The Half Finished Jacket - Part 2

Okay so here's part two on my half finished coat project! You can read part one here: or you can read the short recap below!

Okay so I was given the pieces for a coat by an old friend, she had already cut it all out and basted in the interfacing, I finished said coat according to instructions including hemming etc, then realised I am NOT living in the 80's, so I took the whole thing apart to alter it again! 

The image above is how it looked the last time you saw it!

and below is the finished and altered jacket!

So I think we can quite safely say the fit is a lot better right? Its still got the big and slouchy vibe to it but The general fit is just better!

First of all I tried it on and worked out where the shoulder head needed to be on me. I marked this by standing in front of my mirror and using tailors chalk. 

So then I unpicked the entire thing, with wine, lots of wine. Because well if your going to sit and unpick an entire jacket you've just finished you are going to NEED wine!! Well actually I just unpicked the lining and then took out the sleeves and unpicked the side seams the neckline and the collar as well as the shoulder seams stayed intact!

I even unpicked the pockets and took them off [I was sure to mark a line where the top of the pocket needed to go though!] 

Then I measured how much I needed to take of the side seams and shoulder seams. A whopping 6.5cm which is slightly bigger than your average digestive biscuit. Luckily as the shoulders were drafted quite flat [I guess to accommodate the shoulder pads , which I also removed..... and burned] taking in the side seams just meant laying my pattern pieces back over the fabric pieces and re cutting the shoulder and side seam line as well as the armhole. That description probably isn't very clear which is why I took a picture of it one my phone, which Lil man then deleted whilst taking selfies........   If you want to see a really awful picture of what I was planning to do check out my instagram! [thanks by the way to all the guys who commented on my idea telling me whether or not they thought it would work!]

I did this for the fronts and back as well as for the lining, then I positioned the pockets centrally and sewed the whole thing back up! [I had to remove the pockets because they were placed within the 6.5cm I was getting rid off] 

I even did my fancy hem stitching again! Happily due to me re-sewing the sleeves I was able to set them in flat this time which I think is a better way of doing it! Plus I didn't scratch all my arms like last time!

All in all I think its a much better fit and I am glad to be rid of those darn shoulder pads!

Gosh this has been a pretty heavy post hasn't it? I'm actually surprised that I worked out how to alter a jacket and that I managed to do it and that my theory panned out! I guess that means my sewing skills are starting to improve? 

Yay I have a new winter coat! Although it still doesn't have buttons! And a huge thanks to Sue who gave me the coat to work with , thank you so much of thinking off me!!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Toile and Error

I love experimenting with patterns, mainly because I don't buy patterns very often [read at all] because I'd rather spend money on fabric. So I tend to give then a good chop and change every now and again!

This toile is yet another variation of my princess seam bodice from the great british sewing be book.

Alterations wise I added a inch and a half to the bottom of all the bodice pieces and raised the neckline. After years of showing huge amounts of flesh I've now realised that less is more in the sexy stakes!

Which mean the flesh is in the back [again I know it tend to do a lot of back bearing things but I think it might be my favourite part of my body. I'd rather expose my entire back than expose my midriff!]

The back is in a racer back style which I love. Simply put I copied my pattern pieces onto paper [I use this bodice so often that my pattern pieces are card so easy to draw around] And then scooped out the armhole until I had a racer back. Its not perfect but that what the toile was for!   

Although as you can clearly see this toile was a huge fail. I had wanted it to be a wearable toile but the pulling of the back bodice through the straps [Its a fully lined bodice] put too much strain on the seams and it frayed like a [insert naughty word here]. Which really hacked me off because it took an hour to turn them both through and I'd trimmed down most of the bulk.

Anyway it jacked up the whole of the neckline and whilst I considered finishing it with the skirt I'd cut out and stuff it would have been a waste of time and zip, because I just wouldn't have worn it! 

  I'm making mark two tonight and I'm hoping that same thing doesn't happen again, I'm going to use a dainty seam allowance and the fabric is a lot thinner so fingers crossed wont be a problem.

I'm pretty annoyed that I'm going to throw this one out through because my print placement was pretty nice and I'd eased the princess seams really well too [at least in my opinion] and I love the back!

At some point I'll do a series on altering your favourite bodice blocks in simple ways but for the moment I just don't seem to have any time! 

In other news I forced myself to do some more on my miette cardigan last night whilst the boys played video games and I'm hoping to get my first sleeve finished tonight.... hopefully. I don't hate it yet but I'm getting close. I am pleased I've stuck with it for so long though! I never thought I'd be the type to try and hand knit a cardigan!

To be honest my entire crafting games been off again this week and I'm blaming Mother Nature! Not helped by my grumpy son who likes to get up at half six and then be miserable for the whole day!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx