Saturday was part two of the Lupin class at Stitch!
Since this jacket has so many parts, I decided to try and sew some of the easier parts at home in advance of the class. It was a rough week, so I took a few hours off from work on Friday morning and sewed things like the tabs, the back yoke to the back bottom, the lining bodice, and the waistband and cuffs together.
When I arrived on Saturday, Kalle mentioned they all stayed late last time to work! I wish I hadn’t run out the door. We got to work, and I did the welt pockets first – modified from the pattern. I liked the way the single welts looked so I went with that like everyone else. I used wonder tape to stick the welts on instead of pins, which was unfortunately a huge mistake. I tried to get it fully in the seam allowance, but that didn’t happen. It’s supposed to be water soluble, but when I tried to remove it, it became a sticky mess. Not sure if it was my fabric or what, but I decided to just cut all new side panels and welts and start over. It wasn’t a huge setback, and 20 minutes later I was all set.
Next was sewing together the front bodice, topstitching, and then onto sleeves. I was really nervous about this, because I’ve only done one sleeve (on the muslin), and it wasn’t the greatest. I was sure there had to be some trick to it I was missing.
There wasn’t. I did the same exact steps I used on the muslin, but it was so much easier in the nicer fabric! So that went smoothly, and I moved onto the gathers and waistband. I got the outer jacket sewn to the waistband and called it a night, planning to go back to the shop to finish up the next morning. Naively I figured I’d need 1-2 hours to wrap up.
I worked for 2 hours at the shop, and when I broke a needle topstitching the waistband I decided to call it and left for brunch.
I was determined to finish that day though, so I powered through in the afternoon. Everything else went really well, until I reached the cuffs. It was SUCH a pain to sew those onto the jacket. I ended up doing really wonky looking topstitching, and then promptly ran out of thread before I could do the second.
Of course, I also was getting a headache and couldn’t drive, but Mal came to my rescue and drove me to Stitch. I’m actually lucky I ran out, since when I stopped at the shop Kalle mentioned the cuffs to me and that she ended up hand sewing them. Duh! Why didn’t I think of that? So I ended up sewing the cuff to the sleeve with the machine, then stitching it by hand instead of topstitching.
I did a final press, and made the mistake of spritzing it with my flatter spray, which left a couple of marks on the lining. Note to self: do not use on rayon!! Luckily it’s not noticeable and it’s in the lining.
Anyway – it came out SO GOOD! Even my topstitching looks great for a change. Not so bad for my 8th garment ever!
It also fits great – I’m glad we did that shoulder adjustment. I’m also debating putting a snap on the waist.
