Denim jacket Simplicity 2209 part 2

Have you ever made something and you got too involved in the construction? With the sneaking suspicion that it would not be the right style for you? That is how I felt once I put the collar and facing on this jacket, but I figured I would push on since I had done the sort of fancy bias half lining technique. And I am really glad I did, because it fit my friend Alice perfectly and she thought the fabric was really great. So instead of me having a new jacket she does, and I am really happy that it found a home! Here is the previous post with the details on the bias lining.

What didn't work on me turned out to be just right on her. She is tall and lean with a swimmer's physique (because she swam competitively in college, whew, that sounds exhausting) but that means she has proportionally broader shoulders than I have. I have been finding that while they fit in most places the Simplicity patterns are too wide across the neck and shoulders for me, causing gaping necklines or shoulder seams falling off if I don't do a lot of adjustment. But for this one I was thinking it would be a casual and loose fitting jacket so I left the pattern as is. 

Here is the jacket on the dress form. I think there are shoulder pads just placed in the jacket in the photo on the left, I was trying to see if that made it fit better. Which it kind of did, but also looked a bit weird and not the casual and soft look I was going for. On the jacket back you can see it without the shoulder pads and the shoulders are collapsing, falling off the from - which is a bit broader than I am so way too big on me. 

The inside, with all my rose red serger stitching.  When I started on this I thought I might do bias tape binding, so I rummaged in my storage box and didn't find enough packages of a single color to use. And then I thought - who am I kidding - I do not have the patience to bind every seam, no way! I would rather put a full lining that stitch all that tape on. It looks nice but I run out of ambition after about 1 yard.

I did do one nice edge treatment which was to sew on the fusible interfacing and then flip and press which encloses the edge so nicely. I don't have many opportunities to do this because I rarely make any unlined jackets. You can see the facing with the fusible, and then it is topstitched in the same red. I first wrote about this when I made a vintage shirtdress and links to that post still pop up all the time.

I really like this denim and have about 1 3/4 yards remaining so I am going to play around with other patterns and see if I can squeeze a different jacket pattern on it. Unfortunately for Alice it is still hanging around my sewing room because as you can see - no button yet. Could you believe I could not find one button in my vast collection of button jars to put on this jacket. Oh well, Saturday I am heading over to Stone Mountain and I will have to actually buy one. (that sounds cheap but really, who doesn't have a zillion solitary black buttons in their stash, and yet not the right one?)

Maybe it looks nicer with the front open anyway.  Of course still needs a button since that loop is there!

I have a few projects in the works including a couple of items for my sister - she never asks me to make anything but recently she did plus she found the right fabric in my stash. A small miracle.

Happy mid-summer sewing, Beth

Here is a pink geranium that I have grown from a cutting. Time to confess I am a bit of a geranium thief. Just snap off a little stem, no one will miss it, and look how nicely it is going. This one came from a planter in front of the post office...our secret, OK?