Now that I have the fit right, it’s time to move along to constructing the jacket! I found some really lovely fabric for this project: a wonderful burgundy novelty wool from Stonemountain & Daughter that has a very very soft feel to it – almost like a very nice quality fleece; some gorgeous multi-colored silk organza (I think it may be a silk/cotton blend, actually) from Fabric Mart that picks up the burgundy from the jacket body for the lining; and – the crowning glory – some wonderful faux Persian Lamb (not pictured) for the collar, which I think will really add to the vintage feel of the design!
Anise jacket fabric choices. Can you tell I have a thing for purple?
Originally I had planned to use the lambskin in the photo for the pocket welts and the bound buttonholes, but I decided against it as this is my first time working with those particular design elements, and I felt that adding leather to the mix might make it a bit too challenging. Also, I really want the Persian Lamb collar to be a focal point on the jacket, and I think the leather might have detracted from that.
I think these add to the vintage look of the jacket.
I also found these wonderful metal buttons with a sort of gray mother-of-pearl looking accent in the middle. They compliment the black of the collar very nicely.
I recently ordered a case of Dynarex Medical Paper to use as tracing paper after reading a thread on Pattern Review. This stuff is FANTASTIC for pattern tracing! It’s a bit more heavy duty so won’t tear as easily, but still lightweight and see-through, making tracing easy. I traced the pattern pieces for the jacket front, lining front and front facing, and made the adjustments for a 2.5″ FBA (I nearly forgot I would have to make the adjustments on the lining and facing too – DUH moment!) per my earlier fitting, then cut my fashion fabric and jumped in to jacket construction! This is the first time I’ve underlined anything, and I have to say that I really do like the way the jacket feels and looks with the underlining. It adds a nice weight and drape that the fabric alone wouldn’t have. As suspected, adding the 2.5″ FBA resulted in some ENORMOUS bust darts. I trimmed these and pressed flat to reduce bulk, then used a loose catchstitch to attach the trimmed darts to the underlining.
I have planned from the beginning to do bound buttonholes on this jacket, but as I got further and further in to construction I began second guessing my decision. I had never done them before, and I was really nervous about it! I had pretty much made up my mind to just go ahead with machine
My first ever bound buttonhole!
buttonholes when Sarai posted a wonderful
Bound Buttonhole Tutorial on the Coletterie forums. This was by far the simplest and most easy to understand tutorial I had ever seen for bound buttonholes. It really helped to reassure me that I could do it, and I knew the jacket would look better with them, so I forged ahead and, voila! My first ever bound buttonhole! It really was an easier process than I had imagined it being, although time consuming. The top two are not the best in the world, but you can tell by the third buttonhole I was definitely feeling more confident with them!
After adding the bound buttonholes, I also stitched matching faux buttonholes on the opposite side of the center line of the right front jacket piece. I’ll sew my decorative buttons on top of these faux buttonholes.
After adding the buttonholes, I stitched the front to the back at the shoulders. I was still on a high from the buttonhole success, and decided to sew up the facing and collar as well. Here’s Matilda modelling my progress so far. I think it’s coming along very well! Hope you are all making good progress on your projects, too!
Stage one of construction on the Anise jacket – DONE!
