Burdastyle Cape Jacket 105 03/2018 (part2)

More details on my Burdastyle Cape Jacket … Part one is here

The photo below shows the sleeve inserted between the front and side front panel and has the side back panel attached.

I realised at this point that it might be easier to line the side panels before attaching the sleeves. Just for the sake of having less fabric pieces to wrangle with at the machine.

I mentioned in my last post that the sleeve pleats looked bulky, so I removed the sleeve and trimmed the pleats from the inside.

Then I lined the side / underarm panels before re-attaching the sleeves.  Underarm curves sewn right sides together:

 

Curves clipped, turned right side out, pressed and then understitched:

 

I also stitched the centre back seam on the main fabric and had cut the back lining on a fold with an added pleat at the back neck.

I joined the sleeve at the back by sandwiching it between the back panel and side panel.  First laying out the back (right side up), then the sleeve (right side down), then the side panels (right side down).

Notice how the side back panel does not reach up to the back neckline – there is a notch on the back panel for lining this up.

Then to add to any confusion you might have…(hopefully I’m making sense!)… I placed the back lining right side down and stitched through all layers – but only for about 1/3 of the way down. See below:

The reason being I wanted the fabric and lining to hang free from each other below this point for comfort and for ease of hemming later.

You can see in the photo below that I kept the lining and fabric separate when sewing the rest of the seam.

I repeated this process with the other side, except I didn’t catch the back lining piece until later as it would have been too awkward.

Here it is inside-out on my dressform.

I closed the lining seam after this photo. I pinned from the right side and the reached inside to pull through the top part to machine sew .

 

I took a break to assemble the neck facing . I have a fabric in mind to make a dress or skirt to wear with this jacket. So I used a bias-cut strip of that fabric to finish the facing edges: (it also matches the lining!)

Phew….nearly there … I love this type of jigsaw puzzle!

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Burdastyle Cape Jacket 105 03/2018 (part1)

This jacket really stood out for me when I picked up the March copy of Burdastyle magazine. I don’t buy every issue as I’ve collected so many over the years and I’ll never get through all of them.

Do you think people still have an interest in blog posts? So much sewing has moved onto instagram and I’ve noticed less people blogging.  I’m starting to miss hearing from some of the makers I follow. I know I like to see more detail behind the making so I’ll keep sharing when I can. I have  something new to show right now!

It’s described as having “..sleeves tucked into an inverted pleat” and has a difficulty rating of expert. Burda magazine is known for it’s minimal(!) instructions, and I don’t always follow them.

This time I wanted to line my jacket and took some photos as I went along to show what I did differently.

I fused strips of interfacing to all the hems and pressed them before assembly…just a habit I have with jackets.

Next I sewed the sleeve pleats :

They got pressed flat, and I stitched through the centre of the pleat, just at the top.

I was going to leave the sleeves unlined,  and hemmed by hand. But I wasn’t happy with how it looked. I removed the hand stitches, added lining – machine sewn to hem allowance (lining was cut shorter than the outer sleeve ) so the sleeve is bagged out similar to the body of a coat.

You can see the difference in the picture : left/before – right/after

 

 

Then the sleeve was sewn between the front and side front panels. I used a medium weight crepe and the pleats looked bulky after pressing:

So I trimmed the excess away on the crepe and the sleeve lining:

 

Below is how it looks with the sleeve caught between the front panels, before being attached to the back panel.

The lining is definitely not matching…but I liked the colours together and prefer not to buy new fabric if I have usable leftovers!

Half way through it started to remind me of a dress-up set I had as a child..

But I love it anyway..! And I still have to make a dress or skirt to wear with it….More to come..😉

Quick Tip – Button sewing

I hope 2018 has started off smoothly for you? Luckily I didn’t blog about any new years resolutions or I would have to go back to delete that post!

It’s been a while… Blogging was abandoned while annoying distractions like work got in the way… So to ease back into 2018, here’s one I made earlier 😉

A little thing that catches my eye is when buttons are stitched on so firmly that they pucker the garment.  If the button is sewn on too tightly, there isn’t any space for the layer with the buttonhole to fit.

Ideally with a flat button, you should leave some room between the button and the button band, so that the buttonhole layer fits nicely, and doesn’t look either squished or too loose.  The amount of space depends on the thickness of the layer on top.

 

Which brings me to my old black cardi… I’ve been working my way through some alterations – after having a big clean out of clutter.  I had bundles of clothes given to me by family members to re-use, along with bags of fabrics – mostly curtain remnants.  I sent the bulk of it to recycling – and I was left with just one box of clothes that were worth altering, and one box of clothes that I might re-use at some point.  All the extra stuff had just gathered over the years and was getting in the way. Now I can finally see all the pieces that I actually want to use!

