Final Goodbye to Winter

Spring is in full force here! Its been very sunny and warm, I love it! I finished this jacket/coat a few weeks ago and were able to squeeze in a few wear before the hot weather arrived. This is possibly the most challenging project I have attempted, and I chose to attempt it at the most challenging time — I started it when I returned to work. So it took 6 weeks of 10 minutes of sewing here and there to complete. I sure am glad I have a sewing room to leave the project half finished!

This is inspired by a picture I found on pinterest, that I shared with you for my tan skirt.

The jacket I made completes the look!

What do you think? pretty close?  I think mine does still look a little home made comparing to the inspiration. onto the details:

The jacket is made with 100% camel colored camel hair (ha!) from fabric mart. I had used camel hair before, but for some reason this one is slightly “furry”. the “fur” goes in one direction. I didnt realize that until I have cut out all the pieces, and so it was too late to make sure that the “fur” is all pointing downwards. Its not noticeable by look, but it feels funny whenever I brush my sleeves down and feel the “fur” going the other way.

The jacket is made from burda 2010-01-118. I had some reservation about the fit looking at the pictures, though it came out fine somewhat. I am not sure if I am doing anything wrong around the shoulder area. The fabric around there is quite thick, and I dislike shoulder pad so I didnt do those. Somethings I feel that the shouldder area could fit better, but I cant pin point what. Maybe I just need to iron it — I havent done so because I dont have a seam roll yet. This is the first time I didnt go top stitch crazy with all the seams and I am itching to do so. Its hard to make the seam flat with just ironing! Also, I didnt do my usual alteration of drastically making the sleeves skinnier. I wanted more room for sweaters underneath and so that I can scrunch the sleeves up like the inspiration. However, I realize that I feel a little fumbly in a slightly large sleeved coat. I think I will be sticking with skinny sleeves in the future.

The buttons and elbow patch is from the leather skirt I found in a thrift store. They are so soft, so I couldnt resist putting the elbow patch on, even though it took a while to hand sew them on.

The pattern matched the inspiration pretty well, they even have the same pocket!

And of course, I gotta have the funny lining:

I like the notched collar a lot:

Looking at the picture, I think jackets like this looks better when I dont stick my hands into it! ;P

By the way, I scored this pair of nude shoes online, and I love them! Now I am officially one of those women who wears a blistering rubbing shoe because it looks nice. (it only hurt for a few days 😛 ) Petites beware: they run a bit large in my opinion. I am usually a 5.5  or 6, and this 5.5 heel slips out a little bit! They are pretty narrow though!

Lastly, while I was sewing this, I had the biggest head palming moment ever! For this pattern (and many other patterns), the side body seam actually doesnt line up with the bottom seam of the sleeves!! When I realized this, there was quite a commotion in the house as I ran to my coat closet and checked every single coat, while exclaiming *oh god* at some of the coats. That explains some of the fitting problems I had. I always wondered why I had to heavily alter the sleeve/arm holes for a lot of patterns!

     

oh and last lastly. I scored that red cashmere sweater (men’s) from a thrift store for 7 bucks. Wearing those on a 80F day is quite something though!