Hello readers!
If you remember from a few posts ago, I’m making the BurdaStyle swing jacket.
It was love at first site, readers. There are a few things about this jacket that caught my eye right away. I love the classic and clean lines, the single button front, the collar, the two piece sleeve, and the detail of the back pleat.
If you really remember hard, you’ll remember me saying that I was looking forward to an unlined jacket.
I hate lining.
It’s the one thing about sewing that I despise doing. Kaitui_kiwi over at thecuriouskiwi said it right when she said in one of her comments that after you finish the jacket you have to make a whole other jacket! Well said! That’s much of the reason why I hate lining. I’m so excite about finishing my jacket and then I have to make *another one* out of super slipper fussy fabric.
What do you mean I have to set a sleeve in acetate?????!!!! Frig!
I also said I’m making it from $1.50 fabric from Salvos (The Salvation Army for non Aussies!). Well, you can smack me if I try to do THAT again. Remember when I did my Starlet Suit Jacket in Salvos fabric? The navy poly/wool I thought was wool?
Well, I did it again.
I picked up mystery fabric from Savos and was so excited that I didn’t even care what the frig it was. It was a very nice white/pastel boucle, not unlike the BurdaStyle original.
I even put most of it together and did Hong Kong finishes on the seam allowances when I noticed something odd…
An odd puckering of the fabric where I had applied the seam iron. Not sure what it was, I patiently continued.
I then attempted to apply interfacing to the undercollar piece when to my horror the piece of fabric shrunk to 1/3 it’s size right under my iron! The friggin’ thing disappeared under my iron plate as I was applying steam to fuse the interfacing on! WTF!
I took a closer look and saw that some of the warp/weft fibres had shrunk while the others had not, creating that odd puckering effect in the fabric.
Now the stupid pieces wouldn’t fit together!!!!
So I trashed it.
Boo.
But! I remembered I had this lovely cotton jacketing from Sawyerbrook (a great online fabric destination, BTW…not a *huge* selection, but some nice and distinctive stuff)
It’s not a polka dot, but the dots are actually woven into the fabric. This is great and indicative of some really quality fabric, but the downside is that the back of the fabric contains many small threads from the weaving. Not good for an unlined jacket since my ring caught just about every one of them.
Sigh. Lining it is.
Luckily this pattern only had a partial lining, due to the back pleat. Partial yay.
I cut everything out and it all fit nicely on the 2m of fabric I had. I made no changes, since the 44 fit nicely when I made a muslin.
The construction went smoothly. However, I did forget to cut the undercollar 1/4″ or 3mm smaller on all the outer edges than the overcollar. This ensures that the seam between the two rolls nicely to the inside and you don’t see it. Because I didn’t do this, I had to top stitch the collar to keep the roll…but I think it looks quite nice anyways!
I did a Hong Kong finish on the two seams of the pleats, since these seams were exposed due to the partial lining. In case you don’t know, here’s how you do it! I did mine with simple bias binding you can get at any craft shop, but you can make your own bias strips too and add a nice punch of colour.
Line up the raw edge of the binding with the seam raw edge and stitch in the fold.
Unfold the other edge and wrap the binding around the seam. Pin and then ‘stitch in the ditch’ to secure the binding to the seam allowance.
This takes some time but results in a beautiful finish. I did the same on the back lining piece.
I *begrudgingly* lined the jacket with a nice cream coloured acetate.
I’m almost done…just have to finish the sleeves!
I’m really loving this one and it’ll be good for the few cool nights we have left here in Perth, and will also take me into fall quite nicely.
So here’s the almost finished product on Lola
I then added another classic couture touch – a fabric covered snap! These are a snap to do to (yes, pun intended).
Cut a circle of fabric bigger than your female snap.
Baste around it using a running stitch.
Gather up the basting around the snap and secure with hand stitches.
And there you have it! Just put the two together to punch a divit in the fabric of the female snap
Voila! Looks soooooooooooo much nicer than a metal snap, eh? Especially on this jacket where it would totally show when the jacket is open.
Here are some finished project celebratory shots!
I hope you enjoyed my failure turned success 
Have you ever had a project that seemed doomed, but you rescued it? Tell us!
Till then lovely readers… Relax and Enjoy!
Kat
How crazy that fabric (or just some of the threads of the fabric) can shrink under the iron!!! You must have been gutted! But hey look what the end result was. A fabulous, professionally made, probably better quality, jacket. I love how the Hong Kong seams become a feature. Looking forward to seeing it modelled!
I know! I was gutted for a while, then I remembered going through all this before and just laughed at myself! Thanks for the complements…I almost want to wear it inside out! Piccies coming up!
Those finishes look awesome, I haven’t tried that yet but it’s on my list. And, I like the polka dot fabric too. I actually have come to love doing linings and make them in every thing I make. I like the freedom of making the lining because it doesn’t have to look as perfect as the outer fabric. And, it gives me more practice with those slippery fabrics. Win Win!
Thanks! yeah, I suppose I shouldn’t be so dark on linings…I do like the final result just not doing them. Perhaps I should dedicate a whole day just to do the lining, so I can enjoy it more. Thanks for the comment!
Love the shape of this jacket! Great ‘save’ with the second fabric. Bizaare how much the first one shrank! I like linings…they make things feel so much more swishy…and easier to take on and off. HK finishes however, annoy me…need to practice sewiing and catching the tape on both sides…I usually end up machine sewing to attach one side, then wrapping and hand stitching the other side down…majorily time consuming!!
Thanks! Yeah, I like the feeling of a lining too…and I must admit I’m happy I did it. The HK finish wasn’t too bad, although I only did it on 2 seam allowances! It does take a heap of time to prepare before sewing, though. I did sew the HK finish on the lining the wrong way the first time, which resulted in much swearing and gnashing of teeth!
The jacket looks lovely and the hkfinish gives it a couture touch. I once had a project (baby project it was luckily) which I had to trash all the fleece cut as it has no recovery after stretching, boo but hey I remember to check the fabric thoroughly from that incident. You are doing a wonderful job!
Hey there! Thanks so much, and sorry to hear about your baby project. But, as you say, thankfully it wasn’t much fabric. I guess you’re right, the point is to learn and not make the same mistake again!
Good on you for getting back on the horse after that first lot of shrinking fabric!
Thanks!
Lovely jacket – the back pleat is very cute! How about underlining the jacket with lining fabric – after attaching the lining to the main fabric you could sew the jacket up as usual and your Hong Kong finishes would look very classy!
That is a fab idea twotoast! I shall keep that in mind the next time I made an unlined jacket…thanks!!!
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I can see why you fell in love with this jacket – the style and colours look great on you! I love the HK finish and often use it…J (off to have a peek around your blog…)
Thanks Judith! I do love the HK finish as well, it’s just so lovely and professional looking. Enjoy the blog