BWOF 3/09 #114 Trench Jacket - Finished

Wow. This may join my black leather jacket as one of my favorite projects ever. I wore it for Easter yesterday and I have to admit I enjoyed every compliment it got.

There are some projects you can do on autopilot, and then there are some that keep your brain interested and engaged all the way, and this was one of them. I couldn't wait to get started on it every time I went into the workroom.

I think that one of the joy of working with BWOF patterns is the amount of detail they put into them. This would have been a perfectly fine jacket without those little extras, but the folded pocket and button tabs on the sleeves really make it for me.

Details are really the things that set RTW apart, and if you're willing to tackle them, BWOF really gives you the details to make a garment into something special.

This project took a variety of interfacings: I used regular fusible woven for the facings, and then, along the edge of the facings, as well as the sleeve and jacket hems, I used strips of fusible hair canvas for a nice crisp edge. For the button tabs and the belt, since they would get more handling, I used coutil left over from my orange bag project. Since it's meant to be used for corsets, it's strong, flexible and not likely to stretch.

Not a lot of changes to this pattern: as I mentioned before, I did add a lining, because (a) I think that outerwear pretty much should be lined, (b) I don't have the patience or precision for the Hong Kong finish this would have deserved, and most importantly, (c) the inside of this fabric against my skin would have been like wearing a sauna suit.

I also changed the sleeve length. The pattern called for full length sleeves, which could then be folded and buttoned up with the tab. I liked the fold and tab, but not the bracelet length, so I added about 2" to the sleeves so that I could fold them up and still have them at full length. Isn't that why we make this stuff ourselves?

I finished this project on Friday evening and got to wear it out to dinner that night in the drizzle, and it's actully waterproof. No reason it shouldn't be; it's vinyl, after all, but having it turn out to really be a rain jacke instead of just looking like one is a plus.

Funny thing: after I finished this I thought I'd need a bit of a break before tackling the next big project. I was going to knock out a couple more quick tshirts just to round out the summer wardrobe, but no, apparently I didn't need a break after all.

Saturday it rained all day, and not the kind of rain my jacket and I wanted to be out in. I went into the workroom just to tidy up, and maybe finish cutting out the fabric for the Ottobre jeans that were up next. Six hours later, I looked up because Mario was in the doorway asking if I was coming out in time for dinner. Don't you love it when it just takes over? Pictures of the jeans (a very wearable muslin in a plaid rayon/lycra woven) coming next time.

It's getting there

The trench jacket, that is.

Though I've been motivated to sew, this project just isn't coming along quickly. Part of it, I think, is the material - it sticks to itself, it sticks to my fingers, it sticks to the presser foot, necessitating strips of tracing paper so that it doesn't stretch itself out of shape. So it's taken longer than it should to get this far.

This far, now, is jacket mostly constructed, lining finished and inserted at the facing seam, though not sewn to the jacket yet at the sleeves or at the hem.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I want to handle the sleeves. The original jacket was unlined, and when the sleeves were rolled up and buttoned with the cute little tab, the reverse of the fabric showed. Here, it would be the quilted lining, which I don't want, so I think what I'm going to have to do is cut off some of the quilted linin sleeve and replace it with fabric, so that when the sleeve is rolled up, the right fabric will show.

Other than thinking a little too hard about the sleeves, I'm pretty much there. I still have to cut and sew the belt, but that's not a biggie. I think I'm going to reinforce it with a strip of the coutil I used to strengthen my orange leather bag - regular interfacing will mush down after the belt's been tied a few times.

I did use regular interfacing on the facings for this jacket, but it didn't strike me as substantial enough, so today when I sewed the facings to the jacket, I cut a strip of fusible hair canvas about 1" wide, and ironed it along the edge of the facing. It made for a nice sharp edge but didn't make it too thick, and I think it will only help with the buttonholes. I used the same fusible hair canvas for the collar, and I think it's my favorite part.

I also sewed on the pockets and the belt loops before I added the lining. I'm going to say it again - I love the pockets.

Next up: tonight, if I can get rid of my post-gardening back/ headache, I'm going to deal with the belt and add the buttonholes to the front of the jacket. There's still a bit of hand-sewing needed to the inside because the lining fabric is apparently the only thing without the natural tendency to stick to the underside of the fabric, and it's moviong around a little. I need to stabilize it under the arms and in a few other places to keep it from shifting, and then . . . I need to deal with the sleeves.

Stay tuned.

Everything but the jacket

So I've been working on the 3/09 #114 trench jacket, and it's been going along well so far.

