and Vogue, Vogue, Vogue

Two weeks before we were to leave to come visit her, Dana asked me to make her a jacket and blouse combo. She specifically asked that I make her the combo that I bought stuff for a year and a half ago. Sheeesh....its only been a year and a half. 2 years since I made her the blue suit, which if I do say so myself is amazing. I'll have to have her take some self-portraits with her wearing it, because it's really to good not to share.

But we're not here to talk about the magnificent blue suit. We're here today to discover what a pain in the patella a wrap around collar is. :) Just kidding, kind of.

Let me start off with saying that sewing for Dana is really, really enjoyable. She's a size 10. A straight 10 but likes the length of a 12. Easy peasy nice and easy. Its also nice because she can wear all of those patterns that  I like but they don't make in my size. (hey pattern people, I know I'm not small, but you know...I like some of the styles that fit the smaller girls too!)


So here's the pattern. I tried really really hard to get her to let me make her the blouse, but its not her style and I know it's not, so I planned ahead and bought another pattern as well.

 

McCall's 5661 is the pattern I used for Dae's blouse.

I used a graphic lavender and gray slinky material for the blouse. If I remember correctly it was one of the Project Runway prints. I didn't take any pictures of it during construction, but its an easy pattern. It's got several different ways to customize the fit to your body, but luckily, Dana is like the perfect model and I didn't have to do any of that. :)

Here's a close-up of the neckline. There are pleats in there, but with the print its hard to make out. 

The back of this blouse is button down....don't ask me why. The lines of the top are very nice tho!

We've come to the intermission portion of our show. Dev is here to entertain you as he entertained Dana during this modelling session. :) 

Sewing up the jacket was easy enough. I guess. The only thing that got aggravating was that every single seam (except for maybe like 2) is a fell flat seam. I know they look nice, and the inside of this jacket looks as nice as the outside, but lord did it take a long time to get done. Not only is almost every seam a fell flat seam, every seam is edge stitched, and the majority of them are top stitched. The detailing of all this is lovely, but like I said before....it takes some time. The back alone took me two hours to complete. That was slightly disappointing. 

 

  Here is the back. The first picture is with the seam on the right side of the fabric. Its a little disconcerting to sew with wrong sides together and then flip it over so the right sides are together. The picture on the right is me stitching the seam again. with right sides together and the first seam folded to the inside. You can see in the bottom picture how nicely the raw edge is encased with a fell flat seam. After stitching the initial seam in a 1/4" seam and then trimming it you flip the seam over and folding on the seam you just made you stitch another seam 3/8" away from the first seam you stitched. You can also see from the pictures that this fabric frayed if you looked at it funny, so the fell flat seams really worked for it. I could have also just sewn these seams up like normal (right sides together) and then serged the edges. It wouldn't have looked as finished but it would have been a lot faster. I also accidentally placed the side back pieces with the wrong side out. You can't notice it, but I do because the weave on the fabric is ever-so-slightly different. Dana didn't even notice. :)

 This is the edge-stitching on one of the back darts. Its as close to the seam with out  stitching in the ditch. 

Here you can see the edge-stitching and the top stitching on the center back seam. The top stitching was 1/4" from the seam. I used a 3.5 stitch length for all of the exposed stitching.

So after I got the shell of the jacket together it was time for that blasted collar. I love the flowing look of the collar, but damn it was a pain to put in. In my opinion. there were not enough points that matched up to ensure that the collar is aligned as you're sewing on the facing. After all of that is done, the trim went on and then we were done! Here is Dana modelling it. :) 

 Here are some close-ups of the trim. The trim did make the collar a little stiff, but it works I think. :) 

I won't lie when I say that I'm glad this project is over, because there are mountains of more sewing to be done, with Halloween and Christmas coming. I hope you guys enjoyed this little fashion adventure with me!

Have a splendiferous day and enjoy yourselves!

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