Suit for a Japanese Wedding Part 2

This week I finished the suit that Rita is wearing to her son's wedding in Japan.  Here is the finished jacket and skirt.  As mentioned in the previous post, I used McCall's 5759 for the jacket. While the jacket looks great on Rita, I am not happy with the way it looks on the dress form, the collar sinks a bit and the heavy buttons kind of pull a bit.  The fabric was fantastic to work with.
Hopefully I will get a great photo from the occasion to post.

Rita is an artist and forges metal pieces, so she chose some very unique buttons that are a burnished metal.  This jacket style, with the hidden buttonholes lends itself well to a distinctive button so if anyone has some special buttons they are waiting to use - maybe give this one a try.

Here are a few construction details.  Across the back I put a layer of black muslin which serves to stabilize the shoulders and add a layer so the shoulder pads don't show on the right side of the fabric.  Where the collar and jacket pieces attach, I trimmed and sew down the seam allowances,  also done on the inside collar and jacket facing.

On the inside collar, I did put an extra piece of pellon interfacing on top of the knit fusible interfacing to add a bit more stiffness to the collar.



For the hems I pin up and press a sharp line, then run a basting thread along that line to mark the hem.  I press on a 3" wide piece of armo-weft type interfacing along that hem which gives the hem crease a softer turn, and allows the hem stitches to be perfectly hidden.



For the skirt I used SImplicity 2451, changing the waistband to make it almost straight across instead of curved, and narrowing the waistband by about 3/4" from the top.  

and today's SunnyGal garden photo.