Happy Saturday,
Hello Friends, hope you are having a great week. Are you starting your grocery list for Thanksgiving? I love this time of year and looking ahead to the family time and the smoked turkey. We actually host Thanksgiving. It is the one time of the year that the husband is in charge of the meal. This means more shopping for me! What are your Thanksgiving traditions?
I am trying to continue to push myself to learn, and that is why I chose this jacket. I have not done a lot of lapels and knew this would be opportunity to increase my skills. I wanted to add this to my wardrobe for work and church. The color black makes it versatile for several outfits. This jacket has had some challenges.
POCKETS
The pockets I felt need a little bit of a design. So, I did embroidery on the pocket in black. I wanted some detail but not add any extra color to the jacket. It added just the right amount of detail on the jacket. If you want to add some detail, use your embroidery software and design your own embroidery. Or if you do not have embroidery machine, add some decorative stitching with embroidery thread.
Collar
I know in the last post; I stated that I would use the heavier interfacing on the collar. I have changed my mind, and I am using the mid-weight interfacing. The fabric seemed stiff enough when I put on the front facing that the extra stiffness was not needed. You can see in the first picture below.
The collar was the most challenging part in putting it in. I actually had to remove stitches and restitch several times to get the collar to lay right. You need to make sure that you have all dots and clips made on your fabric. I had the clips but some of the marking wore off. It became very confusing, so I pulled out the pieces and marked it again. I had to remind myself to slow down and that this is just fabric and “Sew On”.
Once I had the collar and the front facing on, I trimmed the points and corners to make crisper points. It was still not perfect. I used a pressing cloth and the iron and pressed it in. At that point, the collar looked much better. Pressing does cover or help reduce stitching mistakes.
The rest of the pattern came together seamlessly, and I am happy with the results. Let me know if you have any tricks to getting the collars and lapels crisp, please feel free to share. This is how we all learn. Have you started making your 2025 goals for the next year? Let me know what projects await in 2025 for you.
Happy Sewing
Valerie
The Saturday Seamstress 