I finished my jacket! I kept working until I was finished, there was no stopping! I am really happy with the way it turned out. You know what I love most about it? The top-stitching! Almost every single seam on this jacket is top-stitched, which I love and hate. I love it because it creates a really finished look. I hate it because if the jacket does not fit correctly, then you have to take not only the seam apart, but the top-stitching. Thankfully I only had to do that at the shoulder seams because it was a little bulkier than I preferred. I also really liked the princess seams. Not only is it a casual jacket, but it is a little more flattering than your average fleece jacket or hoodie.
So how did I finish it? After sewing the side seams onto the front pieces, I put together the sleeve pieces. The jacket has dolman sleeve look. The sleeve is made from four different pieces, which are top-stitched.
I sewed the front shoulder to the top of the sleeve, then the back shoulder to the other side of the sleeve. This will allow you to sew the jacket together at the side seams. I ended up using about a 1" seam allowance because it was a little bigger than I wanted. I tapered the seam allowance at the hip and just before the cuff of the sleeve.
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| The sleeve is the middle piece in this photo. |
After the side seams were sewn, I attached the waistband, collar and sewed the zipper in. That's it! Like I mentioned in my first post, I think this jacket could take an afternoon to sew up. It was so easy. It might have been easy because it is not something that is form fitting, but it feels like it should be harder than it was.
I would definitely recommend this pattern to anyone. The fabric itself went together really well. One suggestion I have would be to not stretch the fabric too much. It will stretch a little bit while sewing, but don't pull at it. You may get a puckered look when you top-stitch over your seams. The pattern was easy for me to understand, but I'm not sure if it would be good for a beginner. I felt like you should know something about garment construction because of the terms they used and having to flip back and forth between the written instructions and visual instructions on separate papers.
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While the style of the pattern is great and the fabric looks wonderful, I think the finished jacket looks awful. The seams and topstitching look puckered and uneven and the zipper installation is terrible. I think paying more attention to the details and pressing during the construction of the jacket would have made all the difference.
ReplyDeleteThank you for being a loyal follower on this blog. I'm sorry you did not like the finished product. While I am proud of how the jacket turned out, it is not perfect. I'm sure every one of us out there have 1-2 things that we don't care for in our handmade products, and while I strive to create a nice product, I am not perfect. Being the first time I worked with this particular fabric, I learned things along the way and express some of those during the sew along. We want this blog to be positive an encouraging for people to try new things. It is meant to be a sharing space for ideas and inspiration, especially in using our store's fabrics.
DeleteIt looks great. I would have thought you had purchased it from the store if I did not see this blog. Great job on the jacket.
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ReplyDeleteI just came across this series of blog posts about sewing the track jacket, and think it looks really nice. I agree that all that topstitching really made the look, giving it a professional polished finish. Also I like that the fleece fabric is smooth on the outside and fluffly on the inside. Looks cozy yet more stylish than regular fleece, that sometimes tends to pill. Good job and thanks for sharing your progress on sewing this jacket.
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