Actually, I can't say I've been working on the jacket. I've constructed the facings and lining, to test the fit - straight 38, I love it when nothing needs tweaking - and I've done most of the fiddly bits, pockets and collar and gun flap and belt loops and sleeve tabs, but I haven't actually cut out any of the jacket itself yet except for the two back pieces.

Which I actually cut out twice, because I put the back pattern piece on the wrong side of the table and picked it up and cut it out again. (This is what comes of cutting after 10 p.m., we all know better!) So since I had those 2 extra pieces, rather than waste them, I used them to cut out all the small pieces that I've now finished.

Hopefully later tonight (though not late), I will be able to cut out the fronts and sleeves, and maybe even get the pockets sewn on.

Did I mention I like the pockets? Interesting pockets (gathered, pleated or folded) have become somewhat of a trademark for BWOF, and I really like these, even though they messed with me at first and refused to fold in the direction they were supposed to. It was like origami gone wrong. I walked away for a few minutes, came back and they cooperated just fine. So I suppose it was my mind that wasn't folding in the right direction.

The fabric I'm using for the trench jacket is interesting to work with. It's not really fabric - the right side has a good texture and sews well, but the back is gray and rubberish, and tends to get sticky when worked for too long (and tends to stick to the underside of my presser foot, which has necessitated sewing seams over strips of tissue paper and then ripping it off). On the plus side, it buttonholes like a dream and the right side has no objection to being ironed.

I interfaced the facings with woven fusible, but I don't really like the hand they've given the fabric. I may add a layer of cotton or batiste, whatever's on hand, as an interlining, just to give the facings a litle more body without adding stiffness. Learning what a new fabric will and won't tolerate is always interesting.

Coming Soon: BWOF 3/09 #114 Trench Jacket

The idea of a trench has been in my mind for a while now, but the right one just hadn't come along. I considered a BWOF from January 2008; then an Ottobre one caught my eye . . . but neither one stuck.

Burda's March 2009 issue wasn't one of their most fascinating as far as I was concerned. Up until tonight, I hadn't even taken the pattern pages out of the center of the magazine. But one thing it did have: trenches. Long, short, traditional, not-so-traditional. It took a little deciding, but I decided to go with #114, the trench jacket with BWOF's classic interesting pockets.

A few weeks ago, when I went to Jomar with Elizabeth, I got a piece of fabric on the designer remnant table. I almost didn't buy it, because it was about 6 yards of fabric, and they don't allow you to cut remnants. But it was only $2 per yard, and it was a really interesting raspberry/black iridescent raincoat fabric. It looks like silk or taffeta, but it's got a waterproof backing.

That was when the trench idea really took hold.

Then, yesterday, I went to New York (more on that later - it deserves its own post). We stopped in a little store that had signs proclaiming "going out of business forever" in the windows, which might have been more convincing had the signs not been discolored with age. They had some lovely fabrics in the back - wools and cashmeres and all kinds of goodies that wanted me to take them home, but my only purchase was two yards of black quilted lining fabric. The funny thing was, I didn't know what project it was going to be for - I remembered that a while back, I had wanted quilted lining, but I couldn't remember why. Since this was only $4 a yard, I decided I didn't need to remember why I wanted it; I should just buy it.

Good thing I did. I went to bed last night, absolutely exhausted, and found myself unable to sleep. Several new projects were swirling around in my head, chief among them the black raspberry trench that I decided was up next. I had found buttons and a belt buckle at Pacific Trims; all I needed was to pick out a lining. Bam! I sat straight up in bed, scattering cats everywhere. I had just bought a lining for my trench.

Tonight, after dinner, I went in and spread the pattern sheet out on the table and started to trace. Of course it was the red pieces; those are the ones I have the most trouble seeing, for some reason. But I got pieces 1 through 10 traced, and made up pieces for the tabs and belt loops, and noted the measurements for the belt piece.

Then I finally took a close look at the pattern. The irony, folks? It's an unlined jacket.

I's not anymore. After laughing at myself for not actually having read the instructions (though the description in the magazine says nothing about a lining one way or the other), I sat down with my pattern pieces and more tracing paper and drafted a lining pattern.

Who goes to all the trouble to make a trench without lining it? There are purposes to unlined jackets, I agree. I've made my share and I'm far from finished. But a trench is outerwear, which by definition to me should have a lining. Not to mention that my raincoat fabric would undoubtedly get a little sticky without some kind of liner.

After I got all my pattern pieces together and cut out, I debated actually starting to cut into the fabric, but I restrained myself. It was after 10:00 p.m., and we all know what happens when you start cutting after 10:00 p.m.