A few weeks ago I participated again in one of Maximus modeling and sewing mini-courses lead by Marlene Mukai, I was interested in making the jacket. Once again the pattern didn't turn out well, I have no idea where I went wrong but this time I wasn't too upset, because after the previous fiascoes (see the shorts and blouse saga) I was almost certain that making patterns wasn't for me and now I'm sure.
This time around they also made the patterns available as a way of publicizing the pattern subscription they sell, I decided to download the pattern, I was a little unsure about having to assemble it using multiple sheets but turns out it's not difficult and the result is quite good, so I assembled the pattern and copied my size. I didn't get to use it because I didn't have time to go buy the fabric.
Over the weekend I went through my wardrobe and found a series of coats that I hadn't worn for several years and some that had been given to me to use in my creative sewing. Among them was a cream coat with a hood and cutouts and when I looked at it I thought I could make a jacket out of it.
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I started by opening the lining to have access to the seams, as I wanted to keep the pockets I couldn't simply cut the jacket to the desired height, but as the jacket had a horizontal seam I chose to open it, thus leaving it with two pieces.
At the bottom, I cut a strip above and another below the pocket so that the sum of the height of both parts was the size I chose.
To join the top part with the bottom part it was necessary to align the seams of the cutouts, and as I removed a strip from the middle it was necessary to shorten two of the panels. In this step I discovered that I should have started in the center where the seams had to be aligned and sewed towards the edge to avoid the seams being misaligned. I didn't care enough to undo the work.
As the pockets were ripped due to them being shallow, I decided to enlarge them, I used a strip of fabric and sewed it so that the edges of the fabric were embedded to prevent them from coming undone during use.
I re-sewed the jacket and tried it on, the fit was good, but the sleeves were long and I didn't like the collar. I then unstitched the neckline to remove the collar and after trying it on I decided to remove a few centimeters because the neckline overlapped a little. After altering the neckline I rejoined the lining with the outside in the collar area.
I moved on to the sleeves which were a little long, but in addition one of them had a stain, the solution was to unstitch the final part of the sleeve, and cut the excess fabric in order to remove the stained area and put the pieces back together.
It was time to join the lining with the outside of the sleeve, this was the part that I found most difficult, no matter how many turns I did I couldn't figure out how to make it look like the original, in desperation I ended up folding the edge of the lining and insert the sleeve in the middle of the fold, after sewing, it didn't look pretty but at this point I just wanted to finish it. Furthermore, I then folded it, ironed it and added a seam to secure it, it didn't even look as bad as I initially thought.
To hem the lenght, I tried to do it as shown in the mini-course but I couldn't, I think because my jacket had a lining, I ended up sewing the facing by hand. To join the lining to the exterior, I sewed it from the inside, leaving an opening to turn it over, which I then closed with a hand seam.
In the end I put a bracket inside so I have the option of closing it if I want.
Overall I think it's quite good, I've already used it and it passed the test. I will definitely change some more of the coats I have that I don't use. But the next few moments will be dedicated to the pants, as I have several that need adjustments and I also have no experience with this type of work.
To conclude, I think this project was very good, not only because of the final result, which was a piece that I will wear, but because it allowed me to see how the jacket was constructed, I had no idea what the steps were, it is likely that if I had made a coat from scratch it would have taken less time, but I think the time spent was worth it.
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