Summer 6PAC – Item 2 (and last)

Oh I have had a an odd week. I was still fully intending to get stuck in and finish at least three more garments for the 6PAC (which would have made it a 4PAC I suppose…) but I have been forced to concede that the jacket I made as item 2 will definitely have to be the last – not chance of any more sewing for me by the end of the month.

I got back from a fantastic break, scuba diving in Penzance, with what I thought was a sensible workload to come back to. Unfortunately things didn’t go as planned. A client  advised me of the death of a lovely lady, for whom I was making a special occasion dress, which came as a complete shock. I worked to finish this dress at her husbands request this week, which was a very sad job to do.

Other clients have also taken the opportunity to decide that as the weather looks as though it may be getting better they need me NOW! Nothing like forward planning! All this means that there will be no sewing for me for a little while.

Anyway….. I mentioned a jacket. I clattered this one together after being given a very similar jacket from a client for alteration (there are some perks!) This is self drafted, and made from some black cotton twill from stash. The buttons are the only thing I needed to buy, and so this felt like a very virtuous project.

I used my basic bodice block (sloper) from the Winifred Aldrich book again, but just added a little  extra ease at the side seams. The last time I used this i decided that the shoulders needed to be reduced by 1/2″ before next use, so I made the adjustment to the pattern. Unfortunately I had already made the adjustment to the block (Note to self: Please mark any adjustments to blocks on the margins in future). The jacket is now a bit too narrow in the shoulder and as it was ‘clattered together’ I didn’t try this on until it was finished so I didn’t find out in time to do anything about it. It is still wearable but I will adjust the pattern before I put it away. And mark the adjustment.

The original jacket had bound seams which looked wonderful, but as I said I had ‘clattered’ this together you may guess that I just overlocked them. The topstitching which was such a lovely feature of the original jacket was an opportunity to use a technique shown on Shams blog which used the machine stretch stitch to give a heavier looking seam using  ordinary thread. Whilst I wouldn’t have had any difficulty obtaining a suitable thread to topstitch this in black, it is often difficult getting a good match in other colours. Apart from having to concentrate, and count stitches as they were machined towards corners, to ensure you ‘turned the corner’ at the right moment this was a very easy, and useful, process to have learned. Thanks Shams!

The original also had actual pockets rather than just the flaps that I put into the yoke seam. As I am inclined to fill pockets with anything to hand – and I really don’t need any extra padding at that point – I decided mock was best.

Despite not being a perfect fit this jacket has already been worn several times and I expect it to become quite a useful jacket to just ‘chuck on’ for general wear. Even without the trousers that were planned to go with it. And t-shirt…..

When things calm down a bit I will be back but meanwhile there is a wedding dress (manufactured – not made to order) which needs an urgent and major alteration. Back when I get my workload under control.