Thank you all for commiserating with me over this jacket!  I must say, it’s the most expensive muslin I’ve ever made!  But there’s lessons to be learned here:

• Always do a muslin, even if that means a simple tissue fitting!
• Never neglect the required FBA, even on a jacket!
• Don’t leave projects languishing for 6 years in the UFO pile.  Cut them and sew them up toute de suite!

Well, all is not lost.  As I said to my husband the other night, using cashmere as a muslin is still cheaper than attending a class, and I did learn something!  Isn’t that the point?  Always learning and improving our sewing skills.  Oodles of fitting problems here!

Notes for next time (noted on the pattern!):

• FBA required
• Sway back adjustment
• Add 2” to overall jacket length

I must say I was bummed a bit on Friday about this jacket, but on Saturday I thought, “Let’s move on!”

So I went on a cutting binge after putting the kids to bed.

Vogue 2396’s shirt in ivory stretch cotton (I think spring is just around the corner!)  I did not do an FBA, but I did do a tissue fit.  The bust measurement on the pattern was very generous:  47” for a size 16, which is what I normally cut to get the fit through the shoulders.

I decided I didn’t need an FBA for this shirt.  My main concern would be gaping at the CF, but there is a lot of overlap drafted into this shirt front.

Vogue 8287 shirt in a bronze crinkle taffeta.  Yup, I did my FBA. I made this shirt without an FBA about 5 years ago, and am re-making it with the FBA.  Need I say more?

And Cinderella’s dress, but that’s a separate post.  I’m up after being knocked down!

For a different fabric in a different time, that is.  The green cashmere jacket a.k.a. Vogue 2017 is a wadder.

Every now and then I meet more than my match in fabric.  Mostly it’s because I don’t think through what I’m making with the fabric. I either choose the wrong design for the fabric, or the wrong fabric for the design (wrong fabric weight, drape, etc.).

Unfortunately, this cashmere falls into the "didn’t think it through" category.  It’s too lightweight for this pattern (which calls for tweed and gabardine!) and shows every single flaw in my arsenal of sewing skills. 

I do not like to work with fabrics that show up my lack of expertise. 

I much prefer fabrics that are loving…  forgiving… benevolent… kind…. You get the picture.  I don’t like perfectionist tendencies in fabrics.  It drives me crazy, makes me consider myself completely unskilled and frustrates me to the point of not caring about the economics of wadding a project.

Consider the bound buttonholes.  These are on the sleeves (what WAS I thinking?!?!?)  Six bound buttonholes on the sleeves, because I didn’t like the look of machine buttonholes… but bound buttonholes are not my forte.  I did practice.  I made 5 practice buttonholes, and was sort of happy with the last two….  And then I thought….. I have to face these damn buttonholes on the sleeves.  I repeat…

WHAT was I thinking?!?!

And the buttons…. I went hunting for buttons for this very odd-coloured fabric.  I found lovely buttons… Italian buttons… expensive buttons…

All for naught.  I even gave up on the hand topstitching because it didn’t match the topstitching in my mind’s eye.  I switched to machine…

So there!  I do not like the bound buttonholes on the sleeves, but once in, in forever.  And I’ve no extra fabric to recut the sleeve! 

Maybe I’ll finish up one sleeve, set it in and see how horrible it looks before actually giving it to the garbage collectors.  And maybe I should just go to bed….