Join me in my adventures as I write romance novels and sew vintage and contemporary fashion.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

A Tale of Two Red Jackets

The Sewing

I recently made two red jackets--one planned and one on impulse--from lightweight polyester crepe. The first jacket is Vintage Vogue 1136, which I made to go with the sleeveless dress from the same pattern--the dress you may remember as the one that seriously challenged me with back bodice issues.

Although the fabrics came from the same swatch family in the mail order fabric catalog I favor and appeared to match well...

...once sewn into garments, they didn't.

I think I would have been more successful if I had used the red for the dress and the print for the jacket, but even then....

The jacket did look nice with my store-bought black knit pencil skirt, however, so that will be how I wear it.

I wasn't sure about the flanges at the sides, but my husband (a fan of the forties) liked them. I shortened the flanges about an inch, because they were just too long for my build.


I also had to shorten the back bodice about an inch so it hung better.

And, of course, since I'm living the curse of the bound button hole, I made seven of the suckers, --the seventh is set an an angle in the yet to attached peplum--using yet another method, which I'll probably torture you with in a future blog post. Nothing like sharing the pain.

After my customary battle with the bound buttonhole, I relaxed by sewing on neato black and silver buttons.

I like the sleeve detail a lot.

I made the shoulders pads using the pattern instructions and this time there were no issues.

The second jacket was made on a whim when I realized that the fabric matched one of the reds in my New Look 6514 dress.

I dug through my extensive pattern stash and came up with Simplicity 4230--a 2006 pattern that has zero buttonholes, which seemed perfect after making the my previous jacket. I made the black cropped version using the three quarter sleeves on the jacket above it.

I think the jacket looks nice with the dress and gives it a more businesslike look.


I used muslin as the interfacing for both jackets. I've never been a fan of fusibles, although they are useful under certain circumstances. Instead I use sew-in interfacing whenever possible, and muslin works really well for a soft drape.

And that's about it for the two red jackets. I still have some of the red fabric left and I'm thinking of using it for a nice 30's pattern I just got--just as soon as I have time to grade it up a size. I think the drapy crepe will look great in either style.


The Writing
Before I sign off, a writing update. I turned in my final proofread of Cowgirl in High Heels and am now at work one the last book of The Montana Way series, Shae's Story. (That's the working title.) I'm also playing around with some proposals and a novella, also set in Montana.

I'm writing in the morning, sewing between 10:00 and 11:00 before the power goes off (I live off the grid for those new to the blog) and trying to get a little more sewing in during the evenings--although catching up on the fifth season of Breaking Bad and the new Project Runway is playing havoc with my evening schedule.


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