Vogue 8601

After much more angst on my part than it was worth, the jacket is done.

And yeah, I'm pretty sure it is my new favorite thing ever. The wool for this jacket came from the Pendleton Mills Outlet store, and it is so lovely and soft. (Thanks, Mom!!)

The pattern is Vogue 8601, alas now OOP, although it only just came off the "clearance" section of the website, so there are probably a few copies left in the drawers at your local fabric store. I'm wearing it with my New Look 6816 silk pants and Gertie's Portrait Blouse.

The pattern itself is quite good. Drafted well and the fit is typical for Vogue. In fact, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble at the fit stage if I had just made my "usual" Vogue alterations instead of trying something new that didn't work at all. The pattern includes a lining, which I think is excellent, and the instructions were very good, although I did deviate from them somewhat.

Of course, no tailoring instructions are included in the pattern. I used my favorite tailoring book, following the instructions for the fusible method of tailoring mostly (although I hand taped the roll line - much prettier on the outside). Sherry's RTW SAL was also very helpful. Here you can see that I block fused the bodice pieces and added hair canvas shoulder support.

I didn't have any fusible hair canvas, so I used this tip of Sigrid's and stitched my sew in hair canvas to some lightweight fusible interfacing. My machine doesn't do the serpentine stitch, so I settled for a wide, long zigzag. It seems to work fine.

In back, I added a muslin stay. You can also see the undercollar tailoring, which is an on grain strip that stabilizes the stand portion of the collar as well as adding structure to the roll line there.

I'm fairly pleased with the outcome as this was my first attempt at RTW style fusible tailoring. It was definitely faster than doing all of the shaping by hand (it took about half the time that my hand tailored coat took), and it still has a nice tailored look and feel. The only things I am not thrilled with are more about my inexperience with this method.

The back (I LOVE the tails!) doesn't have the structure that I would like. You can see how the side back collapses under the arm. That ease is necessary to a comfortable fit, but the wool I used was so lightweight it doesn't hold up. I should have block fused the back as well as the front. On the other hand, the tails have a beautiful drape and flow since I left them unfused.

All in all, I am thrilled with how it came out. I can see why so many sewists get "addicted" to sewing jackets. Although I am generally a quick and dirty project oriented seamstress, I love this jacket so much, I'm already planning the next. After a few tops and some pants...

Vogue 8601 - progress

Hey, sorry for disappearing off the face of the earth there! My mojo kind of tanked last week and I really didn't do anything, not even blog surfing. I have been following along with the Mini Wardrobe SAL at PR, and after seeing a few fabulous jackets on the thread there, I was ready to jump back into making mine.

I always start a lined jacket with the lining. It sort of acts as a final muslin of sorts, making sure that the fit is where I want it, before I start working on the much more time and labor intensive shell.

I'm happy, so we're moving forward. You may notice that I have elected to line the peplum part of the jacket with fashion fabric rather than lining. Since the hemline in front is cut away, I feared that the lining would show, and while I LOVE my lining fabric, I didn't always want it on display. If my fabric were thicker, I think this wouldn't have worked well, but this is quite a lightweight wool.

Speaking of the lining fabric, isn't it adorable??? Shoes are my other (non-textile) obsession, so I had to have this fabric. It's poly charmeuse, but the print was so cute, I didn't care. I think it's absolutely divine with this wool. The pale pink is a perfect match.

The sleeve is shaped with darts, but in the lining, I just made tucks. They're a bit easier to sew, and the released section gives the lining a bit of ease for movement. I generally convert darts to tucks in a lined garment for this very reason.

Since the lining made me happy, I went ahead and started on the shell. After the mojo crash last week, I knew I wouldn't have the stamina for hand tailoring, so I'm trying the fusible approach. So far, it is looking pretty good and it certainly is easier and faster. I feel like a bit of a cheater though. I guess we'll see how the jacket comes out in the end.

Vogue 8601 muslin

I've really been dragging my feet with regards to this jacket. I'm really excited about having the jacket in my wardrobe, but getting to the sewing process has been really frustrating. For some reason, I have had a really hard time getting the fit right on this jacket. After 4 (I think) muslins, I think I might be close.

Here's my fashion-y hand on hip pose, where you can see what I like about this jacket. For this muslin, I actually totally trashed all of the changes I had previously made to the bodice fronts (which included a large FBA, shortening the bodice both above and below the bust as well as letting out the lower princess seam a little) and started back with the unaltered pattern. I added 1/2 inch to the side front panel at the level of the bust and below, blending into the original seamline at the upper princess seam notch (which is right at the top of the bust). I made no alterations to the front.

What I got was the picture on the left. Boxy, frumpy and just bad. After all the work I had put in, I almost tossed in the towel at this point. It looks dreadful! But I was thinking about Phyllis's post about proportion, and I wondered if it wasn't my short waist, fighting with the waistline of the jacket (and losing!). I took a 3/8 inch tuck all around the jacket at the waistline, and ended up with the shot you see on the right. And despite the slouchy, unflattering pose, I like it!

It made a big difference in back as well. I had already shortened the back about an inch, so I was surprised that I needed to lose even more length back there. I am seriously short waisted!

The sleeve still need a lot of help, and maybe the shoulder as well. Do you think that shoulder seam needs to come forward a little? The sleeve is definitely rotated forward. There was just too much ease in the back half of the sleeve to ease it in. I'll remove some of that ease in the back and try again with the shoulder point in the correct place.