You know: you get the arms right, the shoulders need work. You adjust the shoulder seam line and you get drag in the upper bust. you adjust the upper bust and the armscye is too short. The hip bone is connected to the thigh bone and how did that song go?
I have been working on a fitted jacket for years. I spent last summer continuing that journey from this 2016 post.
and continued rereading of
https://jetsetsewing.com/2013/11/18/claire-schaeffer-godmother-of-haute-couture-sewing-2/
I also was baking Ina Garten's Beatty Buttermilk Chocolate Cake. DAMN.
This illustration is my compilation of several "French jacket patterns" [mostly Claire Schaeffer, from unknown Threads articles (damn you Pinterest for stripping original acknowledgments)]. Six pieces seems like overkill, but if you're not finishing interior seams, you'd get more precise fit this way.
The pattern in this is Butterick 5066
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| https://i.etsystatic.com/24309950/r/il/2119a7/2549755289/il_794xN.2549755289_si43.jpg cause I lost the envelope for mine |
It's a four piece jacket (front, back, sides, sleeves) and is pretty streamlined. Shoulder pads are not as heavy as you'd think. Comes with pencil skirt;three yards and you have a suit. Nice package deal.
I am of two minds here:
I should use the four piece with the insets on the sides that provide a slight couture seam front and back. I will get a better fit in the heavier fabrics I want to use for this (vs darts). Then I have to insert the sleeve in one piece, which wouldn't be the end of the world but it makes altering to fit even more complicated as I'm adding more seams to adjust
What I went back to was a three piece (front, back. sleeve) and working on getting the upper chest and back to fit, and letting the rest just fall free. Even with the extra cake pounds, I am still relatively flat chested (cup to circumference, I'm a 40A. A size that does not exist).
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| Not hemmed yet |
So I do have a thing I can wear right now. It has been years of tears, and twenty pounds to alter for.
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| And it's made of knit, so it flexes a little. Sadly it's too cold in my office to wear this. |
The thing about weight gain that is relevant to this blog is outgrowing clothes I love (and running out of seam allowances to adjust for that) and spending time altering the TNTs to suit. I would like to think that if I had more solid gold patterns, I would put more time and money into them because I would be able to focus on the finishing work rather than leaving things open for alterations.
It is once thing I have come to admire about men's suits. Most of them are built to be taken apart.
Clearly there are alterations that are impossible - cutting down a jacket front is ludicrous; those shoulders aren't going to change. You move that shoulder seam back and the sleeve is going to pucker. All that padding and shaping and stay-stitching would be lost. It occurred to me that it would be easier to slice one up the back seam and go at it that way. And - you can. The lapels are the least built part of the jacket; you can slice them off and graft them over. Flip the way the jacket is overlapped/buttoned to avoid the buttonhole line. Sure it's a pile of work, but it's not blowing up the Parthenon to get gravel for a driveway. Just don't touch the sleeve/armscye/shoulder area.
And as always; if you're thrift shopping for a jacket to slice up for practice, consider that perhaps someone else needs it just the way it is. The right jacket gets the job that saves the family. Tuck that in the back of your mind.
But back to alterations. Men's trouser pants have that nifty back seam that is just one seam from crotch through waistband. Since men traditionally have flatter butts, it's an easier move, and it's a finish I've started putting in my pants. Because I like cake.
So I am a slapdash seamstress (not that one sadly) who likes cake more than handstitching a Hong Kong finish into my jacket. That's just how it is. I am doomed to perpetually alter.
