Jacket #1 Finished

Done! It took about 3 hours to hand sew all that trim onto the jacket, but yesterday was Sunday and my husband was watching two football games, so the time seemed good to sit around and do that. I decided not to put on the pockets, as I wouldn't use them anyway and I just want to be done with this jacket. Having started it in December, I'm a little tired of it.

Now, if only I looked as slim as that profile view. Hopefully the Weight Watcher plan will bring the desired results!

Jacket #2

They say women can change their minds as much as they like, so that will be my excuse. Having posted pics of the brocade and McCalls jackets in the previous post, now I am going with a different project altogether.

I will blame it on the weather. It is cold here, and my overcoat selection is poor. One down-filled coat for walking the dog and running errands, it really does keep me warm as toast. But it doesn't look so good with anything other than casual pants. And I have one knee-length black coat for any other occasion. I also have one very long grey tweed coat, but I feel overwhelmed in it, given its length and bulk. At 5'1" tall, I can't carry off that much fabric.

So I decided that the brocade jean jacket could wait a few weeks and I would make a winter coat. The pattern is Butterick 5399, the shorter version and the fabric is a squishy wool coating that I had in the stash. I even have the satin-backed lining to go with it. Plus raglan shoulder pads and hair canvas for interfacing and thread. The only thing missing is the buttons, which I always prefer to buy at the end once the garment is finished.



I prefer using hair canvas on wool coating. I have had some bad experiences with fusing interfacing to coating; it didn't stick well and it didn't add much stability to the fabric either. I have always figured that the time spent fusing interfacing has to be equal to the time spent cross-stitching hair canvas to the wool, and I prefer the results. I have made a few coats with hair canvas and have not been disappointed with it. More hand-sewing for tv time, I figure.


Butterick 5399 is a nice wardrobe pattern, although I will probably only make the jacket from it.

Here is the back view, I particularly like the raglan sleeves, so much more comfortable in a jacket/coat than set-in sleeves.


For now, I am hand-sewing the gimp to the Chanel jacket and am disciplining myself to finish that before starting the coat. Too many projects go unfinished around here, and that is kind of wasteful on my part. A new year, a new resolution.