Vogue 1166

Finally done! At last report I had the trousers finished, but I still hadn't even cut the jacket.  Well, here  it is.  I couldn't wait till tomorrow, so I took pictures with room lights - not the best, however...

The jacket is a silk tweed (did I mention that previously?)  It has two shades of olivey green, some nutmeg, some goldy colour and a little black.  It ends up reading as a brownish colour, rather than a green.  What a messy fabric!  The whole sewing room is covered in threads, fluff and dust.  The weave is very loose, so I ended up interfacing every single piece, although according to the pattern, the sleeves did not need to be interfaced.  Very simple, actually.  Just a lot of pieces, and you do have to watch the pleating on the top of the sleeve.  My basting kept falling open from handling and I redid those pleats a number of times.  Oh - the only somewhat difficult bit was the little curve at the top.

It required quite a lot of rather deep clipping to get around the curve.  Not so bad when it was tweed to tweed.  A bit more finicky when it was tweed to lining.

Just thought I'd show you how I do hems on jackets.
In this case, with the fused interfacing completely covering the back of each piece, I opted not to add anymore interfacing to the hems.  I fold down the edge of the hem and catchstitch at this point.  (This picture came out most true to the actual colour of the fabric.)

 I then pop the hem in place and catchstitch again at the edge, usually at the seams only.  These sleeves have only one seam, and there are pleats with a facing at the hem - I only tacked at the seam and for a bit at the top of the seam. 

I did actually peak at the instructions, and I believe they said to attach the front bands from the inside.  I decided to pick stitch "in the ditch" from the top.  The stitching got lost in the nubbly fabric and was totally invisible.  This way I could line things up better.

I did understitch the sleeve hem facings and the neck facing.

On to the trousers (pants?) - whatever.

They're rather wide.  I did add a mock fly front zipper.  Don't know why, but that seems to be what everyone is wearing, and I suppose I'm just used to that at this point.  They're a wool flannel (not of particularly spectacular quality, but...) of a dark caramel colour.  I lined them, as I do all wool pants.  Don't want to get the itchies part-way through the day!

Now - what to wear this with...  The neckline does not work with any shirt-type collars, so that's out.  I do have a goldy-coloured high-necked t-shirt (it's my version from a Vogue pattern - I'm not going to look up the number at the moment).  Somehow this looks rather washed out to me.

I think that black would be better.  Wouldn't you know it - I have a rather large amount of a thin black knit!  Tops!  I might make the t-shirt that is included in the pattern and then invent something else.  I have ideas.  The jacket also works with a number of skirts in my closet - black, camel, dark beige - I just need some tops.  I am trying to do "whole outfits" - accessories included - at this point, so I have to take this to the finish, or I'll be back to "nothing to wear this with".

Now - on to the trials and tribulations of fit.  I was almost on the verge of just using my usual trouser pattern, but decided that I needed the challenge of working with a new pattern.  I laid the two pants patterns together to get an idea of what alterations I would have to make.  Surprise!  My usual pattern is an 8.  The 6 on this one was bigger than my old 8.  I don't understand.  I cut the 6 and needed to make very few adjustments - just took in the sides a titch and scooped out on the back seam.  I have not shrunk.  Vogue patterns were always exact in their sizing.  Or maybe I've been dreaming all these decades.  What was then very interesting, was the jacket sizing.  I measured, I read the measurements on the pattern.  I decided that the 6 would do as well for the top.  After all, I'm smaller on top than on the bottom, right?  I did straighten the curve on the side front at the bust to flatten the front (I knocked off about 3/8").  That worked well.  No excess floppies under the arms.  That's good too, especially since it didn't require me doing anything to the pattern.  The hip - was small.  I know, I should have measured there, and not just assumed that since the pants fit, that the jacket would fit.  I ended up taking out 1/8" on every seam (and there were 7 of them!) tapering out from the waist.  Just where the pants fit exactly right, the jacket was too small.  Does this make sense?  Not like I was using two different patterns!
Knit tops should be much faster work.