McCall’s 5668 jacket

I just finished this jacket that I had intended to make last year! I had everything ready (pattern, fabric, etc.) and I just never got around to it.

As it turns out, it was not a difficult project. I worked on it over a few days. The nice thing about this pattern is that it is a Nancy Zieman “10-20-30 Minutes to Sew” themed pattern. In other words, the instructions are written with the amount of time various steps take to complete. That way, if you only have a short amount of time to sew, you basically have an idea of how involved certain steps may be in terms of time commitment. Now, I really didn’t consider that while making the jacket.

This jacket has very nice shaping. I especially like the way the back of the jacket looks. I used stretch cotton twill in a cream color for this. I think this could be made in a more “fluid” fabric as well (something less stiff). But, it still needs to have so body to the fabric in order for it to hold it’s shape.

That’s all for now!

Vogue 1364 Jacket

This is one of my latest completed projects. This is a Sandra Betzina Today’s Fit jacket pattern. I really LOVE this jacket! This material is a wool/poly blend (50%/50%), so it is dry clean only. Because I always like to prepare my fabric first and this isn’t washable, I used the damp towel with the fabric in the dryer method. I’ve done this before with wool and it worked out well. As soon as I saw this pattern, I knew I had the perfect fabric to use for it.

As you can see in the picture, I did add the optional pockets. Since the jacket is unlined, I serged the edges and seams to give everything a nice finish.

While I really didn’t make any major changes to the pattern, there were a few changes. I cut off about 3″ from the front length and tapered that to the side seams (this is actually explained in the instructions). I knew that I was going to do this because some of the finished jackets I saw online seemed a bit long.

For the back of the jacket, I didn’t add the cording (didn’t have any), but in the end it didn’t seem to matter since it looks like it’s there. I love the V of the back panel too.

And for the fringe trim, I actually used the selvage edge of the fabric since it was basically fringed already. I cut it the width needed, and attached it as stated in the instructions.

This is a very nice, easy pattern to make. I might do this again sometime in a solid.

Simplicity 2341 Fall Jacket

I just finished this the other day. It’s my first attempt at making a garment out of faux leather (I love that term – so much better than “pleather”). Anyway, I bought this textured material from Fabric.com. It’s very soft and easy to work with. I did re-read a couple of articles I had about working with leather (real or faux) because I wanted to know the best way to make the pattern markings, etc. I also used the non-stick foot that came with my sewing machine so I didn’t have to worry about skipped stitches.

This actually went together much faster than I had expected. I made this in View A. It’s an edgier look for me, but that’s what I wanted to challenge myself with this time.

This was also the first time I had used a separating zipper. Which was actually easier than a regular zipper. I made no adjustments to the pattern. Just a note here: I did use the rotary cutter for the jacket pieces which made cutting this out quick and easy.