military jacket part 2 - some progress

I've made pretty good progress so far on the jacket. I don't have a picture right now, as my sewing room is being occupied by one of my best friends who is visiting from Phoenix. Because of this, I haven't done any work on it since Wednesday morning. Right now, I have the outer shell and lining both assembled and ready to attach. It looks great on my dress form with the denim skirt.

What is left to be done:
- Attach sleeve cuffs to sleeves. I also decided to forego sleeve bands because I thought it would make the jacket a little busier than I had wanted.

- Set in sleeves on outer shell. I had originally postponed this because I wanted to make sure I could find smaller matching buttons for epaulets (which are not yet cut out and sewn). As it turns out, the smallest buttons in the design I chose are the 7/8" buttons that I bought...and I bought them all. I asked when they would get more in, and nobody knew and would not order them for me. This means epaulets and pockets are also both out, since they just won't look right without buttons.

- Attach the peplum to the outer shell. Again, I was waiting on buttons to determine whether or not I would have pockets. Since pockets are out, peplum can be attached as-is.

- Attach the buttons to the front. The way this is designed, it looks like the buttons secure the front detail (I don't know what it's called off the top of my head). Right now, it's attached to the front piece at the center front, but hangs free everywhere else. I need to do this before the lining is completed.

- Insert shoulder pads. I usually don't need, nor do I like, shoulder pads. I tried on the muslin with and without shoulder pads, and the 1/4" shoulder pads look better. I'm also playing around with sleeve heads, but it might be too bulky - we'll see how it works out.

- Attach the lining to the outer shell. The instructions call to bag the lining, but I am going to attach the lining mostly by hand. I will machine-stitch the facing to the front, and then take it from there. Even with a roller foot and an even-feed foot, this fabric tends to shift and pucker and I'm afraid that bagging the lining will result in unwanted puckers and shifts.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I haven't been able to work on it since Wednesday morning. My friend leaves this afternoon and I'll probably be able to work on it tomorrow (Sunday) and then my father-in-law comes to visit for a few days. I also start back at work on Monday, so it might not be finished until next weekend. I was really hoping to have had it finished so I could wear it to work on Monday, but things don't always work out the way we plan.