart at the arm. This has a princess seam that goes into the arm, so maybe I should take it in a little there.

What do you think?

Hong Kong finish tutorial- vogue 8208 jacket

I finished my jacket, which is the last piece in my "core" travel wardrobe. I am liking the linen more now and finding that it looks better after being washed a few times. I have a complete review at Pattern Review
I also completed my first attempt at doing a photo tutorial and used my photo album at Picassa to do this. Tutorial

There is an arrow at the top of each picture and directions below. Click on the arrow to go to the next step. I haven[t yeat figured out how to move this to my blog directly without copy and pasting each step. For some reason, blogger is not letting me add pictures right now, so I'll have to try again later.