Friday 30 August 2013

Lil' Black Jacket

I'm back! Sorry for being away from the blogosphere for so long - a few weeks I think - we've had a long run of colds and flus in the family, combined with busy times at work and school, so I fell into a habit of late night sloth.  Sloth is certainly enjoyable, but you don't get much done ;)/

Anyway, I'm back, and I have stuff to show. Like this little black jacket, completed shortly after the 'out of darkness' dress and before the slough of sloth.



It's kind of boxy and imperfect, but kind of cute despite the flaws:



Its shoulders are ginormous (mine aren't really up to the job of supporting them):



But the tapering - YES; the curves - YES:

  

I'll save the worst view to the end of the post :) 


So, the pattern, you ask? It's an old Vogue Donna Karan pattern, a gem I picked up second hand last year and that's been on my "to sew" list ever since. Seeing so many cute By Hand London jackets lately pushed this to the top of the queue:




And the fabric? Well, the fabric was supposed to be a seat cover; how boring (don't tell Mr UpSewLate).  I bought it at The Fabric Shop during the first Sydney Social Sewists meetup of this year, and at the time, Maria said she thought the fabric would make a great little jacket - all the inducement I needed.




Let's talk about the making now, shall we?

First off: sizing... I'd normally make a 12 in a Vogue jacket, but this jacket is designed to be loose fitting, and it's from the era of super-baggy clothes, so I figured that made me a 10. The shoulders are still too wide - crazy wide, but my mum reminded me that back in the 80s shoulder pads were intended to sit partially off the shoulder, and I've used authentic 80s shoulder pads of the excessive size specified in the pattern, so I guess crazy wide was the intended look.




And what about fitting? I sewed the outer as is, in a 10, and then I tried it on. The shoulder pads were so large that I found it hard to tell what the jacket was going to look like with them sewn in, but I thought the sleeves would look better at 3/4 length -  I removed 3 inches in sleeve length. The waist was pretty snug but it was too late to adjust and I'm pretty keen on the sharp angle you get from oversized shoulders and a too tight waist...



And any other changes? Well I thought this jacket was a perfect candidate for a machine sewn bagged lining, which is not what the instructions were telling me to do. I sewed the lining to the facings (per the instructions), then sewed lining to jacket hem on the machine most of the way around, leaving gaps at the lower corners of the lapels.



I removed 4 inches from the length of the sleeves in the lining fabric so as not to get that nasty lining-sticking-out look on the sleeve, and then poked the sleeves through the hemline gaps and sewed sleeve linings to sleeve outers by machine - which takes some topological care or you're liable to get a twist between the sleeve and lining.



With the sleeves popped back out, I closed the gaps with hand stitching - and added a few strategic hand stitching to keep the facings in place.




Any stuffups? Yes, of course! The sleeves - so poorly set in, as I'm sure you've already noticed and been polite enough not to mention. I gathered the sleeve caps carefully before setting them in, but heavy linen just doesn't cooperate with easing in the way wool does - so I should've taken more time with this step. I know I could go back and fix this - and I could bring the shoulder line in an inch - but I just cannot bring myself to do it.





Next up I've got a cape in progress for the Great Kiwi Cape Caper (of course that's not what it's really called), and a completed Princess dress. Which was kid sewing, so probably not so interesting to most of you but maybe I can make it more interesting by having a giveaway or something...


Time for bed - see you later!

Gabrielle x




17 comments:

  1. Oh how cute! that looks like the perfect thing to dress up an outfit, or deal with a freezing cold office.

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    1. Thanks Becki-C! I hope it will be - it's still not quite summer weather here, so I'm hoping that after a bit of time in the wardrobe I won't even notice the flaws :).

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  2. I just love the waist shape! And good call on shortening the sleeves and the advice on sizing for patterns from the '80's. I will keep that in mind, thanks.

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    1. It's a really nice shape, isn't it! That young Donna Karan will go far, won't she... errr she already has.

      I think it's pretty safe to go down a size on shoulders and arms in these exaggerated 80s patterns (probably hips too), but the waist size looks to be the same as current sizing.

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  3. I think it is a great jacket and that fabric looks better on you than being a seat cover! Besides the look you went for here is perfect, I like how it looks with casual clothing. Very well balanced!
    I love the 80s. When I was to London reciently, I went to an exhibition of the 80s fashion held at the V&A museum and I just fell in love (again) with that decade

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    1. Thanks Merche, I find it very hard to make a seat cover because I can always find something more interesting to do with the fabric :)

      I'm sure you can tell I love the 80s - loved them first time around, still love them! OMG I wish I could see that exhibition - was there any stuff from the New Romantic movement, or from the clubbing scene?

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  4. Great jacket and this is much better use of the fabric. Know what you mean about bagging the sleeves, have just done this on my trench (still finishing) and it did take some serious head work.

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    1. Thanks Sharon, I do find seat covers very boring compared to jackets... Bagging the sleeves is an interesting little topological problem, isn't it - I love when pure maths intersects with sewing :)

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  5. I love it! And this fabric is definitely more jacket-like than seat cover-like :-). I think it will look great with a fitted dress too.

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    1. Thanks Rachel, I must have been deluded when I bought the fabric. Repair a falling apart seat cover? Huh? Priorities!!!

      I'm hoping it will have waist-reducing properties when worn over a fitted dress, but that remains to be seen...

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  6. Go the 80's, they have so much to answer for! Just joking, I too love a wide-shouldered, tapered waist look. I quite like this and didn't really notice any of the issues you noted. I too have been seeing a lot of the Victoria Blazer. Giving me ideas for my own...

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    1. The 80s were so much fun! The 70s have a lot to answer for too you know :)

      Well hopefully the flaws aren't too noticeable in real life... There are such a lot of cute little jackets around - on the internet and out and about! Will you make a Victoria blazer or something else?

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  7. Such gorgeous texture on that fabric! What I really like on this pattern is the shape of the hem - the way it curved around is really flattering.

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    1. Thanks Melanie, it really didn't have much chance of becoming a seat cover... Yes, that's one of my favourite things about this pattern too - I'd like to make it again without the 80s shoulders, but there's so much already on my to-sew list!

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  8. The shape is great, I particularly like the hem. Long live the 80s!

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  9. It's very cute! I like the boxiness and cropped length a lot. I bet you'll wear this a tonne.

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  10. Nice. Knipmode has a similar pattern that I've been meaning to try for 2.5 years now (o0). I always remember when winter's too cold for short jackets to be practical so this is a good reminder to get on with it now.

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