Wrapup: Part 2, the Jacket

I made a short post about cutting the muslin for the jacket and showed a pic or two of it... but never really wrote it up.  The process for it was MUCH less involved than the corset; it was built on a commercial pattern and only the sleeve took serious alteration.  The collar and body are as is, except for a major crop job and the addition of a yoke, which replaced the back neck facing.

I started by making up the jacket in my size - the largest in the package - and sewing it sans facings and with only one sleeve.  I invited my mother over help check its fit, and found it to be quite satisfactory with just a very minor adjustment to the armhole at the shoulder.  Mom kept saying it looked like a lab coat, and wouldn't accept  the idea that it was just because it was made out of white muslin.  That changed when I cropped the jacket by hacking it off with shears just below the lengthen/shorten line.

Simplicity 2344 mocked up in muslin, cropped

More behind the cut....

Between fit sessions with Mom, I had to draft out and sew a mockup of the sleeve, which I would insert into the left armhole of the muslin.  The pattern tissue sleeve is nearly symmetrical (I checked this by folding it in half), and so when made into a full cap sleeve it would be fine to go ahead and let it be symmetrical.  The alteration of the pattern took a LOT of steps, but came out beautifully:

1.  The sleeve pattern is copied, shortened and split down the midline.

2.  The copied sleeve is slashed vertically in thirds between the cap notches and spread.

3.  The top edge of the  cap is raised slightly to allow room for gathering.

4.  A fresh copy of the altered pattern is made.

5.  Slash lines are added to the new pattern piece.

6.  The pattern is slashed almost to the edge and carefully spread to create a full gather at the centerline.

7.  The final pattern piece is traced and has a new grainline marked.

8.  The sleeve, with shirring; the cap will be gathered as well.

On the muslin I made the sleeve with a placket; it didn't turn out very well on the muslin and was very, very fussy.  When Mom came over to fit the sleeve, we decided it should be left out entirely as the sleeve was too long.  Additionally, it was just plain not needed, as the sleeve has plenty of interesting shape and detail to it already.

Blogspot won't let me add more pictures, so I am forced to split the post - read on!