another finished jacket

This is the jacket #120 from the 3/11 issue of BurdaStyle (one of the last magazines I got from them.)I finished this up on Thursday night, and I’ve worn it twice already! This pic was from yesterday afternoon, courtesy of my boyfriend–we went to his place to hang out and watch a movie after a late lunch (or early dinner) with his family. The furball is one of his two dogs–this one has absolutely loved me from day 1, and likes to hang out close by whenever I’m around!

I’m happy with the fit, and since the color is pretty close to a dark denim, I think it will be fairly versatile in my wardrobe! Here’s some more detail shots:

My one detail that I’m not entirely sure I like is the collar. I think that it pressed out fairly well for corduroy that I was afraid of crushing, and I like the shape of the upper collar and the lapel width. I guess I just wish it didn’t have that huge gap where the collar stand is…the brown cord jacket had that same feature, and I’m undecided about whether it just looks weird or not.

I am very satisfied with the interior finishing job! I went ahead and serged all of the lining insides to keep it from fraying and weakening the seams. This is done with a modified bagged lining–I didn’t want to leave the seam between the jacket and the peplum just kind of billowing out, so I used that seam as my handstitching one instead of leaving a gap in a side seam. I used some instructions from a Sew Stylish magazine I had lying around, and they worked brilliantly! So consider that technique checked.

Look how nice and clean that machine-finished sleeve hem looks. (And in this case, I an all in favor of as little hand-sewing as possible!)

Incidentally, I have about a yard of this floral fabric left, so I need to figure out what to do with it. I’m thinking maybe a simple sleeveless top, but I’ll have to figure out what pattern since the Sorbetto doesn’t really suit me, and I’m a little afraid to use the Pendrell again after what happened with the leftover raincoat lining!

On a more positive note, I think the buttons may be one of my favorite things about this jacket. I cannot believe how absolutely perfectly they go with the lining! And though I had to unpick one that got crazy long, I did get some good practice on all-manual all-the-time buttonholes on my machine.

I’ve sort of started my knit dress, though that’s really a technicality. So far, all of my sewing time on it has been spent wasting using the scraps to try and get my serger to make a nice seam. The front looks basically perfect, but the back side isn’t quite working and the seam does tend to pull apart and show the stitches when any pressure is put on a seam. So I basically have to go over it a second time with the regular sewing machine. According to the book I was looking at, I need to tighten the tension on the left-hand needle, because the stitches are pulled too much in the back. But if I do even a little, those stitches just don’t catch at all and it looks worse on both sides. I know it’s not the needle, because I changed it to a fresh one, and I’m pretty sure it’s not the thread this time, since I’ve got my nice sewing machine thread in the needles right now. The other thing is that part of the threading for that particular needle just won’t stay in place, so I’m not sure that doesn’t have something to do with it. I guess my plan of action is to next call the repair/retail shop where I got the darned thing from in the first place, and see what they suggest. (And if I have to get it fixed AGAIN, ugh.)