Friday 12 October 2012

WIP: Anise Jacket muslin fitting

The current project I am working on is Colette's Anise jacket.  I really love this pattern - it's so Emma Pilsbury (or that could just be the model they used!).  I have a much loved and worn but now looking a bit the worse for wear 1960s style swing jacket and thought this could be a great replacement.

I'm doing the sewalong on the Colette website and also have the Anise Companion instruction book, which is a godsend!  As I would expect from Sarai, the instructions are so clear with loads of great pictures.

Like a good sewist, I started with a muslin.  In actual muslin for once, which proved to be a nightmare!  All that I could get was very fine stuff and I kept losing my notches in the fraying edges.  I traced a size 8 (my usual Colette size) and added 2" in length based on tissue fitting the pattern.  I think you can see from the pics below that it's quite a long way from right!


Pulling under the arms...


Sleeves too short and tight...



Too tight across the back and either needing a swayback or large bottom adjustment.  It's also a bit short still.

Pattern changes made:
extra 1" in length of bodice (is it still called a bodice on a jacket?  The body part anyway!)
wide shoulder adjustment - I guessed at adding about 3/4" to each side
Widened the upper sleeve (according to Fit for Real People you shouldn't alter the lower sleeve!)
extra 2.5" length to the sleeve

I was debating scrapping the 8 and cutting out a 10 as I was worried that it was just too small, but thought for the effort of retracing the new size, I would have another go at the 8!

I think this was the right choice as it looks much better now.
Shoulders in the right place and less stretched across the bust...
'Scuse the weird face - sleeves more comfortable
Back less pulled - that looks like a wrinkle but it's not there all the time, just in this pic!  I didn't do a swayback adjustment, but i have added an extra 1/4" to the side seams so I will pinfit the side seams and see if a bit more room in the hip area will fix it.

Due to the length adjustments, I have also repositioned the buttons and welt pocket by putting the top ones according to the pattern, and the bottom ones where they should have been in relation to the hem, and then spacing the other 2 out.

It's definitely the hardest project I have worked on (by a long way!) but I am learning loads of new things (including bound buttonholes - eek!).  I think the wide shoulder adjustment might become a regular one for me as I can see my Peony wearable muslin could benefit from it too.

2 comments:

Thanks for your comment - it's great to hear from you!