Work in Progress Wednesday 5/21

I haven’t intended to have so few Work in Progress posts this year, it’s not as if I haven’t been sewing – just not thinking of taking photos while I work and getting round to posting anything!  Today I’ve made a start on a new jacket.  I’d realised that I had no black jacket for the winter – time to put that right.  As I said in a previous post, the Burda patterns haven’t exactly been inspiring lately, but there were two in the August magazine that caught my eye.  I’ve already made the trousers, this is the other pattern.

Jacket 111 is slightly boxy, hip length, double breasted with collar and interesting sleeves.  It was the sleeves that made me stop and look again, they’re cut in three, with horizintal seams.  Volume has been added in each piece, creating a cocoon shape which is emphasised in the magazine’s version with piping.  Initially I wanted to use up the remains of the cotton jaquard from my Mother’s Day coat, and add plain navy.  But it wasn’t to be, there just wasn’t enough of the jaquard.  But I had something else…

I traced the 44 and toiled in some old curtain fabric, waiting to see what I’d need in the way of an FBA.  I didn’t need any width, there’s plenty of ease in this jacket!  But I needed the shoulders to be narrower, they hung over too far, even for a loose, casual fitting jacket.  I altered the line of the armhole to take into account 1cm of shorter shoulder seam, and it’s worked.  For the bust, I decided on moving the bust dart down 2cm and then adding depth in the front.  I added 2cm of depth, and took in the excess at the side seam in the dart.

A second toile of the front (I took the seam ripper to the first front pieces and took them off) revealed the adjustments worked.  I left the length of the jacket and sleeves alone, they’re all fine.  I had thought to make welt pockets in the front, instead of the inseam pockets the pattern has, but got lazy and just left the existing pockets!

I chose not to add all the structure I’d usually use to this jacket.  I have the standard interfacing, weft insertion fusible on the t-front, back yoke and supporting the underarms, sleeve head, collars and a lighter weight fusible on the facings.  I’ve also added 5cm deep bias cut interfacing to the hem area to support the fold.  I’ve also kept the cotton fusible tape along the front edge to stop it stretching out of shape and just make that area all nice and crisp.  What I’ve left out is the canvas chest piece that always goes into one of my jackets.  But I have decided shoulder pads are a must.  The pattern doesn’t call for shoulder pads, but it just didn’t look right like that, I much prefer it with the pads in.

I thought I’d share my method of sewing inseam pockets in this post.  This method gives you a really nice neat finish, I never use the Burda method!  Well, not any more, anyway!  So here goes.  First thing  to do is to consider whether or not the fabrics you’re using need support.  If you’re like me, your pockets are going to be well used!  Another thing to look at is the weight of your fabric – mine is bulky so I’ve chosen to cut the pockets from the lining fabric but I don’t want to see lining fabric when I open the pocket.  So I’ve cut a 5cm wide pocket facing that will be attached to the back pocket piece.

Start with placing the front pocket pieces right sides together with the front pieces and sew along the seam line between the markings.  Start and stop exactly on the markings.  Then snip, at a slight angle from the edge of the fabric to the markings/end of stitching.  Go slow here, you can always snip a little more, but once you’ve gone too far you’ll have to start again.  Then press the pocket bag seam with the seams under the pocket bag and understitch from mark to mark again.  Turn that under and press well.

If you’re facing the pocket, sew it onto the pocket bag now.  Then place the pocket bag ontop of the front pocket bag and sew around the bag, neatening the edges afterwards.  I like to double stitch pockets in jackets, if I get a hole, I have another line of defense!  And overlocking, or zigzag stitching helps the edges not to fray while bouncing around between your jacket fabric and the lining.

This method of sewing your inseam pockets results in a nice neat finish, the Burda instructions will give you a pocket, but it won’t be as nice as these!

So, pockets, shoulder seams, collar, side seams, sleeves – shell done.  Tomorrow I’ll sew up the lining and attach it to the facings, turn up the hems and tidy the last tailor’s tacks.  But I need to decide on snaps, it’ll all depend on whether the local shop has black snaps in a suitable size.  If they only have silver ones, I’ll probably cover them with black lining fabric.  I don’t want shiny silver snaps!  Hopefully they have something I can use, otherwise I’ll have to order something online and the completion will be delayed.  Not that I don’t have anything else to be getting on with in the mean time!

I’m curious about your chosen inseam pocket method, do you have one method you always use?  Or do you follow the instructions that come with the particular pattern you’re using?