Jacket is complete

I did complete my jacket after sewing my finger. I am pleased with the outcome. I took photos and will post them tomorrow.

I drafted a dress pattern using PMB4 and having to tweak the bodice pieces a little before I cut out my dress fabric. I hope to get the fabric cut out and start sewing it tomorrow. I am not making as much progress sewing as I had hoped or visualized. My DH is off as well. Enough said!

Sewing accident

Today I did something while sewing that makes it the third time I have done this. I suppose when you consider that I have been sewing since the 1960's that one is bound to do this. The first time I did this though was when I lived in Florida in 90's. I have since done it twice since I moved here to Roanoke.

I sewed my finger!!! Ouch!!!!!!

It really does hurt when you do this. And I am always amazed and stunned when it happens. Fortunately I did not bleed on my fabric. I was topstitching the front edges of my jacket and in trying to ease/smooth the fabric so as not to pucker, I just put my finger in the wrong place. Now I have a finger trolley and another gizmo that is designed to do what my finger was doing! Perhaps I will start working with them again!

Long weekend ahead

It is Saturday morning and I am back from CURVES! A shower awaits, some shopping to do and a jacket will get finished today!

Next is my dress and I have it visualized how it is going to look. I have two choices in mind with one being PMB pattern and the other being New Look. Stay tuned.

Not much sewing going on

Another fantastic work week that is occupying my life full time plus! I have not been able to touch my jacket and truly there is not much more to complete. I wanted to work on it some during the evenings this week but either I have brought work home or worked late and then have no energy to go into my sewing room to actually sew.

The best I am doing sewing wise is thinking about it. I have planned my dress to go with this jacket. It will not be the Vogue designer dress as I don't think the neckline of the dress works with this jacket. I am planning a sheath style dress, shoulder or princess seams, and will use piping along the seams. The piping will be made from the jacket fabric.

After the dress, I am going to sew up some knit tops for immediate gratification! Plus I am participating in the Coat Sew Along and have to finalize my decision for the pattern and fabric this weekend.

Later!

Sewing during the weekend

Saturday and Sunday I was able to get some sewing in. Again I have taken a simple pattern and added some degree of difficulty-adding a lining, using the Hong Kong seam finish, and a really difficult/ravelly fabric as well. I do love a challenge.

All seams are finally completed. I love the Hannah Silk Ribbon I used for the seam bindings. The ribbons are on the bias and the colors are like ombre in that they go from a shade of green, fading into a lighter or darker shade. Some of the ribbons have some rose and purple shades blended in as well.

I like the fit of this jacket. The back pleat is a nice feature and design for this jacket. Here is a photo of the jacket on Alma Marie.

And here is the back pleat:

You can go here to see a few more photos of the jacket in progress

A few more comments regarding fit

Another Linda wrote the following regarding shoulder slope and fit.

"Hi Linda,
I hope you don't mind if I give you another possible reason for this. But it could be your shoulder slope is off, and this makes a huge difference on how the back neck lays. If the fabric is trying to lay against the shoulder instead of standing straight up at the neck, it will bunch behind neck. This will happen on fabric that does not have a stiff hand. If it hits the shoulder before it hits the neck it will gap in the back. Without going into a novel here on the comments, let me just say that I found this out too. I should post on my blog some photos of what I did to find this. Of course it would not be on my body because the photos are too revealing to publish, but I found out that a 1" shoulder slope works for me. Find that magic number for your shoulder slope and a lot of other "problems" will disappear"

Beth, also added a few more comments on shoulder slope and fit.

"That's a good point about the shoulder slope in the previous comment. Having a duct dape double that duplicates my posture makes it easy to see where I'm rounded. I've begun making the alteration automatically, before I tissue fit. I can always cut the extra fabric off, but I can't add it if I (later) realize I need it.That frees me up to overlook other alterations--LOL--like the front neckline falling below my bra! Cynthia Guffey does a fit workshop about rounded back and shoulder slope that was very eye-opening for me. I would never have accepted that so many of my fit problems are caused by rounded back before I attended her session at Expo a few years ago."

Thanks for providing more feedback. I would love to attend one of Cynthia's classes.

