A Very Belated Promise...The San Diego Jacket

 Last June I promised that I would post the instructions on how I changed the San Diego Jacket. Wow am I late. I was going through my pictures and found these and almost had a heart attack. To any of you who asked, my deepest apologies.

 My jacket is exactly like the pattern except for the swing back. The pattern is very oversized. I used the smallest size and you can see that it fits me like a normal jacket.

 First of all, I decided where I would like my back yoke to be. I added a yoke as I did not want fullness to radiate from my neckline. The line was drawn to intersect the notch on the sleeve.

 Cut the new yoke away from the body of the jacket.

 Divide the bottom portion equally. You can see that my number 6 is a little smaller than 1 through 5. This isn't a problem. The slight difference in the final section really won't make that much of a difference. Make sure to number your pieces. Now cut from the bottom up to the top. Yo will want to cut to but not through. If you do, don't worry, your pieces are numbered so you can always put them back together.

 In this picture you can see that I made a new pattern piece. The sections were spread equally. Remember, where you add fullness is where the fullness will be. In order to have a back swing you must spread the back equally. If you only add fullness to the sides, that is exactly where the fullness will stay.

Add seam allowance to the top of your new pattern piece. Remember, we cut the yoke from the top of the back jacket so we need to add seam allowance in order to sew the pieces back together.

The picture above explains how to add a bust dart. I did add a dart to my jacket. It will make the jacket hang straighter. If you have any problems blowing up the picture, let me know and I will see about getting a better picture to you.

 This picture shows the first step in putting in the dart.

 A little trick that I would like to share. Anytime that you would like to true up a dart, fold it as though it is a sewn dart using the point of the table at the apex of your dart. Works like a charm.

My new dart is now in the pattern. You can see in the above picture that I had to add a little to the side of my jacket just above the dart. You will be able to determine just how much needs to be added when you true up your dart as I talked about above.
So again, my apologies for not doing this sooner. Good luck if you decide to give this a try. It really does give a jacket a very graceful look.
If you would like to take a look at the original post I did on this jacket, you can find it here.
I'm off to bed!!!!!
Good Night!