Jenny's Jacket

I've made progress over the last week on my Jenny Jacket.

 The underlining has been basted to each piece.

I always feel that I have accomplished a monumental task once the basting is complete! I'm repeating myself from last week, but underlining can make all the difference in the world in your garment. It hangs better, wears better, and will wrinkle less. As I said last week, be sure to buy good fabric for your underlining. It's easy to think that since it is inside the garment, that it can't be all that important. But just like the quality of food we put in our bodies, the better the fabric that we use inside the garment, the better the outcome of your garment will be. I like a good cotton batiste which is what I used for this project, but I also like silk organza. It really depends on the garment and the outer fabric as to what I use inside.

Once the basting is complete, I like to steam each piece once again. You will notice that the two layers of fabric will start to act as one.

I basted my jacket together to tweak the fit. So here's your chance to laugh at me a bit. Take a look at the picture, do you see what I did wrong? Here's a little tool that my high school home economics teacher once gave me, "Girls are always right." In other words, buttonholes always are placed on the right hand side of a woman's garment. If you look at the above picture, you can see that I basted my facing to the left side of my garment!! The pleats should be on the right side, not the left. Oh well, thankfully this is all basted together and I intend to take it apart before sewing it permanently together. Crazy me!! 

Try to overlook the fact that the pleats are on the wrong side of the jacket. I now have it on to tweak the fit. It's not horrible, but it can be better. 

I've pinched it in along the princess line seams.

The back needs to be shaped.

I also need to take a little out in the under arm seam.

My next step will be to take the jacket apart, make my adjustments and sew it back together. Last week I had said that I would underline both my front panels as well as the facings and possibly not use interfacing. I have decided to use a layer of silk organza as my interfacing. I feel that I need a little more stability, but I want the jacket to still remain some what soft.
Next week I'll show you the adjusted jacket with the silk organza attached as interfacing. I'll get my lining this week. I'm going to a lot of effort, so I want something special, a very pretty piece of silk is in order! I will also show you how to draft the back neck facing.
One last note, my jacket is longer than the jacket on the pattern envelope as I added 3" to the hem of my jacket. I felt that it would hit my body at a much more flattering place than the original pattern.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I'll do my best to help!
Rhonda