One item for a quick fix was a cropped black cardi that was missing some buttons.  I found 6 buttons that were almost exactly the same …sometimes close enough is good enough!

 

 

I used a hairslide under the button to give a little breathing room:

Stitched through a couple of times

Then removed the slide, brought the thread up between the button and fabric and wound it around 4-5times, then brought the thread to the back and knotted it off. Job done!

I’ll keep dipping into that box of alterations, and hopefully it won’t start to grow into multiple boxes again!

How to shorten a jacket cuff…by not shortening a jacket cuff!

I try to avoid most alterations, they can become more than you bargained for – see Mrs Mole’s blog if you need to understand why!  But sometimes I will repay a favour to a friend, which is how this came my way.
 I needed to shorten a child’s suit jacket sleeve (image below).  It has three buttons and buttonholes, and was needed quickly.

But rather than mess with those buttons and hem corners, I took off the sleeves, and cut the extra length from the top.

I traced the new seamline with thread and checked the fit and new length.  Then it was just a quick trim before fitting it back into the armhole.

This could also be done with a mans suit , depending on how much needs to be shortened. Look out for a very tapered sleeve as if you move down too far you might not have enough width to fill the armhole!  Always a good idea to thread trace and check fit first 🙂

Burda 10/2016 104 (fancy pocket dress!)

This is a rarity for me – actually using a Burda Style Magazine in the same month as it was purchased.  I attempted the Burda Challenge in 2015, where you make something from each months issue, but I abandoned it early in the year.  It didn’t suit the way I make things.  I don’t shop for fabric regularly – I tend to pick fabric up as I see it, and then let it gather dust until the perfect pattern shows up.

The pattern is described on the Burdastyle site as the “Fancy Pocket Dress” !

I’ve had the fabric more than two years – I got it from an Op shop in Australia. That makes me sounds like a globetrotter (I wish!)- I’d happily pack my bags and get on a plane to anywhere, but circumstances don’t usually allow for travel!  So that was my first time abroad in years, and I loved it! I saw lots of Melbourne and a little of Sydney. Anyway, on one of the days I took a bus tour to the Grampians and during a rest break, while everyone was getting tea – I popped into an Op shop and picked up a few bits, this fabric being one of them.

It’s a light stretch cotton, and I had 1.5 metres – which is less than the pattern calls for, but I had enough. I should say that the dress pattern is longer than it looks in the magazine- I cut 3 inches off the hem before sewing it.

 

Despite the complicated shape of the pockets, this dress came together pretty quickly. I made it on a Friday evening and wore it to dinner on the Saturday evening! It isn’t lined – just overlocked and I made narrow facings for the necklines.

Because of the stretch in the fabric, I used iron-on interfacing strips at the neckline, shoulders and centre back at the zipper.

 

The instructions for the pockets were as clear as usual with Burda…! So I took a few pictures as I went along which might help if anyone plans to make this.

This is how the skirt looked from the wrong side – I interfaced at the base of the pockets before snipping into the fabric. ( the centre pleats are tacked in place)

 

You then need to pivot the pockets upwards at the point where it was snipped:

 

The pocket folds back on itself – you then stitch the pocket seam ,from the point at the base to the top edge- seen below at the left of the pocket piece.

(my pocket shape is a little uneven as I had to cut into the plain selvedge to get it to fit)

 

The baste the top edges to hold in place, before joining the skirt front to the bodice front.

The picture below is of the front right of the skirt – the triangle on the left is where the pocket was pivoted. You need to make sure to catch this fully when sewing the skirt side seams.

 

Other than that, the dress was straight forward to make – once I had inserted the zip and joined the front and back at the shoulders, I tried it on and pinned the bodice sides to fit, continuing down to the skirt. Because of the triangle cutout at the pocket on the skirt, it would be difficult to let this out on the hips, unless you adjusted the width of the pleats.

When I tried it on, I didn’t like how much the pockets stuck out. My fabric wasn’t quite as drapey as suggested.  So I improvised by pushing the pocket in towards the centre front, and topstitching it down – it looks like an extra pleat on the skirt, and means the pocket is still roomy enough to use, but doesn’t stick out as much.

 

That’s about it really – I’ll be keeping the pattern handy, as I would love this in a lighter fabric for the summer – and it looked great without the sleeves, so a sleeeveless version will have to go on the to-do list.