Life got in the way …

It has been a while!  In the last several weeks I’ve coped with deadlines at work and a minor plumbing disaster on the home front, all the while continuing with the annual work to organize the Fabric Flea Market.  More on that in a post to come; but if anyone reading this is planning to be in Ottawa on October 16, get yourself to the Glebe Community Centre for 10AM.  It will look something like this: Yup, that’s a room full of fabric, patterns, notions, yarn, books and supplies of all kinds for sewers, knitters, needleworkers, weavers, and followers of other fiberly pursuits.   We had 1,500 people through the doors last year in 4 hours and everybody leaves the sale happy!
Anyhow, all this real life stuff got in the way of my blogging, but more importantly it also got in the way of my sewing!  This is why it has taken me weeks to complete the unlined shirt-jacket which I’ll now tell you about.
I'm really going to enjoy wearing it!  It's made of a very fluid wool crepe, purchased at Tissus Couture-Elle in Montreal during PR Weekend in May (it already seems like half a lifetime ago...).   The apparent colour is a dark-ish khaki; the fabric is actually a twist of black and a mossy green. 
This is one of my 3 ghostly garments –probably  the one that looked the least interesting to you.  I was just checking for armscye depth – this is a Burda pattern from the 1990s.  Sure enough, it turns out the armscyes were too low; I couldn’t raise my arm without the body of the jacket coming along for the ride.  So I fixed that, and now I have a shirt-jacket I really like. 
First, here’s the proof that I needed the alteration to make the armscye smaller and higher, to increase my mobility. 


The solution is super-simple.  I added approximately 2.5cm (1”) as you can see here. 

This was done on the front, back and both sides of the sleeve (it’s a one piece shirt-style sleeve).  No other adjustments were needed.  The sleeve cap and shoulder remain the same. 



Let’s see; what else to tell you…



  Here’s the pattern I used.  It’s long out of print.  I made it when it was new and wore the jacket (along with the matching trousers and skirt) practically to death.  It is pretty straightforward – fronts with side-seam bust darts; back is perfectly plain; side slits; shirt-style collar and cuffs; concealed button closure.  I had modified the collar so it has a partial stand and just made it up the same again.








I did a Hong Kong finish on all inner seams and edges.  What a great way to make an unlined garment look as good on the inside as it does on the outside! 


To the left you can see the completed armscye and side seam, both bound with bias strips of lining fabric.  At the top is the shoulder pad which is covered with the same fabric. 


 The next photo shows the concealed button closure.  I used a decorative button at the top, and plain ones where they are hidden. 








Then there is the most prominent feature:  the pockets.  These are bellows pockets with flaps.  I’ll say I didn’t interface the flaps because I wanted to keep the jacket very soft; the reality is that … um … I just forgot.  I applied the patch pockets by hand.  The grey thread I used is completely invisible on the inside. 



Here’s a close up of the decorative button – they are sort of like wire spaghetti.