Angie wrote the following:

"Linda, what DOES make the back neck stand away like that? I've had that
problem in most sheath type patterns. I've had to take as much as 4 inches
from the back center seam at the neck before. Does my head/neck shift way
forward like a goose? Do I have a hump I'm not aware of? Am I narrow and dainty in the ONE place on my body I have no feasible way of viewing? Inquiring minds want to know!! "

In "Fit For Real People", when the garment neckline stands out or gaps open in the upper back neckline, the book refers to this as a high round back and has a fitting technique for this. Years ago I use to make this adjustment all the time and not sure why I decided I did not need it. At that time I did not make forward shoulder adjustments but now I do. So part of my theory on this, and by no means is it necessarily the correct one, I think that I may need to do both now. AND, I probably should take a shoulder dart as well.

I have Pattern Master Boutique (PMB) software. One enters their personal measurements into this program and the program drafts your personal sloper. Sometimes the initial sloper could use some tweaking; after you sew up a fitting musline and tweak that, you then adjust your measurements in the software program's measurement chart to perfect your sloper. All of this being said, my sloper automatically inserts a shoulder dart in PMB. When you draft a style or pattern you can choose to insert a shoulder dart in your design or not but when you overlay the sloper onto your pattern you can visualize how the design will look with or without that dart.

The frustrating thing about pin fitting a pattern is that sometimes I see this back gap and sometimes I don't or perhaps I fail to look for it. I know if one does a muslin then you will catch these things. I choose not to make a muslin simply because if I did a muslin for everything I sewed I would not make very many things. Perhaps I if I used a pattern more than once after getting a sure fit then some of those issues would not exist.

With all of that said, sometimes in the end it is simply the back pattern piece is drafted fuller. I think that is the case for this pattern.

One more note on this issue for this dress pattern. The zipper was to be inserted in the side seam. I like some others who have made this pattern for a top only, also inserted the zipper in the back. Perhaps I needed to adjust the back seam for that design change. Yet my mind says it would stick out no matter how you did it.

If anyone else has some thoughts or other fitting ideas about this, please add your comments. Fitting is always something we sewist strive to perfect. Your feedback is always appreciated. Also sometimes it is not us it is the pattern. Yet if it shows up in almost all patterns, then it probably is more of a personal fitting issue than the pattern.

Dawn wrote the following:

I was watching your progress with interest, as I too was intrigued by the
dress , and the tops others had made out of this pattern - so I bought the
pattern and made the dress for a party, doing my usual sizing adjustments - 14
to the bust and a 16 from there down. The whole upper part was tight - I had to
scoop out the armholes and even then it was too tight and didn't really fit
well, therefore, from there on down.It seems like you had the same problem.Would it behave better in a size up? Maybe. But it isn't such a great pattern that I
would be going for that. I look better in a V neck, I think, and while the
pleats are cool - they aren't Wow.So I am moving on. The jacket however, I am
going to try.....Thanks for letting us know how it went

I appreciated the comment. I used size 14 for shoulders and upper chest tapering to 16 at bust to dress bottom. I also made a FBA as well. Maybe a drapy fabric would work better. I am not sure I look better in a V neck, scoop necks normally work best for me. But the pleats did not work well for me on this neckline. Like Dawn, I might could have scooped out the armholes and I think the pleats pulling affected that area also. Anyway, thank you Dawn for your comments. I will give the dress to Goodwill and know someone will be able to use it.

Second thoughts!

I have had some second thoughts about my recent dress I just completed. As I noted in that post, I had some issues about the fabric. I decided to try on the dress again and I just do not like the look of it on me. I think that the bust area may still be too snug and I wore a different bra with it today and it still fit rather snug. The snugness makes the pleats pull strangely. When I look at it from a side view, those pleats are pulling above the bust area giving it a strange fullness above the bust and then the bust area looks like it is pulling. There is not really any more seam allowance to let out in the princess seam or side area.

I feel like one of those examples of "what not to wear". Darn it, I really like those pleats at the neckline but they are not working well for me. I thought about cutting it off to make a top but that is not going to change the fit of the bust area. The upper back also stands away from neck area, that may indicate I need to do an upper back adjustment??!!!

Here is an interesting thing about trying on the dress and sitting in it, the concern I had about the wrinkles did not seem to be such an issue. Granted I did not have it on for a really long period of time, like wearing all day at work. It did wrinkle some but not like I thought. Go figure!

Well, I know that Goodwill can use some donations so I think I will be adding this to the bag I have already. The good of all of this is that I honed my sewing skills, drafted a lining to be attached to facings and perfected my lining of a sleeveless dress like RTW.

I still have the other fabric piece to make the Vogue dress or another style dress. I am debating now whether this jacket will look right with the Vogue dress pattern. I have second thoughts about the feasibility of the two working well together.

Later!