poppy jacket #1

I *finally* found time to finish the muslin of Simplicity 4698. Ok, so I didn't do as complete a muslin as I should have - but I was so dumb for thinking that I could just cut out the 22 and alter it down from there. After taking in almost 3" in the back, I decided to tear it apart, cut it at a size 18 and start over. What was fascinating to me was that the straight size 18 fit pretty darn perfectly (with the exception of my 1-1/2" length alteration). I decided not to worry too much about other alterations and just go for it - especially after seeing that JoAnn's has two more bolts of the fabric in stock. I've been too busy working on the jacket to download the pictures to post, but I'll rundown the changes I have made (or have planned):

Fit alterations:
The only fitting changes I made was to add 1-1/2" to the length

Other changes:
Sleeves - Instead of the long sleeve or 3/4 sleeve options, I decided to use a short, cuffed sleeve from a shrug jacket pattern I already had in my stash. It was a one-piece sleeve. The gathered cap and bottom looked cute on my muslin fabric, but I think the twill may be a bit heavy for the look, so I may just pleat the cap and bottom to get the same fullness without puckery-looking gathers.

Closure - I awoke from a deep sleep several nights ago with the idea of having a buckle/belt closure for a jacket (the original idea stemmed from this great piece of black velveteen I've had in the stash for a couple of years). Since the poppy fabric was relatively inexpensive ($5/yd), I decided to test out the idea on this jacket. It should work well since I am making View E, which is the single-button front. I will attach the belt to the side seams, have a pair of belt-loops on each side to keep the belt from flopping about.

Embellishment - Since the fabric is quite busy (and impossible to match the pattern without several additional yards of fabric) I thought it might make be a nice touch to bind the edges. I opted for a white bias binding (I was originally going to use a white twill, but it was too heavy, and white satin was too shiny and transparent - so I just went with the pre-made stuff). I edged the belt in a narrow binding and the jacket will be done in a slightly wider binding.

Finishing - Because I decided not to line it at all (just using a high thread-count white sateen cotton for the facings to keep a clean look), I used a modified Hong Kong finish completely binding the seams. The front princess seams were heavily clipped, so I pressed those towards the center front and am going to enclose those in the facing instead of binding them. I also think I'll make the center-front seam just a bit larger than usual to ensure that the front pieces meet in the center rather than overlap. I would ordinarily cut off the extra allowance first, but because I'm experimenting I wanted to make sure I wouldn't change my mind and have to go to the store and buy more fabric to start over.

There are some things that I would do differently next time, but those will be saved for the next - and probably final - post on this jacket.

Read all posts on this project here.