McCalls 5859: Velveteen jacket

This jacket has a little backstory to it - it started off as a vintage jacket (I'm kind of guessing from the 1960's?) that belonged to an elderly lady my Mum was friends with. Mum saved it from being donated to charity with the thought that I could rework it into something more wearable that she could wear to the lady's grandsons wedding in September.


I've had it sitting in my sewing room for months now because sewing velveteen scares the hell out of me! The last time I used it I managed to scorch, melt and swear at it, lol! So this time I spent a bit of time playing with it, trying out interfacing, ironing and sewing scraps. Surprisingly the fusible interfacing went on fine so I didn't have to bother with interlining or sew in interfacing.


I don't have a needle board so I pressed it from the wrong side using a press cloth and not putting any real pressure on it (on that note, I'm guessing it velveteen? I could be wrong though and it might be velvet? It feels beautiful anyway, lots nicer than a polyester velvet). I didn't have enough to use the velveteen on the facings so I used the original satin lining. It surprised me how much it used, I expected to have a lot of left over material but was only left with tiny scraps!



Its hard to capture the colour properly, its a real deep emerald (my husbands been calling it the leprechaun jacket!)


I had a lesson in humility trying to do bound buttonholes in velvet! They are are a little wonky and uneven but the nap helps hide it a bit!


A little note about the spare buttons - I've been getting frustrated about left over buttons so came up with this idea - a scrap of the material from the jacket with the buttons sewn on and a eyelet in the top. That way it can hang on the clothes hanger and you know straight away which piece of clothing it goes with and you don't have spare buttons hanging around!



This was my Mum's birthday present - Happy birthday Mum :)

McCalls 5859: Wool jacket

I have some beautiful velveteen I want to use for a jacket for my Mum so this is a trial run for fit and checking the pattern.
Its a sz12 with a 2" petite adjustment and a 1/2" narrow shoulder adjustment.
The fabric is a wool blend and I ended up using a cotton batiste for the piping - it was the closest match to the blue fleck through the wool.


The lining is sunsilky lining.


I am not really happy with the piping - I didn't interface the peplum and the wool is drooping slightly over the bottom line of piping, it seems more noticable on the hanger than when its being worn. This is the second time I've tried piping all around a jacket and not been happy with it, I think I'll try using bias binding to edge with next time I get the urge for piping!



I did the flat bias edging on the facings like I did on the herringbone coat. I added the back facing as the pattern doesn't come with one. Bound buttonholes (they really disappear in this fabric).



I think it ended up too short so the next version I'll make the peplum about 2" longer and theres some excess fabric on the sides so I might raise the waist by another 1/2"

Restyle week: McCalls 5859 and a Giveaway!

This was the first jacket I ever made. Its not bad seeing as I did no adjustments to the pattern at all, if I made it again I'd do a FBA and cut a size smaller to fit my shoulders better.
I like a bit of gathering on the shoulders but this jacket is a bit too exaggerated for me and I never wear it, so I unpicked the sleeves and cut the sleeve head smaller then sewed them back in again. I actually think i cut them down a bit too much, if I make it again I'll split the difference and still have some gathers.

Before:



After:





Pattern Details; McCalls 5859

Description: Close fitting lined jacket with peplum, lapel and collar and optional pockets. Two sleeve variations to choose from

Fabric Used; Corduroy for the main fabric and sunsilky (rayon) lining.

Size: I made a straight 20.

Will you make it again: Yes I might, I want to adjust the pattern though before I'd make it again (FBA and adjust the wrinkles out of the lower back).


After all this restyling I have a couple of patterns I'm not going to use so I thought I'd have a giveaway.
All you need to do is comment on this post and pick which pattern you'd like out of Colette Jasmine Blouse or McCalls 6350 and next week I'll pick a random comment for each pattern and post them out (I'll post international), see if you have better luck with them than did!! Please make sure I can contact you through your comment :)